The Walking Dead returns this weekend. Sunday night’s midseason premiere ‘Honor’ follows the shocking midseason finale in which we learned, much to our dismay, that one of the show’s most important characters had been bitten by a walker.
Spoilers and speculation follow.
That character, as we all know by now, is Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs.) We learned that Carl was bitten several episodes back while trying to save Siddiq (Avi Nash) who he’d met earlier in Season 8 at a gas station. There, he’d been inclined to help the lone survivor but Rick (Andrew Lincoln) refused. So Carl went back later while Rick was frolicking about with the Trash People and decided to take Siddiq back to Alexandria whether his dad liked it or not.
Along the way, Siddiq wanted to kill some walkers. It was his way of honoring his mother. Carl helped but they botched the job and, though we didn’t realize it at the time, Carl was bitten. We only learned of his bite in the midseason finale when, after stalling Negan and the Saviors so the others could escape, we find him in a sewer and see the bite on his chest. There’s no coming back from such a bite—you can’t just chop off someone’s chest the way they saved Hershel by cutting off his leg.
AMC has released a big batch of photos from the upcoming episode in which, we can only assume, Carl shuffles off this mortal coil. It will be a farewell to one of the show’s original cast, a boy we saw grow into a young man. And for all the mean things I’ve said about his hair, I think I’ll miss Carl. It’s one reason I said that the midseason premiere was a bad joke, and one of many reasons I argued that Scott Gimple should step aside as showrunner. (He has, by the way.)
Let’s take a look at some of the photos for the Season 8, Episode 9 and see what, if anything, we can make of them.
Carl and Siddiq
Here we have Carl and Siddiq heading back to Alexandria, so I imagine we’ll get more flashback scenes with the pair as they head home after Carl gets bitten. If I had to guess, I’d say the midseason premiere jumps all over the place with the timeline. That’s been a hallmark of Season 8, leaping between flashbacks, flash-forwards/visions and what-have-you. It’s been one of the more confusing seasons of The Walking Dead, so hopefully we at least get some answers in episode 9. I also really like Siddiq and hope that he becomes a regular character. Avi Nash, from what little we’ve seen of him, is quite talented and this show needs all the good actors it can get.
Carl Cleans Up
Back in Alexandria, Carl stares in the mirror. He’s wearing his hat and there’s a big bloodstain on his flannel shirt.
The next picture we see Carl with the flannel off and a nasty looking blood splotch on his under shirt. He’s also taken off the hat. He stares at his reflection and starts to come to terms with his death.
Cleaned up now, we see Carl writing something. Possibly a journal, possibly a letter (or letters.) After all, most everyone he loves is gone when he arrives in Alexandria. Rick is off treating with the idiotic Trash People for the most ridiculous reason imaginable (trying to woo them to his cause after they betrayed him!) Michonne (Danai Gurira) after sitting around for one whole day is so consumed with “seeing” the Sanctuary that she has also bailed on Alexandria.
Meanwhile, Daryl, Tara and Rosita are all out there as well, with Daryl about to plow a truck into the Sanctuary and screw everything up. Morgan is a sentry at the Sanctuary. Maggie and Enid are at the Hilltop, along with Jesus. It’s really just Carl and Judith holding down the fort at Alexandria. So it’s quite possible he’s writing the equivalent of a suicide note here, saying his goodbyes since everyone else is off fooling around.
Speaking of Carl and Judith…
It looks like Carl takes some time to spend with his little sister, which is incredibly cute and also incredibly sad. Other than just holding Judith, we haven’t gotten much interaction between these two. Hand-painting together is adorable.
Oh look, now they’re taking a Polaroid selfie together! This is also adorable. Judith is seriously cute, and Carl looks really happy here. Why didn’t we get these kinds of moments sooner, to establish more of this bond between brother and sister? This is often a shortcoming of The Walking Dead. They kill someone off, and as they do that they make this last-ditch attempt at character development. It’s the TV show version of cramming before a test.
I’m sorry, this is cuteness overload and it just makes me sad and angry that this is almost certainly the last time these two get to hang out because the show’s producers thought it would be “shocking” and “boost ratings” to kill off one of the most important characters in the show. I think you can’t have it both ways. You either give us characters we can follow that are interesting and well-developed, or you kill everyone off and start fresh. Because at this point we’re running out of characters to care about and that stinks.
Okay, we’re back to where episode 8 left off, with Carl laid out now in the sewers and his negligent father crouched beside him. Rick is coming to terms with his own bravado now, with the fact that his actions helped lead to Carl’s death. As I noted up above, had Rick brought Siddiq back in the first place this would have been avoided. Had Rick not been off executing another terrible plan, this might have been avoided. Still, it’s very sad and I really do think this could break Rick. Lori’s death made him go pretty crazy for a while. At least he still has Judith (unless AMC throws a really sadistic twist into this episode.)
Now we see Carl holding Michonne’s hand. This is one relationship I feel like the show had done a pretty great job developing. One of the best, actually, though perhaps not in recent seasons so much. I’d say that Carl and Michonne’s friendship has been much better developed even than Rick and Michonne’s romantic relationship (which was too sudden and awkwardly timed after Jesse’s death.) So this is going to be maybe the most difficult farewell of the episode. Again, it just really sucks to see these characters suffer like this. I’m not a fan of this development at all, obviously.
Wait, what’s going on here?
Okay now we see Rick and Michonne with Carl’s arms around their shoulders. Apparently they’ve left the safety of the sewer and have headed out into the burning ruins of Alexandria. I don’t see Daryl (Norman Reedus) or any of the other characters with them who were in the sewer at the end of episode 8, so we have to assume that somehow everyone was separated. Did Negan find them? Did the others leave to distract Negan while Carl is moved?
I can’t imagine why they’d move Carl as he lay dying if there wasn’t some imminent threat. Then again, I get this weird feeling that if Negan found them there and saw Carl in this state, he’d be merciful. He has a fondness for Carl and I think he’d be pretty upset to see him die. Maybe that’s what will happen in the end: Not Rick becoming merciful, but Negan somehow changing because of Carl’s death.
Can they pull off such a change of heart? Are the writers up to the task? I’d say that’s fairly dubious.
Here they are again, in front of a different burning building. Still no other good guys and no Saviors. So who knows…
Let’s move on to…
Morgan and Company
Here we have Morgan (Lennie James) no longer toting a sniper rifle. Not sure where he is, but we can guess based off the next couple of pictures. First, we have a captured-looking Ezekiel (Khary Payton):
Recall, the Kingdom was taken by surprise by one of Negan’s crews. Ezekiel, despite his injured leg, managed to drag himself from his pit of self-pity and help what few of his followers remained escape. So now he’s captured and likely ready to be shipped off to Negan for punishment. But wait, who’s this?
Carol (Melissa McBride) and Morgan are together and it looks like they’re either at the Kingdom or at Alexandria. Given Carol was at the Kingdom and knows that Ezekiel is in trouble, my guess is that they’re at the Kingdom.
Now, these are two characters who you really don’t want to cross. Carol has repeatedly shown what a total badass she is (when she’s not weepy runaway Carol) and I have no doubt she’s ready to kick ass and take names in the midseason premiere. And Morgan is a great fighter even when he’s not killing; when he *is* killing he’s basically a Call of Duty character, blasting through Saviors like a hot knife through butter.
So it looks like the Saviors in the Kingdom—Ezekiel’s captors—are in for a beating. Who knows though? It’s always possible that Carol and Morgan don’t get back in time, or that they smack down some Saviors but the others get away with the King.
The last photo I’m going to share is from the trailer (below) and looks to be Carl’s grave with Rick and Michonne nearby. Not much to add other than…sigh. What a bummer. While Robert Kirkman has said there’s a chance Carl won’t die, I’m not buying it.
That’s all folks.
In any case, that’s all the speculation I can muster for the time being. I think we’re in for some action-packed scenes at the Kingdom and a sad farewell for Carl. Hopefully there’s not too much Negan, Gabriel, Eugene or the Trash People, and judging by these photos at least, I don’t think there will be. Music to my ears. We’ll leave this post with the trailer for this Sunday’s episode. And don’t forget to stop by Sunday night or Monday morning for my review. Hit me up on Twitter or Facebook to continue this conversation.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this season and the coming episode, even if we disagree.
