‘The Walking Dead Mid-Season 8 Finale’: Why Carl Getting Bit And Biting The Big One Is NBD

Alas, poor Carl! I knew him Tyreese (Oh wait, Tyreese is gone too). A fellow of infinite bad decisions, annoying as any teenage know it all, and known for wearing a silly hat that he should have ditched seasons ago. By now if you’re a fan of AMC’s The Walking Dead you should know about the bite mark seen ‘round the world. Yes, Carl Grimes is a goner, as revealed at the end of the show’s mid-season finale, having been bit by a walker while saving Siddiq in Season 8, Episode 6.

Like other calculated television surprises, IE: “The Red Wedding” on Game Of Thrones, the internet exploded with fans bemoaning his imminent death, which we’ll get to see when the show returns for its second half this February. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl, said, “There’s some humanitarian aspects that Carl is going to try and teach Rick in his final moments,” while in a separate interview, showrunner Scott M. Gimple said “This has everything to do with story.”

Such explanations, however, don’t hold much water with Riggs father William, who in a now deleted Facebook comment said, “Watching Gimple fire my son 2 weeks before his 18th birthday after telling him they wanted him for the next 3 years was disappointing. I never trusted Gimple or AMC but Chandler did.” Killing off Carl is also a major deviation from The Walking Dead comic book, which the show is based on, and where Carl is still alive and twice as badass as his television incarnation (sorry Chandler, it’s not you, it’s the writers). All this hoopla has caused the hashtag #FireScottGimple to trend on Twitter and angered fans still smarting from Abraham and Glenn getting their brains bashed out at the start of Season Seven.

As for me, I was kind of like, meh, no big deal. First off, I wasn’t surprised. You all should have known Carl was The Walking Dead’s dead man walking the second Season 8 opened with him sparing Siddiq and telling Rick, “It’s not going to be enough hope.” Having a moral center and social conscience is the most surefire way to get killed off on the show. Even more than being a coward or a poor shot. Just ask Dale. Remember Dale? Just ask Hershel. Or Milton. Or Bob. Or Tyreese. Or Noah. Or Deanna. Or Denise. Or Glenn. Or Benjamin. The second a character shows the slightest bit of compassion, or mercy, or self-doubt, no matter their fighting skills, the writers have them marked for death, and hey, if I was Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel, right now I’d be working on my resume.

Secondly, it was time for him to go. Perhaps it didn’t have to be Carl, but one of the main problems with The Walking Dead these past few years is there’s just too many characters. The show has gotten bogged down since it got to Alexandria, with too many type-A personalities who take up too much screen time with storylines that are only marginally interesting and the writers too often equating dramatic pauses with character development. It’s time to start killing more people off and personally I’m hoping Tara is next.

Look, the whole point of The Walking Dead is no one is safe. Everybody dies. In fact, the television series has been far kinder to the characters than its comic book source material. And while I certainly have my reservations about killing off Carl considering how the big part he plays in future plot lines pulled from the comics, by now I’ve gotten used to the two being different universes. The good news is the television show has great characters like Daryl and Simon, who don’t exist in the comics. The bad news? Carl’s headed to the big chocolate pudding factory in the sky. As Negan says to him in the Mid-Season Finale, “None of this shit’s fair kid.”

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