Though we’ve known that it was going to happen since December, it was still tough to stomach the loss of Carl Grimes in yesterday’s midseason premiere of The Walking Dead. Fans have literally watched the character grow up on screen over the past eight years, so there was no way his death wasn’t going to leave us as blubbering wrecks.
In the wake of this tragic episode, then, AMC has now served up some retroactive promo photos for the recent outing. Following on from the batch released the other week, which showed Carl’s emotional last day, spent with his sister Judith and saying goodbye to Rick and Michonne, here we see Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira’s characters facing the difficult task of burying his body.
As well as Carl’s final hour, “Honor” also explored Carol and Morgan’s mission to rescue Ezekiel from the clutches of the Saviors who had occupied the Kingdom – snippets of which can be glimpsed in this collection of photos that we’ve got for you in the gallery down below.
As these pics remind us, the episode took the somewhat surprising route of not showing us Carl’s last moments. All we saw was Rick and Michonne waiting outside while the sound of a gunshot could be heard. Things then fast-forwarded to them burying the boy. TWD has never been squeamish about depicting death, but in this case it was felt that, as Greg Nicotero put it, a more “respectful” way to handle the situation was required – whether fans agreed with it or not.
While this was 100% it for Carl, actor Chandler Riggs has already hinted that he’ll return to The Walking Dead before season 8 is out. Another comment from him suggested that this may be in the form of a flashback, so perhaps we’ll return to that dream utopian future where Carl’s still alive?
Time will tell, but be sure to tune in this Sunday when The Walking Dead continues on AMC.
