‘The Walking Dead’: Leaving one in tears or fears

On February 26, The Walking Dead made its big mid-season premiere. ‘Big’ can be used loosely here since the show had low ratings because the one and only Carl Grimes was killed off and that alone happening caused me to be furious with the show and writers. And yes, mad enough to even consider possibly not watching the show again.

The mid-season finale consisted of a big war breaking out between two major groups: Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) sanctuary vs. Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) sanctuary. In results to the war breaking out, it left many fans disappointed towards how it ended and how the mid-season premiered.

It’s no big surprise that after the episode there was a plethora of fans flooding my Twitter timeline, voicing their opinions on how the show will never be the same. To many fans’ surprise, a character we grew to love and watch grow right before our eyes, Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) who was the son of Rick Grimes, was killed off. I myself, wasn’t expecting to say goodbye to this zombie ass kicking character anytime soon.

Since the start of season one we were meant to believe that Carl Grimes was raised and taught how to properly survive the era that is the zombie apocalypse. He was taught how to fight, to shoot a firearm and to be on the lookout for zombies. So, when the show returned we found out how Carl dies. To many’s surprise he was bit by a zombie and in the stomach no less.

My initial thought when I first saw Carl reveal his bite mark to his father was, “no fucking way!” – I was in complete shock and quite truthfully, I did shed a tear or two while watching. Many tweets such as this one made by a fan had me saying to myself, “now that’s relatable, wow.”

How does a show have the audacity to make us hopeful to a long runner character actually surviving whatever was thrown at him, only to be killed off? Will this make me stop watching? Not likely, only because the plot thickened between Rick and Negan.

With the last two new episodes being aired, I personally felt disappointed in the route the writers have gone down. Not only did they kill off Carl but they ruined a potential of having a good standing rating and views. The only thing it’s proven is that there’s a lot of pissed off fans because they had to see their beloved character die officially and not just speculate if he was going to magically survive this zombie bite.

Thus far, throughout each season fans have seen and witnessed their favorite characters go through hell just to make ends meet in this world infested with zombies. We’ve even had to say goodbye to quite a few of them — ones we grew to love and hate.

Seeing Carl go was hard and proof enough to long time fans that anyone is fair game when it comes to being killed off. Each season and episode we must brace ourselves and expect the worse. It’s safe to say if you’re a ‘The Walking Dead’ fan, you live in fear each Sunday because you never know what’s going to happen and who’s coming back.