Is Rick the Next to Die on 'The Walking Dead'?
by EG
This week's mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead dished up some expected death and the possibility of some unexpected death to come. It's possible that Rick, the series' main protagonist, might be the next cast member to leave the series. Read on if you're not afraid of spoilers.
[This story contains spoilers from the season eight midseason premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead.]
Viewers just said farewell to one member of the Grimes family. Are we about to say goodbye to another?
That's certainly the fear AMC's The Walking Dead instills in its viewers at the end of Sunday's midseason premiere, titled "Honor." During the course of the supersized episode, viewers are given one last chance to bid adieu to Carl (Chandler Riggs), who dies after succumbing to the infection from a zombie bite. In his final moments, Carl tries to convince his father, series lead Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), that he needs to start considering a future without so much bloodshed, and to find a way forward. With that in mind, Carl shares his own vision of the future with Rick — a vision that turns out to be the same one viewers witnessed in the season eight premiere, featuring Rick as a bearded old man with a cane.
Many viewers, especially the comic book reading crowd, expected this was a tease of a massive time jump that exists within Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead comics. Instead, it's Carl's vision of how the future should play out, and by the time of his death, it seems his father is on board with honoring his son's wishes.
There's just one problem: it looks like Rick might not be around to see this future after all.
In the final moments of Sunday's episode, we see a bleary-eyed Rick Grimes leaning against a tree in the middle of a field, bleeding out from a wound. We have seen Rick injured in the past, but have we ever seen him this injured, series-opening coma aside? As if there's any confusion, Lincoln confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that the image of Rick bleeding against a tree isn't a vision or a trick of the imagination; it's very much grounded in reality, much to viewers and Lincoln's own chagrin.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
Did you watch the mid-season premiere of TWD? Tell us what you thought of it in the comments below.