I have heard from a lot of very sad fans of The Walking Dead over the course of this week, all bemoaning the tragic, completely avoidable death of a fan favorite character. I’m officially ending the spoiler window on this because it’s been long enough, and you shouldn’t click on an article with a title like this anyway if you don’t want to hear who died.
So yes, that would be Carl, who revealed a walker bite on his stomach at the end of the midseason finale, sustained in episode 6 while he was trying to help Siddiq, and that he’s been hiding since. It’s a stupid thing for the show to do, given how far Carl has come in eight years and how important he was supposed to be in the source material going forward, but that’s Scott Gimple for you, I suppose.
But what many people have been asking me if there’s any way Carl could survive. If this could be another “Glenn under the dumpster” moment where the show looks like its painting a character into a corner, only to reveal that “surprise!” all is not how it seems.
There are two main theories that could potentially save Carl. While I am highly skeptical of both, I wanted to go through them all the same as fans have been peppering me with them all week.
1. Carl Was Bitten By A Whisperer
We’re going to get into some light comic spoilers, namely a description of the next group Rick and co. are supposed to face, although with Carl dead it’s possible that plotline is out the window entirely.
The Whisperers are a borderline feral group of wanderers that have found the best way to survive is essentially to become walkers. They wear the skins of walkers not only to blend in and avoid getting eaten, but in many ways become walkers themselves. It’s exactly as weird as it sounds.
The theory goes that since the Whisperers are supposed to be the next group Rick faces, maybe that pocket of zombies in the woods were really Whisperers, or at least the one that bit Carl was. That would mean a bite from a normal human dressed up as a walker wouldn’t actually turn him. He’ll be okay.
I…don’t think this is what happened. Rewatching that scene I supposed technically all zombies on the show are actors in zombie masks, but I didn’t see anything that would indicate that group or that walker was really a human in disguise.
Furthermore, though the Whisperers are weird, they don’t really operate exactly like Walkers do. The first time we encounter a Whisperer in the comics, he slashes someone with a knife and talks. Even if they look the part, they don’t usually act the part down to actually trying to bite and eat people. If this was true I think there would have been some clue left to find in the show, but there isn’t any, only the fact that the Whisperers exist and are on deck as the next baddies. And I don’t think that’s enough.
2. Carl Is Immune
Possibly the ultimate wishful thinking scenario, this one just assumes that for reasons that no one would be able to explain, Carl is immune to walker bites. I’ve heard theories about how babies born after the outbreak might be immune, but that obviously doesn’t include Carl.
I…would actually like for this to be true, and I’ll tell you why. The Walking Dead lacks an endgame, both in the show and the comics. It’s just about fighting the next big group and losing X amount of beloved characters along the way. Making Carl immune, and in turn making the goal of the show discovering why he’s immune, finding scientists, finding a lab to go to, developing a cure, etc. would be a viable endgame for a series that is in desperate need of one. So in theory, I like this concept.
I don’t believe it, though. That would be too random and out of nowhere, the ultimate fake-out that would make Glenn’s dumpster moment look downright quaint by comparison. The show would lose what little trust of fans it has left to go through all this and then spring that on everyone. Past this, we already see Carl succumbing to the fever. He has the symptoms. He’s on death’s door. If he was totally fine then sure, that might be a clue, but that’s definitely not how he was acting in the finale (though I suppose you could blame some of that on fatigue from the Negan assault).
The two main reasons I don’t think any of these theories are true is that one, I think The Walking Dead learned from the Glenn fake-out that fans do not appreciate fake deaths. Secondly, unless Scott Gimple, Chandler Riggs, his family, Andrew Lincoln and the rest of the cast are pulling the most elaborate con job ever in these post-season interviews, I think it’s pretty clear that this is the end for Carl. Chandler Riggs and his family sound downright sad and angry about how this went down, with Riggs having just bought a house in Georgia and being told he’d be on the show for another three years at least. Then this was sprung on him. From everything I’ve read, I simply do not think there is a miracle waiting in the wings.
So, this really is goodbye for Carl. Start mourning, and erase all hope that he’ll survive. I’m sorry to be the killer of dreams, but I really don’t think there’s a way out of this.
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