The Walking Dead season 8 is back, and with it brought the final goodbye for Carl Grimes.
We all knew that this was going to happen, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch. On The Walking Dead season 8, episode 9, “Honor” the rest of Carl’s goodbye to his friends and family played out on screen.
The Old Man Rick flash forwards open up the episode, showing Rick and Judith taking care of the community, quickly followed by a shot of Rick and Michonne digging a grave and then a flashback to the moment Carl was bitten by a walker.
The episode continued to show how Carl went on to spend the rest of his day following the bite. He went back to the house to clean up and faced the reality of the bite on his side. It looks like he may have wanted to talk to Michonne but she had already left Alexandria. So Carl went on to write letters to his friends family.
He also set Saddiq up in the sewer with supplies and spent some quality time with his sister Judith, which included taking some cute polaroids together, presumably so that she wouldn’t forget about him in the future. Finally, Carl planted a tree in Alexandria.
Interestingly, all of the time the episode showed Carl preparing for his death was accompanied by the upbeat tune of “At The Bottom of Everything” by Bright Eyes. It seems the writers really want people to feel some sort of hope about what is going to happen instead of impending doom.
Back in the current timeline, Rick doesn’t exactly know how to react to the news that Carl has been bitten. Carl isn’t worried about having the perfect goodbye though, and hands over the letters that he wrote everyone. He does offer them a brief explanation of how he got bitten and is sure not to place the blame on anyone.
At this point Carl is in pretty bad shape and obviously doesn’t have much time left. Siddiq offers some medicine to help with Carl’s pain and that’s when Rick learns that he’s a doctor. Of course, Rick thinks that’s why Carl saved him. But Carl explains it was simply because he knew Siddiq wouldn’t be able to make it on his own.
While Carl is dying, the rest of the group still needs to make a plan to escape. Rosita wants to leave right away for Hilltop. Dwight, however, is firm that the safest thing to do is to wait out the Saviors and escape once they’ve left Alexandria. Others, like Daryl worry they will be found and dead before the Saviors leave.
Carl makes a plea to Michonne about the future. He says that it isn’t supposed to be like this, and that they can do better in the future.
When the Saviors finally leave, Rick tells Michonne that he can’t leave and has to stay with Carl because he won’t make it to Hilltop. Daryl volunteers to take Judith so that Michonne can stay behind too. Then Carl makes his final goodbye to Judith, though it’s more about giving her advice than saying bye. He also passes on the sheriff hat to Judith to hold onto.
Before Daryl leaves, he reminds Carl that he was the one that saved everyone from Alexandria. Siddiq thanks Carl for giving him a chance and promises to honor him.
In Carl’s last hours he’s surrounded with love by Michonne and Rick. Carl continues to talk with Michonne and has her promise not to carry around his death with sadness. He also tells her that she’s his best friend. Although Carl doesn’t talk with Rick at this time, his father is still there to offer affection.
Rick finally decides it’s time to get Carl out of the sewers and they head back up to Alexandria. With everything burning, they have to head into the church. It’s there that Carl starts talking to Rick and thanks him for helping him grow into the person he became.
He also admits to still thinking about the boy that he shot when they were at the prison, and how it was too easy to kill him. Carl recounts how Rick was able to bring enemies together and help them live in harmony together. Rick changed and stopped fighting to teach Carl a lesson. And Carl wants Rick to remember that he can still be that guy that does the right thing.
The Old Man Rick sequences are revealed to be Carl’s vision for the future and what he wants for Rick. So Rick makes a deal with Carl to make his dreams real. After an emotional goodbye, Carl is left to end things on his own terms while Rick and Michonne wait outside. And then they set out to dig Carl’s grave.
There’s no doubt that Carl’s last episode is a very emotional one. Given what we’ve seen so far, I think that his death was handled pretty well. They gave the character plenty of time to go out with the respect that he deserves. However, I still can’t help but feel like the death isn’t really justified. We’ll have to see how the rest of the season plays out to see if any changes really occur.
This is The Waking Dead though, and there will always be some level of violence. So I’m extremely skeptical that the show can justify this decision. After all, in the comics Carl plays a vital role in shaping the future of the communities. While Rick is able to settle things with Negan on his own terms without needing to learn a lesson from anyone else.
Seeing how well Chandler Riggs performed in this episode only makes the sting of losing him all the harder. Riggs is an extremely talented actor and the show will definitely be lacking without him. It’s always been interesting to follow his character’s storyline from the start of the show and I’m sad we’ll be losing out on seeing his journey continue.