Robert Kirkman explains the horrifying scene taken from the comics that leads to the deaths of some characters and the change made to another character's storyline.
- Feb 15, 2016
AceShowbiz - The most dreaded moment that everyone had been waiting for the outcome has finally happened in "The Walking Dead" midseason premiere. The February 14 episode revealed the fate of Rick, Carl, Michonne, Gabriel, Jessie and her sons who tried to escape from a house swarmed by zombies.
As many had suspected, [SPOILER ALERT!] Jessie's son Sam was the one who caused a big problem for the group. He started to panic and freeze, so the whole group had to stop walking.
As Jessie urged Sam to move, a group of walkers began to devour him. His mother started to scream, attracting more walkers who ate her as well. As Jessie still wouldn't let go of Carl's hand, Rick made the devastating decision to cut her arm off.
Jessie's other son Ron was enraged and blamed Rick for the loss of his mother and brother. He pointed a gun to Rick, but Michonne swung her blade through Ron just in time to protect Rick. Ron's finger, however, hit the trigger and the bullet hit Carl in the eye. As the sound of the gun attracted more walkers, Rick grabbed Carl and Michonne and they ran to safety.
Readers of the comic books must have anticipated this since the heartbreaking scene that led to Jessie and Sam's deaths was taken from the original comic. Seeing that moment being translated into the screen, the comic book author Robert Kirkman tells EW, "It's a moment that we've been building to and looking forward to for quite some time, and to see it actually happen and to see it actually come off so well - that moment where Carl gets shot in his eye was just awesome, and startling, and heartbreaking, and all those things in the comic."
But Carl was not shot by Douglas Monroe like in the comics. Kirkman certainly has no problem with it as he says, "I think that's a really good example of changes that excite me. Douglas, who turned into Deanna in the show, getting eaten by zombies and actually firing off his gun and shooting Carl is cool and everything..."
"...but having it be Ron, having it be this heightened thing that has been building for the entire season - this revenge thing that he's got going on with both Rick and Carl - to me is just a great example of how [showrunner Scott M. Gimple] and the writers, and myself to a lesser extent, are able to heighten things and really kind of dovetail cool storylines into things that feel that much cooler," he adds.
Also in the midseason premiere, the last Wolf guy in Alexandria died, while Daryl, Carol and Abraham returned safely after Daryl blew up the bikers of Negan's group they encountered on the road. Kirkman says that this marks the beginning of a war against a new group of villains led by Negan. "Yeah, W was the last of them, and we're full steam ahead in the Saviors territory at this point," he says.
Next week, the recently reunited Daryl and Rick have a road trip together. Kirkman teases, "I can say that it's possibly the most fun episode that we've had, just seeing those two guys together. It's almost like a 'Lethal Weapon' episode. It's a lot of fun."
"The Next World" airs Sunday, February 21 at 9/8c on AMC. According to the official synopsis, a simple scavenging run proves to be more tricky, when the survivors are not the only ones after a goldmine of supplies.
