Fan verdict: Will Carl live or die in The Walking Dead?

THE Walking Dead’s season eight mid-season finale “revealed” Carl Grimes has been bitten and is dying, in what was the biggest twist in years. But is he really dying?

THE Walking Dead’s season eight mid-season finale “revealed” Carl Grimes has been bitten and is dying, in what was the biggest twist in years.

But is he really dying? Will this be a shocking death or are we being “Dumpstered” — the way we were when Glenn supposedly died, only to emerge from under a dumpster several episodes later.

Let’s look at the case for and against. Duncan Lay says Carl will live, Angela Connell says he will die ... you decide!

Carl and Michonne lead the defence of Alexandria. He looks well enough here ...

CARL WILL LIVE

Walking Dead is Dumpstering us again and Carl will re-emerge, as if by magic, by the end of season eight.

So why do I think we’re being Dumpstered again? Let’s go through the reasons:

1) Carl is vital for the Whisperer War

After Negan is defeated in the comics, the next baddies coming are the Whisperers, who dress in Walker skins and shepherd herds of Walkers onto their enemies. The key to defeating them is Carl and, specifically, his relationship with Lydia, the daughter of the Whisperer leader. That is why the comics jump ahead in time — so tween-aged Carl is now able to be old enough to fall in lust with Lydia. Without Carl, who is Lydia going to fall in love with? Well, they could change Lydia to a Luke and have him fall in love with Enid (or keep her as Lydia and do the same thing) but either way it’s not going to have quite the same effect on Rick. The only way it could work is if Lydia/Luke falls in love with Judith. But that would require a massive time jump of at least 15 years. Forget Old Man Rick, it will be more like a meeting of cranky nursing home residents. And I can’t see fans loving the plot line where Carol and Daryl try to find incontinence undies in a post-apocalyptic world. Without Carl, the Whisperer War will lose its emotional heart and all of its punch.

Nice, healthy colour on Carl’s skin at this point.

2) The bite was not convincing

This works on several levels. Firstly, Carl did not react when he was supposedly bitten. I don’t care how stoic you are, if someone bites you, you will react. Then he did not react afterwards, either. Then you have the vision of the bite itself. It looks fresh and uninfected, while the surrounding skin is also healthy. Seeing as it was supposed to have happened more than a day ago, it should be reddened and infected, oozing and revolting. To me it looks fresh, as if it had been delivered by someone else — someone like Siddiq. As well, Carl should be far more affected by the virus by now. He was able to lead the evacuation of Alexandria when he should be barely conscious.

3) This plot line has been done in Fear The Walking Dead

Sister show FTWD did the slow reveal Walker bite plot line last season. Ofelia was bitten by a Walker but we only found out a couple of episodes later, ruining her reunion with dad Daniel. So has TWD simply photocopied the plot of its spin-off show? Or will it put its own clever spin on that idea, by having Carl re-emerge to announce he faked his death to bring peace to his father?

Has Carl faked his death to persuade dad Rick to show mercy?

4) It will be a genuine twist

AMC, the makers of the show, hate a website called The Spoiling Dead, which tracks character deaths by seeing who is around for filming. They didn’t spoil Carl’s bite because of a plea from Chandler Riggs that subtly bagged AMC. But, if you have a fake death of Carl, who only emerges in the final episode to announce he did this to turn Rick away from his path of death and destruction, then you outwit The Spoiling Dead. There has to be a good reason for Rick to NOT kill Negan. A plea from Carl wouldn’t do it because Carl has already tried that. But a pledge to his dying son ... ah, that might just do it. So you explain away your finale and make The Spoiling Dead look foolish. That’s a win-win for the producers.

Ah Carl. We were starting to like you.

CARL WILL DIE

As a proud member of the “Die Carl” movement, I can’t say I’m unhappy that Carl is finally going to die. I am shocked, however. Just when I was starting to like the kid. I thought he had plot armour as strong as Rick’s. But I do believe he’s going to die and here’s why:

1) There’s not going to be a Whisperer War.

The show has been on for nearly half of Chandler Riggs’s life. A good quality drama can’t sustain itself for the number of seasons it would take for the comic plots to play out. Something has to get cut. The idea that Negan will be defeated and then join the gang to fight a new enemy wouldn’t cut it. Remember the long wait to find out who copped Lucille in the season 6 finale? It literally left fans depressed. And when the show returned in season 7 the depressed fans became angry when Negan wasn’t defeated immediately. Negan has to die. Maggie wouldn’t allow his survival and neither would Daryl. That leaves another hole in the Whisperer plot.

Carl’s forest walk led to his doom.

2) The bite was convincing.

Carl was bitten in episode 6. Given the choppy timelines of the whole season, we don’t know how much time has passed between that and his bite reveal. It could still be a fresh, bleeding wound. Carl offered to die to Negan because he knew he was already dead.

3) This plot line has been done.

FTWD did beat TWD to this kind of late bite-reveal but that doesn’t mean TWD won’t follow through. Carl’s death will surely be different to Ofelia’s. If anything the dumpstering has been done before, so it can’t be done again.

Flashback to the days when Lori was alive, Carl was cute and Rick was clean-shaven.

4) It would be a genuine twist.

It feels like every other child on the show has died, but it’s never Rick’s, Just look at the flowers — Lizzie, Mika, Sophia, Sam, Ron, Penny, Beth, every-kid-at-the-prison-except-Carl. Rick needs to lose someone that means more to him than his cheating ex Lori.

Chandler Riggs's Twitter joke on how his character Carl will return to the show.

But, then again, maybe they’ll discover Carl is immune, work out how to beat the virus and end the show right there. It could be time.