Is The Walking Dead ‘Dumpstering’ us over Carl Grimes?

IS THE Walking Dead ‘Dumpstering’ us again and, just like Glenn, will Carl Grimes re-emerge, as if by magic by the end of season eight?

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

I recognise that this bite could be genuine — and it will be a fantastic twist if true — but the mid-season finale reveal of Carl’s bite had a definite smell about it and that smell was pure Dumpster.

Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes in The Walking Dead.

For those who have been living under a dumpster for a few seasons, I am of course referring to the fake death of Glenn in season six. He fell into a crowd of Walkers and we saw him apparently being ripped apart. Several episodes later, he emerged from under the dumpster, none the worse for wear.

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

Carl’s appeal to Rick changed nothing. So maybe he has decided to try something more drastic.

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. Then you have Negan. Thanks to Carl, who has developed a relationship with Negan over his years of imprisonment, Rick agrees to let his former nemesis out to help defeat the Whisperers. And, because of his atatchment to Carl, Negan agrees to help his hated enemy Rick. That is another huge source of drama. So, without Carl, the Whisperer War will lose its emotional heart and almost all of its dramatic punch.

Carl looks too healthy for someone who has been bitten.

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. He knows as much as anyone what a zombie bites means and he was waaaay too cool with Siddiq. 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. Finally, he would have made good his offer to die in exchange for Alexandria being saved from Negan. He’s got nothing to lose, after all, and could have saved lives.

So did Carl really get bitten helping out Siddiq?

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

Sister show FTWD has showed a sophistication in its writing far above the last couple of seasons of TWD. But the parent show doesn’t slavishly follow it. Take the example of Sasha. In the comics, she is brought back to Alexandria with a hood over her head, struggling. Rick and co think she is still alive but, when they get her back and pull off the hood, it is to find she has turned into a Walker. FTWD used exactly this scene in season two so, at the end of season seven of TWD, that scene was changed to Sasha emerging out of a coffin as a Walker to surprise Negan, instead. Now, in season three of FTWD, they did the slow reveal Walker bite plot line. 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?

Something needs to change Rick so he doesn’t kill Negan.

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.