SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains graphic spoilers for last night's episode of AMC's "The Walking Dead."


Viewers have become almost so used to the regular deaths of long-standing characters on "The Walking Dead," that it probably shouldn't be a surprise that the most shocking scenes are often those that leave the series' main players alive. Barely halfway into last night's midseason premiere, the AMC zombie drama did exactly that, in dramatic fashion.

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The scene, which saw Carl being shot in the eye by Jessie's son, Ron, happened so suddenly, it was a legitimate shock to viewers, despite having been spoiled several weeks ago by Russian promotional art.

Showrunner Scott Gimple discussed the scene with EW.com, confirming a thought that was likely on the minds of many fans of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's Image Comics series, calling Rick's chopping off of Jessie's hand a "very aggressive homage" to Rick's being one-handed in the comics.

As for Carl's future, as the final scene showed, he's down, but like his comic book inspiration, not yet out. "What happened with Carl is so transformative to his character. For years into the comic book, even the storyline that we're in now in the comic book, in many ways, the basis of it is Carl and how he feels about who he is and even how he looks. I don't want to be spoiling things, but that led to a relationship that very much has an enormous impact on the story in the book."

Based on the Image Comics series of the same name, "The Walking Dead" airs Sundays at 9 pm EST on AMC.