WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the midseason premiere of The Walking Dead, "Honor," which premiered Sunday on AMC.


There’s no doubt we’ll still be feeling the ripples of Carl Grimes death until The Walking Dead draws its last breath – if it ever does, that is. Preserving his life and creating a better world for Carl served as Rick’s primary motivation. He was also the source of a lot of hope the more he grew into a relatively well-adjusted young man. This week’s midseason premiere, “Honor,” featured Carl embracing his final hours with beatific acceptance. But while he was able to die in relative peace, his exit will no doubt have a planet-sized impact on the remainder of Season 8, as everyone on both sides processes this loss. It’s worth speculating on some of the immediate effects Carl’s death will have on the rest of the season.

The character facing the most foundational damage is clearly Rick. He must grapple with the loss of his own son, the guilt that no doubt already plagues him and that, in order to grant his child’s dying wish, he has to find a way to make peace with Negan and end the war. It’s that last task that will define the trajectory of Season 8.

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There are already two clear factions emerging among Rick’s people: those who want to eradicate the Saviors, and those who believe they should be shown some measure of mercy. It’s big disagreement at a crucial time in the formation of this fledgling society, and it’s manifested all over the first half of the season.

In Episode 2, “The Damned,” Rick kills a Savior while searching one of their outposts for guns. When he finally gets the keys the man was keeping from him, they open the door to an adjacent room. But instead of guns, there’s only the man’s infant daughter in her crib. Horror washes over Rick’s face when he realizes he just murdered her father, and it was difficult to watch without agreeing something was very, very wrong. That brief moment aggressively reminded us there aren’t as many demons populating the Saviors as it appears.

Later, after Morgan and his team capture the Satellite outpost, Jesus insists they take prisoners instead of killing the Saviors who surrendered. Tara and Morgan are in staunch disagreement, albeit for different reasons. Tara is still fueled by a serious case of Bloodthirsty Revenge, and Morgan finds it difficult to live in the moral gray area created when he went back on his resolution to avoid killing at all costs. He can’t bring himself to execute anyone, so the group goes with Jesus’ plan to restrain the prisoners and take them back to the Hilltop.

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Once they arrive, Maggie reluctantly agrees to imprison them, but despite her refreshingly humane decision, she can’t escape the reality that she’s feeding and essentially protecting the same people responsible for Glenn’s death. Also, that some of those people appear pretty reasonable.

Finally, in the fantastic, “The Big Scary U,” Negan and Father Gabriel spend a philosophical afternoon in a trailer surrounded by walkers, and actually manage to reach a respectable, if very limited, common ground. The other half of the episode offered an inside look into the Savior senior leadership, and just how fragile their hold really is on the rank and file. When Negan returns with Father Gabriel, he fiercely reiterates that “People are a resource.” We learn that his method of psychotic violence is partly for show, in order to frighten people into falling in line. Negan’s no puppy dog, but this insight into his way of thinking revealed an altruistic intent behind his behavior, however mutated it got in its execution.

RICK NEGAN THE WALKING DEAD

There are people on both sides who want the war to continue, but a few days in, there are plenty of people who think mutually exclusive existence isn’t the only option. Carl’s death has the potential to throw gasoline on the embers of this conflict, and a lot of what happens depends on what Rick decides to do next.

For all intents and purposes, Carl’s dying wish is for Rick to find some way to create an idealized future in which this conflict is a distant memory. If Rick wants to make that better world for Judith, as Carl asked, he’s going to have to walk back a lot of bravado. He’s going to have to sell his team on the idea of peaceful coexistence with the people who’ve brutally murdered a large number of their loved ones.

It’s a request that could set off a debilitating internal conflict among Rick’s people at a time when the Saviors are on the lookout for every weakness to exploit. Conversely, there are those on the Savior side, namely Eugene, that are chafing under the weight of what feels like senseless killing. Carl’s death could very well determine the outcome of the war if Rick chooses to listen to him.


Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC, The Walking Dead stars Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee, Danai Gurira as Michonne, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Alanna Masterson as Tara Chambler, Josh McDermitt as Eugene Porter, Christian Serratos as Rosita Espinosa and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan.