The Walking Dead season 8, episode 9, Honor, recap: is it really the end for Carl?

The Walking Dead returned from its mid-series break to confirm that, yes, Carl “son of the Ricktator” Grimes was truly, absolutely, definitely dead. We heard him take his life with a sniper rifle, just in time to halt his transformation into a walker. And we watched Rick and Michonne tearfully dig a grave for the teenager. 

No body was presented as definitive proof, it’s true. But it isn’t as if the Walking Dead would pretend to kill someone simply to bring them back a few episodes later. Aside, of course, from the time Glenn was shown being devoured by walkers before it was revealed that, actually, he was perfectly fine.

Carl’s situation was obviously different in so far as he had contracted the walker virus, ruling out the Glenn option of hiding behind a convenient wheelie bin until the threat passes. On the assumption the series isn’t pulling the post-apocalyptic fleece over our eyes here, then, eight burning questions we were left with after this episode.

1. Was Carl’s death drawn out too long? 

The first half of series eight ended on the bombshell that Carl (Chandler Riggs) had suffered a walker bite during that tangle in the woods in the company of Siddiq. This caused considerable controversy, not least because the actor had recently purchased a house close to where the Walking Dead is shot in Georgia (his father angrily accused showrunner Scott Gimple of “sacking” his son).

In the Robert Kirkman comics books, it’s worth bearing in mind that Sheriff Grimes’s nearest-and-dearest remains an important character. Indeed one theory is that he is the true hero of the Walking Dead and that this has been his story all along. Obviously that’s not the case on the TV show, where he’s now shuffled more or less definitively off stage (unless Gimple and company are planning another Glenn-type debacle).

The farewell was one to remember – in so far as it dominated the entire episode. We flashed back to the fateful tussle in which a walker sank its fangs into Carl. To the plaintive strains of Bright Eyes’ At the Bottom of Everything, we next observed the chip-off-the-Ricktator-block coming to terms with his imminent demise. He stopped to enjoy the sun on his skin, played with sister Judith and wrote heartfelt goodbyes to his nearest and dearest. 

2. Or was it a fitting tribute to a beloved character? 

After all that mooching, you expected that Carl would be bundled into the wings by the first ad-break. But no… this is the Walking Dead, a show that has never seen a storyline it can’t stretch out past snapping point. So it proved here, as we returned to the present and Rick and Carl sobbing over one another in the tunnel beneath Alexandria (Michonne and Siddiq were on hand for some auxiliary blubbing).

Even then we weren’t done. Once Negan’s forces had retreated, a very angry Daryl (Norman Reedus) in hot pursuit, it was off to a church. Here, Carl begged his dad to turn from his destructive path and do something positive with his life. Then, while Rick and Michonne sat outside, Carl ended it all.

Tugging at the heart strings isn’t really the Walking Dead’s thing (did you even feel slightly morose when Sasha met her sticky end last year?) but this once it came close. Farewell Carl – we’ll miss you and your fake eyepatch. 

3. Wait – what was cuddly Negan doing in Carl’s vision? 

Have we finally solved the mystery of the soft-focus flash forwards, starring hipster-bearded Rick in his dressing gown? Carl had apparently experienced a waking dream in which Rick and the crew were kicking back in Alexandria. Calm had been restored and even turncoat Eugene (Josh McDermitt) was back, foisting delicious apples upon passers-by.

Blinking back man-tears, Rick vowed to make this halcyon premonition real. But how would Sheriff Grimes have responded to the twist at the end of the vision in which it was revealed – cue jarring needle scratch sound – that Negan was living in Alexandria and waxing almost as jolly and peace loving as Rick? 

Is this a hint of Saviour-Survivor rapprochement down the road? Or is the Walking Dead adopting its traditional strategy of shock now, work out the consequences later? 

4. Were you upset at the demise of Sad Saviour Gavin? 

Season eight had taken its pre-Christmas leave with the Saviours sweeping into the Kingdom and Ezekiel (Khary Payton) captured by whining henchman Gavin (Jayson Warner Smith).

This wasn’t going to go well, Ghastly Gav told his prisoner. He was fond of Ezekiel and wished things could have stayed as they had been, with the Kingdom meekly offering vassal tribute to Negan. But Ezekiel had foolishly listened to Rick and joined the rebellion. Now he was about to meet his maker. In the form of Negan. Who was absolutely going to kill him. 

Clearly the Walking Dead was trying to paint Gavin in an sympathetic light. He was the reluctant Saviour – for whom death and destruction were a final option, not a recreational activity. He even requested that his men fetch Ezekiel a pillow so that the King of the Kingdom wouldn’t be uncomfortable on his journey to the Sanctuary. 

All this extra character detail, heaped on late in the day, could mean just one thing. Gavin was being lined up for a spectacular death…

Walking Dead: Most Shocking Deaths

5. Could Morgan and Carol really have taken out an entire Saviour compound on their own? 

Hell hath no fury like Morgan (Lennie James) and his huge pointy stick. Having witnessed the Saviour breakout from the Sanctuary – and nearly copped a bullet for his troubles – he was following the villains on their dash to the Kingdom, blundering along the way into Carol (Melissa McBride). 

Here were the two Walking Dead characters who have wrestled the most with the moral compromises required in the zombie apocalypse. But they’re also the best at killing and in short order had cut down all of Gavin’s men. 

Which meant Gavin was next for the chop, with Morgan pursuing him from indoors to a lonely patch of grass out back. Carol and Ezekiel begged him to spare Gavin’s life – but it turned out not to be Morgan’s choice. 

Sneaking up behind, adorable Henry (Macsen Lintz) speared Gavin through the throat – revenge for the death of older brother Benjamin at the hands of the Saviours. Carol was appalled, though it wasn’t clear if this was down to Henry’s innocence being stripped away with his first kill or because he’d disobeyed her instructions to wait back at the cottage. 

6. Why is the Walking Dead still trying to shock us with terrible fake gore? 

Season seven of the Walking Dead will linger long in the memory – especially for fans of Glenn and Abraham, both of whom were graphically pounded into mulch by a belly-laughing Negan. That earlier grotesquerie received a hat-tip this week as the series tried to gross us out again. 

Wriggling on the floor with a Saviour, Morgan got the upper hand by sticking his paw into his foe’s stomach wound and pulling out his digestive tract. The viscera was obviously fake – but even rubber entrails are icky when you’re not expecting them.

The Walking Dead | Violence, guts and gore

7. Is the final battle approaching? 

Daryl and the gang have set off to give the Saviours what’s coming to them. Is this a hint that, after several false starts, the ultimate confrontation is finally looming? With the Survivor outposts in flames and the Sanctuary almost destroyed by walkers, it’s hard to imagine the stakes being any higher. 

8. What next for Rick? 

With Carl dead, things could go two ways for Rick. His son begged him to reconnect with the good man he used to be. But, as Rick explained, everything he’d done, all those sacrifices, had been for Carl. Without his boy to live for, will he descend even further into mindless killing? Or might the sting of the loss coax his humanity out from whatever foxhole within which it trembles? 

Season 8 of The Walking Dead will be aired on FOX, the global entertainment channel, Monday at 9pm