Hopefully a lot of fans didn’t start wailing when they heard that Carl was going to return in the season 8 finale for The Walking Dead. He won’t miraculously come back to life or even come back as a walker since he took the chance to end his own life, a mercy really, after saying goodbye to his father and Michonne. Instead Carl will be coming back represented by a new, younger actor in a flashback scene alluding to the moment in his letter that he wrote to his father. The walks that they used to take, the time he spent with his father, and what it meant to him will be something that enters into the finale as a means of reminding people what Carl felt was important at the end, and why Rick’s mercy should be something that people should at least be anticipating should it happen.
At this point things have gone against the comics enough that fans should expect the unexpected. There’s no way to know if Negan and Rick are going to try to end each other or if one or both of them will finally realize the truth of Carl’s final words. His voice has been heard now since he passed in a couple of ways, in the manner by which Rick and Negan continue to live their lives, and of course in his letters. Carl was tired of the fighting, he wanted to see an end to it, a world where the Saviors and those of the Hilltop could unite in a common cause, no matter how unlikely. He wasn’t the only one that was tired of fighting either, as anyone can see it in the actions and the eyes of those that are continually attempting to just survive and get by. But the head of steam building into the finale is going to be something epic it seems, as characters that seemed weak have been fortified, and those that have been fighting for so long seem ready to throw everything into one final effort.
Negan seems ready to tear the Hilltop apart one person at a time, while Eugene, after being kidnapped, threatened, and then forced to escape from Rosita and Daryl, seems more determined now than ever. He knows too well that the Hilltoppers get him that he’s a dead man, and some fans might feel that this has become a deserved fate. Simon’s fate was certainly one that people were likely cheering, though Dwight is deep in the hurt box at this point. Rick and the others think they know what’s coming, but it’s very possible that Negan will once again throw a huge wrench in the works and make certain that they’re anything but ready for him. It’s going to be an epic fight no doubt, and one that’s going to see both sides lose a great deal in numbers before the final body hits the ground.
Perhaps in the end it will finally be Carl’s voice that offers a sense of reason and calm that is so badly needed.
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