what happens to carol on The Walking Dead

EW: Tell me about the decision to make the virus storyline such a central part of the first half of the season. Where did that idea come from?
SCOTT GIMPLE: When we were making the episode “Clear” it was kind of a long drive to the town that we were shooting it in. And I was like, you know. I’m going to better myself. I’m going to listen to Camus’ The Plague. You know, it’s not just gonna be comics. I’m gonna get back into literature! And from The Plague my mind just drifted off to The Walking Dead. I was like, man, that’s a cool book and that’s a pretty cool idea. So there was that, and it was in my mind and I was thinking about how in third world situations, things break out — cholera and dysentery and bubonic plague. Then I had taken a trip to Edinburgh shortly after that at the end of the season to visit my wife’s family and there was this tour underneath the city and there was a lot about the bubonic plague and how it had broken out, how it was treated, and how they burnt the bodies. And it all sort of came together with the theme of safety in this place. It was just one of those things where you’re like “Oh, wow, that could be cool.”

-From the EW.com piece by Dalton Ross

Well, I don’t know how “cool” the infected characters think it is to have blood dribble from their ears, nose, eyes, and mouth before their lungs finally fill with blood until they drown choking on it, but it is a good way to raise the stakes. I kind of laugh a little when Herschel talks about elderberry tea helping the symptoms–it’s not just a flu. This horrible thing is on a par (on my list of Diseases I Don’t Even Want To THINK About Getting) with Ebola or a flesh-eating virus as nasty as the one in Cabin Fever. Sure, herbal tea is just the thing for that. Hey, if it works for some of them, great, but I’d be yelling for someone to please get their hands on some morphine for me NOW, even if it made me cough to keep yelling until I got it. Or some vodka. Anything! Just seeing the people in the middle stages of infection coughing makes me wince in sympathy and think God, where’s Merle‘s narcotic stash from Season 2 that Daryl ended up keeping on him?
Anyway, I hope Carol will be back, in fact I think it might happen this season. Let’s just hope she’s not a zombie when we see her again… read the EW.com interview with Scott Gimple for more!

THE WALKING DEAD Producers Robert Kirkman and Scott M. Gimple Comment on the Absence of David Morrissey’s The Governor (collider.com)
‘The Walking Dead’: New showrunner Scott Gimple calls season 4 ‘a greatest hits approach’ (horrorboom.com)
The Walking Dead Cast and Creators Reveal Changes We’re In Store For (dreadcentral.com)
‘The Walking Dead’: Melissa McBride says she was ‘floored’ by what happened to Carol (insidetv.ew.com)

SPOILER ALERT (for S3 of The Walking Dead AND the prison episodes of the graphic novel)

So far, they’re keeping VERY quiet about if we’ll see Carol again. I hope we do; Melissa McBride has said she had to talk Kirkman not once, but twice out of killing her off. McBride said in the Rolling Stone TWD cover story last month (we get the print version) that one of the times, it was because the original plan during the “Killer Within” episode was for her, not T-Dawg, to be the unexpected fast death before the bigger death of Laurie during childbirth (I guess ‘dying during childbirth’ is a tactful way of putting it). Even if we never see her again (though I think we will… hopefully not in the same 1-mile radius about Tyrese, if Rick tells him, or she’s as dead as a walker) I will give them points for not having a character leave the show by being killed off in a sudden way that involves pools of blood (which is why I think she’ll show up down the road somewhere).

Speaking of that, do you want to know what happens to the character of Carol in The Walking Dead graphic novels? If you’re planning on reading them, or are and the lengthy prison arc is still in the early stages, STOP NOW, because it’s pretty shocking. Keep in mind Carol in the comics looks more like Andrea and didn’t lose a kid (I think) or have an abusive husband.

→SPOILER ALERT! THE WALKING DEAD GRAPHIC NOVEL SPOILER ALERT!←

Gonna try not to make this a giant run-on paragraph here, and the backstory is complicated, so here’s why/how Carol in TWD comic dies: She has a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship with Tyrese (hey, he’d be the first man I’d try to hook up with in the comics too) and they share a cell. Michonne shows up and is alone together in the gym with Tyrese; she comes on to him and they have sex. Carol, who was already feeling kind of lonely and off-kilter from all the horrible shit she and the group have lived through, either catches them or finds out, and cuts her wrists in their cell. The group find her in time–Tyrese feels terrible and guilty about it, and Michonne’s not exactly proud of it either–and save her life. Lori starts hanging out more with Carol since she knows Carol could really use some friendly support. Carol surprises the hell out of Lori by hinting around about “sharing” Rick between them sexually, and tries to kiss Lori. Lori tries to let her down easy, but worries about Carol’s mental health. Carol feels rejected. Not long after, poor Carol finally goes completely batshit and goes for a stroll outside. She approaches what appears to be a female walker (I say ‘appears” because it’s pretty rotten, missing chunks, etc.) who is chained up and kept around so that his scent will throw off other zombies from the humans living there) and starts talking to her like she’s human, telling her about how she doesn’t have any real friends, the prison isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, she’s lonely, etc. In one of the most disturbing scenes in the series (which sets the ‘disturbing’ bar pretty high) she strolls right up to it calmly, puts her arms around the zombie and asks if it likes her. The zombie bites her throat and she winces and says “I knew you liked me…” as it tears in and rips out a big bite. The disturbing part is the look on her face, she looks happy but with her mind totally gone as she smiles and blood sprays everywhere. People in the group come running over as she collapses and bleeds out –Tyrese especially is in serious shock– and when they try to carry her inside, she gurgles to them to let her die (and dies). Of course, they’re still processing what the fuck just happened when she turns, sits up, and lunges for Tyrese- someone in the group reacts quickly and shoots her in the head. So there you have it, suicide by zombie. Poor Sophie gets ‘adopted’ by Maggie and Glen. It’s definitely not the most fucked-up thing that goes down in the prison era; most of the really disturbing things could NEVER be depicted on AMC. If they tried to re-create them for the series, it’d have to be so dimly lit and watered down that you wouldn’t even be able to tell what the hell is going on; there’s no way to do a TV version of them (that would get past the network and make it to air, anyway).

(END OF SPOILERS)

But I digress. Anyway, she (so far) has a slightly happier existence in her AMC TWD incarnation. I think another character–maybe not a prison resident– may end up snapping and commit suicide in a similar manner. Kirkman and Scott Gimple have both stated they want to use events from the comic, but switch around characters and tweak the situations. For instance, in the comics, Dale lived and it was him, not Herschel (who is not a even-tempered as he is on the show) who got ankle-bit suddenly by a zombie in a dark location and his leg amputated. Dale sticks around way, way longer than in the series… and Andrea hooks up with Dale (Daddy issues? His character repeatedly says he has no idea why Andrea would want to be his girlfriend, but oh well, he’s not going to complain). Kind of relieved we didn’t have to see that depicted on the show–the comic will suffice.