The Walking Dead winter finale featured its most controversial death

The Walking Dead potentially pulled off its most controversial death. Spoilers are ahead from the midseason finale.

Fans of The Walking Dead are all too familiar with shedding a tear for a dearly departed character. After all, when you live in a world overpopulated by zombies and dictator like characters, you’re down to have a death or two or ten. This past Sunday, during TWD winter finale fans, were blindsided when it was revealed that Carl (Chandler Riggs) had been bitten. Like with moth deaths of “main characters” the internet went crazy asking why.

Yes, we’ve had polarizing deaths before like with Andrea, Sasha, and of course Abraham and Glenn. But none of those deaths seemed to hold a candle to this one. Of all the deaths in TWD‘s history, Carl’s has to be the most controversial death’s of all time.

No one saw it coming

Of course, the element of surprise is always a welcoming quality for TV shows, especially in the case of TWD, but this took that a whole other level. It was so surprising that Chandler Riggs’ father took to Facebook to blast showrunners after he claimed that they expressed interest in having Riggs around for a few more years.

"“Watching Gimple fire my son 2 weeks before his 18th birthday after telling him they wanted him for the next 3 years was disappointing… I never trusted Gimple or AMC, but Chandler did. I know how much it hurt him. But we do absolutely know how lucky we have been to be a part of it all and appreciate all the love from fans all these years!”"

More from Opinion

• X-Men: 6 reasons why Marvel’s mutants are the best superhero team
• WWE: 6 superstars who should Jade Cargill feud with first (and one she shouldn’t)
• Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode 17 review – Thunderclap, Part 2
• Spider-Man: Miles and Peter team-up for their first ongoing series
• Loki season 2: All 6 episodes ranked from worst to best

Mr. Riggs’ opinion doesn’t exactly represent that of the fans, but not many if any fans expected Carl of all people to be killed off. As a matter of fact, as fans of the comics may know — Carl is alive and kicking zombie ass. This led many to speculate whether or not he’d be the heir-apparent to Rick’s throne whenever actor Andrew Lincoln left the show. In fact, when speaking to THR, Lincoln himself expressed how he too though Riggs could take over. 

"“I always thought Carl was going to be the one who led the show forward; that Rick would hand over his boots and revolver when he walked off into the sunset… When it all happened, it was very difficult because it’s such a departure from the comics and such a shock for all of us. Chandler was on set the day after and I went to see him and we had a chat. Everybody was reeling; I never saw it coming, but that’s the point.”"

Well before Sunday episode, sometime during the show’s off-season reports ran wild that Riggs might be off the show since he planned n attending college. However, Riggs refuted those statements saying he was going to take a gap year to focus on school. After what happened you can’t help but wonder if his willingness to go to college had some sort of effect if his character being killed off.

Should we have seen it coming?

Yes, though admittedly hindsight is always 20/20, we need to look no further than old man Rick. There was a noticeable absence when the Season 8 opener highlighted Rick, Michonne, and Judith — there was no Carl. Fast forward to episode six when Carl and Siddiq were fighting off walkers. If you pay close enough attention you could see Carl in an impossible position being surrounded by walkers

If that wasn’t enough, in season 8’s How It’s Gotta Be, Carl wrote a letter to his dad, and it appeared that maybe they would part ways based on their theosophical differences. As the episode continued there were other telltale signs, most notably how lethargic he appeared throughout even before the two explosions. It was a fantastic acting job by Riggs who made all the subtle changes as the episode continued with arguably one his best performances by far. It’s a shame the creators opted to kill him off now, but I am sure they have some major plans going forward.

Next: 50 greatest super heroes in comic book history

Still, watching the last moments of the Season 8 winter finale play out was a real gut check that no one is safe. We’ll have to wait until February 25, 2018, to see Carl take his final breath, but no matter what, he’ll go down as one the most shocking deaths in Walking Dead history.