'The Walking Dead' Season 6 Spoilers: Carl Sees it Differently
The shocking midseason premiere of AMC's "The Walking Dead" on Valentine's Day saw Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and her son Sam (Major Dodson) get eaten by zombies as Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the rest of his guts-covered group tried to make their way through hordes of the undead hand-in-hand. As she was attacked, Jessie kept a firm grip on Carl (Chandler Riggs), leaving Rick no choice but to chop off her hand. Seeing his family get consumed by walkers, Jessie's other son, Ron (Austin Abrams), pointed a gun at Carl and Rick. Michonne (Danai Gurira) saw what was happening just in time to slice the boy with her katana but not before he was able to fire a bullet, which caught Rick's son in the eye.
According to Riggs, Carl, who has lived through some pretty horrendous events in the zombie apocalypse series' six-season run, will be forever changed by this latest misfortune — and not just physically.
"I think the eye is more traumatic for both of us," the actor recently told TV Guide. "For Carl, he's going to see the world a lot differently as the result of this one incident. I think this time is going to harden him more."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Riggs said that this may be the point where Carl officially loses his childhood and turns into the tougher Carl in the "Walking Dead" comics.
"The transition from a boy into a man was more in season four when Rick mentioned that Carl was a man at that point," he said. "His childhood ended there but hopefully the cool Carl will emerge from losing his eye and be really exciting. It makes him a lot harder and ruthless."
The actor also revealed a major detail about the rest of season 6, telling The Huffington Post that there will be no more death-scares such as the one with Glenn (Steven Yeun) and the infamous dumpster in the first half of the current season. "There's not going to be another fake-out, like you believe a character is dead and they come back," he said. "And it's like, 'Just kidding!' That's not going to happen again."
The sixth season of "The Walking Dead" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.