The Walking Dead
Last night on The Walking Dead we had a pill-popping Carol making some…rather poor decisions all night long, culminating in a showdown with Alpha where she actually takes a shot at an enemy leader during what is supposed to be a weapons-free meeting on the stake hilltop.
While the Savior War was a conflict between Rick and Negan directly, the Whisperer War, in addition to the two armies going head to head, is pitting Carol against Alpha directly, with Carol trying to get revenge for Henry’s death, one of five children that have died under her care at this point, as we see in a harrowing hallucination scene.
That’s why I wonder if the show is going to make a big change from the comics this season. Potential spoilers follow.
Later in the conflict, Negan escapes from prison and actually leaves to go defect to the Whisperers. He tries to charm Alpha, who is having very little of it (and Beta is having absolutely none of it), and while he seems on board at first, he eventually learns about all the rape that goes on inside the Whisperer camp, including the fact that Alpha let her daughter Lydia be raped in the past “because they’re all animals.”
Negan might be a bad guy, but we saw previously how he draws the line at rape, killing a Savior who attempted to rape Sasha when in captivity (this is weird considering he keeps a Harvey Weinstein-esque stable of terrified wives, but that’s a debate for another day). In any case, it’s a bridge too far for him and so he….slices Alpha’s throat when they’re alone, cuts her head off, and brings it back to Alexandria as an offering.
It’s a huge moment for Negan, the start of his true journey to redemption, but now I am wondering if The Walking Dead may scrap all this in favor of the constantly hinted Carol vs. Alpha showdown.
Carol, of course, didn’t exist in the comics at that point. Carol is essentially a different character in the comics, killed off ages before all this, but not before doing very loopy things like trying to have a three-way relationship with Rick and Lori. She’s eventually eaten, and at that point, it’s no great loss for the series.
The Walking Dead
But our Carol is someone else, and one of the main leads of the series. I would find it somewhat odd if they’re setting up this huge Carol and Alpha face-off, only to give Negan the kill alone, in the woods, with no one else around.
And yet I don’t think I want to lose that moment. It is such a big moment for Negan, that it would be a shame to alter it like this. I think Carol can still be instrumental in the war (I mean, she’s already broken the truce twice over this episode alone, shooting at Alpha and killing a Whisperer in her hallucinatory state), but the Alpha kill should probably remain unchanged from the comics. And I don’t think Alpha would buy a total sub-in of the plotline with Carol trying to defect to the Whisperers and doing the same thing.
We should probably know what happens with all this soon, because if we see Negan leave and go to the Whisperers, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that things are going to play out the way they did in the comics. If not, maybe it will be Carol after all.
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