A dying Carl Grimes has the best last day he can as Alexandria is bombarded. Meanwhile, Carol and Morgan stage a rescue operation.

This episode is the definition of a no win scenario. If they pulled away from killing Carl at the last second, then the entire show would have been rightly derided. If they didn’t, then the show would kill off one of the original four characters, a major connection to the comics and a lot of the show’s hope.

They don’t go for the first option.

I’m honestly quite conflicted about this episode. It’s the exact showcase Chandler Riggs richly deserved as his send off and he’s on form throughout. Carl, almost without us noticing, grew into a fundamentally good man and that goodness drives everything here. His final words with his family, the impression he leaves on Siddiq and the heartrending final moment of his vision all speak to it. Somehow, a kid who grew up as the world ended sees the best in people. Especially the worst people.

But for all that, and the show’s welcome, pragmatic response to death, there’s a sense of this landing in the wrong place. Having several months between bite and death destroys a lot of the episode’s pathos and a good chunk of the rest is swept away by the Morgan and Carol plot. Without that though, all the episode would have been is Carl slowly dying. With it, it’s Carl slowly dying and a welcome return for Ezekiel as the symbol of hope. Neither approach works but this one works least badly.

Plus there are moments here any other show would never have pulled off. The flashforward being Carl’s vision of the future is an absolute low blow that should drive people away and yet… it works. In fact works better for knowing that. The (months overdue) death of Gavin being delivered not by Morgan but by Henry is a brutal contrast with Carl’s hopes of a peaceful future, in a garden he planted but doesn’t get to see.

Time and again, just as the episode pivots towards the worst possible choice, it makes it work. We even care about Gavin for basically the first time ever this week, as he slowly realizes just how doomed he is. Jayson Warner Smith has always been impressive but here he’s given a ton of great material to work with, as is Khary Paytin. Even after all the death and the horror, Ezekiel wants to save Gavin. Gavin in turn is revealed as so self loathing he doesn’t believe he can be.

And so, he isn’t.

It’s a dark note to end the plot on but one that progresses a surprising amount of characters. Likewise Carl’s death basically puts a full stop on everything that’s happened so far.

Alexandria is gone. The Kingdom is gone. Carl is gone. The tie the show had to the future shown in the comics is gone.

What remains, somehow, impossibly, is hope. The same emotion this show has snatched away time and again. The same emotion that, somehow, powers Rick once again as he buries his son.

The world is still ending but now it’s ending in an entirely new way. I have no clue if the show is up to that task. I do know I want to see it try.

Verdict: Confounding, emotional, unearned, needed, compelling viewing. You won’t like this episode. But you won’t forget it. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart