Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead show-cased several characters, some with action moments like Rick’s pig-plan and some in emotional moments like Michonne’s breakdown over baby Judith. Yet the character who stood out the most to me was Carol, as she stepped up in many ways throughout the episode. Since Carol was the character who made the most of her survivor skills in last night’s episode, I have chosen her as the episode’s ultimate survivor of the week. Read on to find out which moments helped Carol land this week’s award.
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Stand-Out Moment #1: Doc Carol
After the attack on D block, Carol looks after a man — Ryan — who has been bitten. She prepares to amputate Ryan’s arm to keep the infection from spreading, before realizing that he has been bitten elsewhere and cannot be saved.
Carol does not hesitate to do an on-the-spot amputation. She does not seek out Hershel or try to locate the prison’s new doctor, but prepares to do it herself. We all saw Carol study-up on C-sections last season, so it’s possible she grabbed another walker and learned how to do amputations in case of an event like this. It’s also possible she had training from Hershel or the new prison doctor. But with or without proper training, this moment is ballsy. One of the reasons Carol has survived as long as she has is that she doesn’t hesitate in the moment. She shuts down her fear and gets the job done. Anyone else think she picked up this skill from Daryl?
Stand-Out Moment #2: Selfless Carol
Carol agrees to take care of Ryan’s daughters.
After losing Sophia, I am surprised Carol would agree to look after two young girls. Her grief will never go away, but she doesn’t let it keep her from helping two children who are now on their own. It would have been easy to agree to take care of the girls in the moment and dumped them off on someone else later on, but Carol takes her promise seriously and makes every effort to become the girls’ new guardian.
Stand-Out Moment #3: Professor Carol
Carol convinces Carl that her classes should continue.
You can see just how far Carol will go to make sure the kids in the prison know how to survive in this world. Carol is teaching these kids the basics of apocalypse survival without their parents’ knowledge because she is afraid that their parents will not understand. Carol asks Carl to keep her classes a secret because she does not want these kids to be completely helpless. Though Carl tells Rick about Carol’s secret classes, he also asks Rick to keep it quiet because he believes Carol is right.
Part of Carol’s concern for these kids is based off her own experience with Sophia. Sophia had no survival skills and was defenseless when she got separated from the adults in the group. It’s impossible to know if Sophia would have lived even with survival training, but I imagine Carol spends a lot of time wondering if Sophia might still be alive had she been better prepared to deal with the zombie threat.
Stand-Out Moment #4: Momma Carol
Carol takes her surrogate daughters to get a good look at the fence-walkers and explains the difference between human and walker death.
Lizzie does not differentiate between the walkers and humans the way she should. I don’t know if this is because Lizzie is just “messed up” like her sister says or if it’s because no one bothered to teach these kids what it means when someone becomes a walker. Either way, Carol’s actions here are her attempt to get Lizzie to understand the difference between walkers and humans. Carol wants Lizzie to understand that walkers are not people or pets, but deadly threats. In this moment, Carol steps up as a parent to these young girls, teaching them something they should have learned a long time ago.
Bonus Moment: Truth-Telling Carol
After Lizzie fails to put her dad down, Carol tells Lizzie that she is weak and she will not survive if she does not learn how to be strong.
Some people might think Carol was too harsh in this moment, but the message was one the girls needed to hear. Yes, they just lost their father and Carol could have been a bit gentler in her approach, but this is not a world where they can just sit back and hope someone else steps in to handle a situation when they get overwhelmed. They have to learn how to defend themselves and sometimes, that involves stabbing someone you love in the brain before they can resurrect and eat you. It is not an easy thing to do, but it seems like something every single survivor has to go through at some point. Carol took care of things for them this time, but if it happens again, I hope they heed Carol’s advice and do what needs to be done.
Who was your Walking Dead survivor of the week? Do you think Carol was a good pick?
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC. Add the show to your very own Watch List after you download the free BuddyTV Guide App.
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Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
