You probably noticed in last Sunday’s episode that there was either a time jump or Carl made the most miraculous recovery in the history of medicine. Either way, a ton of ground was covered during the two months in between Episode 9 & 10. Thanks to the comics (Volume 15, to be precise) we can help you fill in the blanks!
1. Carl’s Memory Loss
Carl didn’t just wake up, jump out of his bed, and start arguing about toothpaste with Michonne. In the comics, Carl’s in a coma for WEEKS and Rick is stationed by his bedside (he even admits to Denise he doesn’t believe Carl will make it). After a few “I think he’s awake!” false alarms, Carl finally regains consciousness. Unfortunately, he experiences mild amnesia and Rick has to remind him that his mother died, who Denise and others are, and that he had a baby sister (who in the comics died with Lori). To Rick’s dismay, Carl seems unfazed by all this news.
Rick, who’s emotionally spent, begins to hate Carl for not sharing his grief over Lori’s death. He even breaks down in tears during a supply run and admits to Andrea (yes, Andrea) he fears he’s lost Carl due to the memory loss. Eventually, she snaps him out of it and he’s later able to reconcile with Carl and get things semi-back to normal.
2. Jessie’s Alive! Kind of…
Carl’s not the only one to awake from a long slumber. Remember Jessie: Rick’s cute love interest who was unable to produce a child with a bravery level higher than a cat in a bathtub of snakes? Well she’s BACK…kind of. During the town clean-up of the double-Gettysburg level of walker bodies, an undead Jessie awakens and startles Glenn.
After Glenn refuses to have a HAND in taking action on the zombified Jessie, Abraham puts her down for good to ensure Rick doesn’t find out…because we all know how Rick deals with dead love interests. Speaking of…
3. Rick Hallucinates Lori…Again
Dating is rough in the zombie apocalypse, especially when your significant others keep getting significantly murdered in front of you (still not as tough as the online dating scene in LA, but close). During Carl’s coma Rick begins imagining his life without his family and decides to dial the only person he knew to call…his dead wife Lori.
In the comics, Rick used to hallucinate hearing Lori’s disembodied voice through a (disconnected) phone but had mostly put that behind him. Now faced with grim circumstances, Rick imagines hearing Lori blame him for her and Judith’s deaths along with Carl’s injury. Safe to mark this one as a loss in Rick’s battle with his sanity.
4. Abraham’s Love Triangle
In the comics AND show Abraham juggles two women (giggity). Both involve Rosita, but the other woman in the show is Sasha (not a comic character) while the other woman in the comics is Holly (was in a show for an episode, got killed earlier this season). Either way, that ginger lumberjack is a hot commodity in Alexandria and (during the time jump) Rosita was NOT having it. In fact, she moves out and shacks up with Eugene (platonically) while Abraham moves in with Holly…rather NOT platonically:
5. WINTER HAS COME!
Perhaps the most significant thing the time jump skipped was an ENTIRE WINTRY SEASON. Sorry guys, looks like we’ll have to wait even longer for snow to reach the show. A snowy Alexandria changes everything: the walkers are harder to spot, supply runs are trickier, and graveyard heart-to-hearts seem emotionally heavier. So, did it actually snow on the show and they just skipped past it or was there never any snow? We’ll let you speculate.
And yes, we did use Rick/Michonne panels to illustrate the frosty weather because #RICHONNE COULD HAVE HAPPENED IN THE COMICS. Actually, what ended up happening during this time jump was a version of that…only with Rick and Andrea (#Randrea). Observe the familiar make-out:
(BTW comic Andrea is MUCH cooler than her show counterpart…comic fans were psyched about their relationship).
Which comic moment from the time jump do YOU wish played out on screen? Let us know in the comments!
I just wanted to see Carl’s recovery…
Eye really wanted to see Carls recovery…
you forgot about Morgan’s death
We saw Abe’s love triangle start to play out when he and Sasha were waiting for Daryl after they got separated. And we’ll probably see walker Jessie in a flashback soon.
I was hoping that the walker Carl and Enid had encountered in the woods was Ron, although it being Deanna and the way it was handled was great. But I would still love to see zombie Ron tied to a tree with Carl going out and doing some “target practice”.
Not so much because I hated the character, I actually felt bad for him for the most part, since he was an abused child who watched his mother get abused in a community that happily looked the other way because their abuser was a trauma surgeon. And then suddenly this stranger named Rick with a son his age named Carl comes in and ends up killing his father, who was an abusive asshole for sure but it was still his father, starts putting the moves on his mother and his (perceived, I don’t think she reciprocated) girlfriend started hanging out with Carl, who she had way more in common with. Then, everything turns to shit because something went wrong during Ricks plan, and in the end, he saw his brother and mother, the rest of his family (IIRC he didn’t see his father killed by Rick, but I’m not sure) devoured in front of him during which Rick chopped his mothers hand off, so he’s really just a tragic character.
But why I’d like to see Walker-Ron tied to a tree with Carl occasionally using him for target practice is to show that the kid still has that dark edge that he did in season 3 and 4, especially. I mean despite the tragic circumstances Ron was in, he still shot Carl in the face costing him an eye, a big disadvantage in that world, so it would make sense for Carl to want some payback. Even the morbid, walking-corpse desecration kind.
I liked the time jump. Realistically, if it was 2 months as speculated, that whole time they would be moving and burning walkers anyway. They would also still be in shock ( the Native Alexandrian’s) about the whole bloody ordeal. We know they don’t take things well.
I bet we see the Abraham/Tasha thing play out over a few episodes, and hopefully we will see some Savior scenes so we can understand what that bunch is all about. The ironing of Dwight’s face would be the bomb.
It was a great volume but I understand why the writers wanted to move along quickly and in a somewhat new direction. More Corallls would have been nice coming from Rick though 😛
I’m just glad this isn’t a Norman Reedus/Daryl Dixon post.
Why does everyone but baby Judith grow older? Based on her apparent age (18 months?) the timeline has only advanced a few months since the prison.
Judith was born about 9 months since the apocalypse (Since Shane and Lori were having fun around that time when Rick was in a coma), and they’ve went through a good year since her birth so she’s probably about 18 months.
.
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Not only that, but they switch actresses every season for Judith. That’s Carl’s actor Chandler Riggs looks like a sophomore while Judith is still looking like she’s the same.
Up to this point in the comics at least two winters have come and gone. After the All Out War storyline a two year time leap takes place. I just think that too much has gone on to realistically expect that, with all that has happened, that more time hasn’t ticked off the clock since the zombie apocalypse began, both in the comics and on TV.
I suppose that’s to be expected though since the first 8 episodes of this season of WD happen to take place during a single day.
This might sound terrible of me but I still think she shouldn’t have survived the end of the prison arc. Her being there has done nothing to alter the narrative. She is pointless in the worst way. An emotional anchor with no real feeling behind it. She exists to be held by others while you forget Rick even has a second kid. I’ve learned to not mind too terribly that the show deviates from the comics but at least make those deviations interesting. Give them SOME point. Like the whole Deanna/Douglas sex swap thing. I liked Deanna as a character. But what was the point? It was a difference solely made to be different. And that’s what Judith has amounted to. She’s practically a decoration just reminding you “hey look, something different happened.” They should either make her more significant (which, let’s face it, would be BORING) or get rid of the character somehow. They had an opportunity but they threw it away so people could squee in delight at Tyreese taking care of her but it’s a thread that’s gone absolutely nowhere and I’m not sure it can.
I wholeheartedly agree. What’s the point of having Judith around? I can’t even think of a parallel character from the comic that she could possibly be. As an example, Enid is obviously now taking the place of Sophia, who Magie and Glenn take in after Carol’s death at the prison.
What would you guys do… have Judith fighting off walkers? She just recently gave Father Gabriel an out. She’s always in the background of my mind as a potential noise hazard. She & Carl both give Rick something worth living & fighting for, which defines who Rick is. To me, her character is actually realistic in its simplicity… that not all characters need to be in the spotlight. There is a child who is mostly simply there, just like there are Alexandrians in the background who have no name or script. That completes the picture. That is realistic.
No, but think about the dynamic. Man survives apocalypse with teen son and BABY. Potential noise hazard, YES. Life that needs to be constantly guarded, YES. A baby is a huge thing and could potentially change the dynamic entirely. But she doesn’t. The only thing Judith does to the story is “hey look, someone in the background has her. Oh look, they grabbed baby food on their supply run and nothing else extra.”
She doesn’t have to fight off walkers but her presence has to be either felt or should simply not be. And I’m sorry but her presence is hardly there. She’s just handed off to other people to hold while Rick and Carl go do some action. I know, I know. Well, Rick’s the main character–he’s gotta stay in action so what are they supposed to do? Like I said, either change the dynamic in a way it can be felt (which would be boring but believable) or get rid of her somehow. I doubt they will kill baby Judith off now. It’s probably too late for that. But back at the prison arc I think that’s one thread they should have left burnt.
fully agree with the whole judith thing. i mean the longer they keep the kid the harder its going to be to get rid of it. i wish they would have stuck with the prison death. but i mean i guess im trying to keep an open mind as well…
I wanted to see ricks breakdown. It was so raw and real in the comic and shows how rick and Andrea Randrea came together and got closer.
i just want to know where the hell Ezekiel and meshonne (ezonne) fit in here….. because i honestly was happy with that set up….i mean i was OK with skipping Morgan and meshonne’s little fling, but she helps a lot when he looses his bad ass tiger. however besides that, i hope to see Daryl and Carol finally come together, but i still want carol to get caught up in a moment of weakness and purposely walk in to a walker like in the comic. I want her to immediately regret it once Daryl comes to her side, but i want him to call her stupid while crying because he dose not approve of suicide, but he really loved her. different episodes of course.