Carl Grimes

*"We don't have to **forget what happened**, but you can make it so that it **won't happen again**, that nobody has to **live this way**, that every **life is worth something**. Start everything over. Show everyone that they can be **safe again without killing**, that it can **feel safe again**, that it could go back to being birthdays and school and jobs and even Friday-night pizza **somehow**. And **walks** with a dad and a three year old **holding hands**. Make that **come back**, dad. And go on those **walks with Judith**. She'll **remember them**. I love you. Carl."*
―Carl's final letter to his father, Rick Grimes.[src]
**Carl Grimes** was a survivor of the apocalypse, and the son of Rick and Lori Grimes. One of the many children who were forced to grow up after having his childhood and innocence lost due to the new world. Believing his father to be dead, Carl and his mother traveled with Shane Walsh to Atlanta for safety. When Rick reunited with them, Carl began to look up at his father as a heroic figure everyone could always follow.

After being accidentally shot while searching for a missing Sophia in the woods, Carl received Rick's sheriff's hat as a symbol of their shared experience. Following Shane's death, Carl became colder and battle-hardened due to the brutal environment around him. Having developed a desire to fend for himself to prove his maturity, Carl was forced to put down his mother after she died giving birth to his sister, Judith.

Over the next months of peace after having killed a teenage soldier from Woodbury, Carl struggled to act like a normal kid again. Following the downfall of the prison, his father's brutal actions to ensure his safety made Carl fear his own negative thoughts. When the group joined a paradisiac community named the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Carl formed a friendship and then a relationship with fellow teenage survivor Enid.

During the herd invasion of Alexandria, Carl lost his right eye after being shot by Ron Anderson. In the middle of the war against Negan and the Saviors, Carl contemplated the future of the communities, and while rescuing a stranger, he was bitten on the ribs by a walker. Following a last heroic act, Carl was able to reunite and say goodbye to Rick and Michonne, leaving behind a legacy for everyone to rebuild a better world.

## **Pre-Apocalypse**

Carl was born and grew up in King County, where he experienced a normal childhood raised by his parents, Rick and Lori Grimes. The trio lived together as a typical family in a single-story house in a suburban neighborhood. Carl also befriended his father's closest friend, Shane Walsh. When Carl was a baby, Rick and Lori planned a road trip to the Grand Canyon but never made it due to Carl becoming sick, forcing them to drive back home.

In the following couple of years, a 3-year-old Carl would take memorable walks with Rick around a local farm, where he became grateful for the safety and happiness his father always provided him. As Carl grew, he developed a keen interest in playing video games and reading comic books. In third grade, Carl had a best friend who was allergic to dairy products and thus brought in soy-based meals for lunchtime. Carl once tasted his friend's milk and almost vomited, which became a humorous memory for him.

One morning, Carl was present during one of his parents' fights over their marital issues, an incident that affected him to a degree. Later that day, while Carl was leaving the school, Lori informed him about his father being shot. Carl was left devastated, even wanting to give a blood transfusion to help his comatose father but his mother made him change his mind.

## **Post-Apocalypse**

When the outbreak happened around the world, Carl and Lori were waiting at home for any news about his father until Shane eventually informed them that Rick had passed away and that they should flee. Carl gradually began to accept the news but unfortunately had little time to mourn. On the way to a supposedly safe-zone in Atlanta, the trio was caught in a traffic jam, where Carl befriended a girl named Sophia Peletier, who was with her family.

Shortly after the failed evacuation, Carl and the group formed a campsite along with other survivors on the outskirts of the city. As time progressed, Carl began to look at Shane as a father figure.

* Season 1

## Death

Killed By
* Zombies *(Caused)*
* Siddiq *(Indirectly Caused)*
* Himself *(Indirectly Caused; Suicide)*

While bringing Siddiq to Alexandria, a reckless Carl was bitten in the abdomen by a walker. Ultimately, as he approached death, Carl chose to commit suicide rather than force Rick or Michonne to put him down before reanimation. Later, as Rick and Michonne were outside the church, Carl shot himself in the head.

## Killed Victims

* Dale Horvath *(Indirectly Caused)*
* Shane Walsh *(Zombified)*
* Lori Grimes *(Before Reanimation)*
* Jody
* Joe Sr. *(Zombified)*
* Red Jacket Wolf
* George
* Chris
* Himself *(Indirectly Caused; Suicide)*
* At least 2 unnamed Scavengers
* Numerous counts of zombies

## Appearances

TV Series
Season 1
* "Days Gone Bye"
* "Guts"
* "Tell It to the Frogs"
* "Vatos"
* "Wildfire"
* "TS-19"

Season 2
* "What Lies Ahead"
* "Bloodletting"
* "Save the Last One"
* "Cherokee Rose"
* "Chupacabra"
* "Secrets"
* "Pretty Much Dead Already"
* "Nebraska"
* "Triggerfinger"
* "Judge, Jury, Executioner"
* "Better Angels"
* "Beside the Dying Fire"

Season 3
* "Seed"
* "Sick"
* "Killer Within"
* "Say the Word"
* "Hounded"
* "When the Dead Come Knocking"
* "Made to Suffer"
* "The Suicide King"
* "Home"
* "I Ain't a Judas"
* "Clear"
* "Arrow on the Doorpost"
* "This Sorrowful Life"
* "Welcome to the Tombs"

Season 4
* "30 Days Without An Accident"
* "Infected"
* "Isolation"
* "Internment"
* "Dead Weight" (No Lines)
* "Too Far Gone"
* "After"
* "Claimed"
* "Us"
* "A"

Season 5
* "No Sanctuary"
* "Strangers"
* "Four Walls and a Roof" (No Lines)
* "Crossed"
* "Coda"
* "What Happened and What's Going On" (No Lines)
* "Them"
* "The Distance"
* "Remember"
* "Forget"
* "Try"
* "Conquer"

Season 6
* "First Time Again" (Flashback, No Lines)
* "JSS"
* "Now"
* "Heads Up"
* "Start to Finish"
* "No Way Out"
* "The Next World"
* "Knots Untie"
* "East" (No Lines)
* "Last Day on Earth"

Season 7
* "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be"
* "Service"
* "Go Getters"
* "Sing Me a Song"
* "Hearts Still Beating" (No Lines)
* "Rock in the Road"
* "Something They Need"
* "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life"

Season 8
* "Mercy"
* "The King, the Widow, and Rick"
* "How It's Gotta Be"
* "Honor"
* "Worth" (Voice Only)
* "Wrath" (Flashback)

Season 10
* "What We Become" (Hallucination/Flashback)

Webisodes
Cold Storage
* "Keys to the Kingdom" (Photograph)

## Trivia

* Carl shares his name with Robert Kirkman's father.
* In the first three seasons, Carl wore a Science Dog T-shirt, a character from Kirkman's *Invincible*.
* Carl's blood type is A+, the same type as his father Rick's.
* Like his father, Carl appears to be agnostic as he once expressed hope that maybe his sister Judith (whom at the time he believes dead) and Michonne's deceased son, Andre, are together in an afterlife.
* Carl's first known kiss was with Enid.
* Carl is the first minor in the series to drive a vehicle.
* Carl never appeared in the 14th episode of a season.
* Everyone who has shot Carl has died due to walkers. Otis, Ron Anderson, and himself.
	+ The first two times Carl has been shot, it has been by accident.
* Carl is tied with his father for killing the second most amount of members from the original Atlanta Group. Carl put down his mother Lori after childbirth while Rick himself killed Shane.

## References

1. ↑ http://comicbook.com/thewalkingdead/2018/02/07/the-walking-dead-811-synopsis-spoilers-daryl-gabriel-/
2. ↑ Days Gone Bye
3. ↑ What Lies Ahead
4. ↑ Wrath
5. ↑ After
6. ↑ 30 Days Without An Accident
7. ↑ Claimed
8. ↑ Days Gone Bye
9. ↑ Bloodletting
10. ↑ Tell It to the Frogs
11. ↑ Chupacabra
12. ↑ Days Gone Bye
13. ↑ Bloodletting