Lori Grimes

*"You're gonna be fine. You are going to **beat** this world, I know you will. You are **smart**, and you are **strong**, and you are so **brave**, and I **love** you. You gotta do what's right, baby. You promise me you will always do what's **right**. It's so easy to do the **wrong** thing in this world. So... so if it feels wrong don't do it, alright? If it feels easy don't do it, don't let the world **spoil** you. You're so **good**. My sweet boy. **Best** thing I ever did... I love you! I love you. My sweet, sweet boy, I love you! Goodnight, love."*
―Lori's last words to her son before dying.[src]
**Lori Grimes** was a survivor of the apocalypse and the late first wife of Rick Grimes. The original emotional center of a group of survivors who fought to maintain their decency and old rituals to try to build a way of life worth living, Lori was a fiercely protective mother determined to keep her son safe and also quick to defend Rick against others' questioning of his leadership. Believing her husband to be dead, Lori took Carl and traveled with Shane Walsh to Atlanta for safety.

Shortly after the failed evacuation, Lori began an affair with Shane, but when Rick returned alive, she ended it. Furious with Shane for telling her Rick had died, Lori warned him to stay away from her family, which was difficult at first. When Carl was shot and Shane procured the surgical supplies to save him, Lori implored Shane to stay with them and later apologized to him for the confusion their affair had created.

Further complicating matters, Lori discovered that she was pregnant and didn't know who was the father. Terrified of bringing a baby into such a harsh world, Lori swallowed morning-after pills in an act of desperation, but soon threw them up and confessed her infidelity to Rick. Despite having warned him about Shane's volatility, Lori was nevertheless shocked and very angry when Rick admitted to killing him and that Carl had also played a role in Shane's death.

Over the following months, Lori tried to mend her strained relationship with Ric and Carl, but they both refused. When walkers infiltrated a prison in which the survivors had taken refuge, Lori went into labor and hemorrhaged, making her order Maggie to cut her belly open, aware of the huge risk. Before dying, Lori tearfully said goodbye to Carl and made him promise that he would not let the world spoil him.

## **Pre-Apocalypse**

Lori married Rick Grimes at a young age and together they had a son named Carl. The trio lived together as a typical family in a single-story house in a suburban neighborhood located in King County. On Sundays, Lori made pancakes, despite the fact that she knew they were awful. When Carl was a baby, Lori and Rick planned a road trip to the Grand Canyon but never made it due to Carl becoming sick, forcing them to drive back home.

Over time, Lori and Rick's marriage became increasingly strained due to Rick distancing himself from her. His unwillingness to talk about his feelings and their problems resulted in fights, where harsh words were spoken by Lori. After several fights, one morning Lori confided in her friend, Paula, that she still loved her husband but had forgotten how love worked. Shortly after, Rick's partner and best friend, Shane Walsh, informed her about Rick being shot and taken to the hospital, and Lori shared the news with Carl. During the time that Rick was in a coma, Lori found great support in Shane, who helped her through the difficult moment she was going through.

## **Post-Apocalypse**

When the outbreak happened around the world, Lori tried to go to the hospital for Rick but Shane told her that he would take care of it. Lori returned to her house to wait and took her things and those of her son until Shane eventually informed her that her husband had passed away and that they should flee. After this incident, Lori tried to call her mother several times to see if she was okay, to no avail.

On the way to a supposedly safe-zone in Atlanta, the trio was caught in a traffic jam, where they also befriended the Peletier family. When the radio transmissions stopped broadcasting and helicopters began to fly towards the city, Lori and Shane watched in horror as the city of Atlanta was napalmed by the military in a last attempt to contain the virus. This event made Lori extremely vulnerable and lonely but also even more overprotective of her son.

Shortly after the failed evacuation, Lori and the group formed a campsite along with other survivors on the outskirts of the city. As time progressed, Lori eventually accepted that her husband was dead and began a sexual relationship with Shane after they both discovered newfound feelings for each other.

* Season 1

## Death

Killed By
* Andrew *(Caused)*
* Zombies *(Caused)*

As Lori, Maggie, and Carl were escaping from the walkers Andrew had let into the prison in a deliberate attempt to have Rick and the others killed, Lori began to enter into labor due to the stress.

* Judith Grimes *(Indirectly Caused)*
* Maggie Greene *(Caused)*
* Blood Loss *(Alive)*

As they fleed and hid in the boiler room, Lori began to suffer from contractions and realized that she had to give birth in that moment. Midway into pushing, however, Maggie told her to stop as blood started to leak out.

Unable to push the baby out naturally, Lori ordered Maggie to give her an emergency Cesarean Section to save her baby's life. After tearfully saying goodbye to Carl, Maggie cut Lori's abdomen open and was able to save the baby, while Lori died from extreme pain, shock, and blood loss immediately.

* Carl Grimes *(Before Reanimation)*

After saying a final goodbye, Carl unceremoniously shot Lori in the head, preventing his mother from reanimating. Her corpse was later completely devoured by a walker.

## 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"
* "18 Miles Out"
* "Judge, Jury, Executioner"
* "Better Angels"
* "Beside the Dying Fire"

Season 3
* "Seed"
* "Sick"
* "Killer Within"
* "Say the Word" (Corpse)
* "Hounded" (Voice Only, Hallucination)
* "The Suicide King" (Hallucination)
* "Home" (Hallucination)
* "Clear" (Photograph)
* "This Sorrowful Life" (Hallucination)
* "Welcome to the Tombs" (Hallucination)

Season 4
* "Isolation" (Photograph)

Season 7
* "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" (Flashback)

Season 9
* "What Comes After" (Voice Only)

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

## Trivia

* Sarah Wayne Callies was in favor of Lori dying while in the prison, just like her comic counterpart. In an interview, she stated: *"I argued that it was necessary to kill Lori and I feel very strongly that for all of the other deviations we may have from the comic book, killing Lori does something to Rick that is vital for the story and can't be done any other way."*
* Lori appears to be the only member of her family to hold religious beliefs.
* Lori has a tattoo of a butterfly on her abdomen.
* Lori is the only original member of the Grimes family not to have killed a human.
* Throughout the second season, Lori carried two different blades but never used them.
* Lori is the first named character in the series to be pregnant during the events of the apocalypse.

## References

1. ↑ Indifference
2. ↑ What Lies Ahead
3. ↑ Days Gone Bye
4. ↑ Bloodletting
5. ↑ Tell It to the Frogs
6. ↑ 18 Miles Out
7. ↑ Chupacabra
8. ↑ Better Angels
9. ↑ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-season-3-sarah-wayne-callies-lori-rick-spoilers-352635