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The Walking Dead 8.09 Review – ‘Honor’

February 26, 2018 | Posted by Katie Hallahan
The Walking Dead Carl - Honor
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The Walking Dead 8.09 Review – ‘Honor’  

Welcome back to Season 8! I hope you all had a great winter break and stocked up on tissues for tonight, because if this episode hit as hard for you as it did for me, you needed them. Let’s jump right in and talk about this wonderful and sad goodbye to Carl Grimes.

The plot: We finally see just how Carl was bitten and then get a montage of his final day–setting Siddiq up in the sewer, planting a tree, enjoying the feel of the sunlight on his face, writing notes to his loved ones. Then the goodbyes begin–while everyone else heads for the Hilltop once the Saviors stop bombing Alexandria, Michonne and Rick stay with Carl to the very end. Carl gives the sheriff’s hat to his sister Judith, and implores to his dad that the world can be better once again. This time, however, Rick listens to his son’s pleas that there has to be something after the fighting for all of them, and we learn that the bright, shiny flash forward has been Carl’s dream of the future, and Rick promises that he’ll make it real. Carl takes his own life before the bite takes him, and Rick never learns that Carl saw Negan as a part of that future as well. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom, Carol and Morgan work together to save Ezekiel, and Morgan becomes more and more unhinged and coldly vicious, worrying even Carol with his bloodthirst. When only Gavin is left, Carol and Ezekiel try to talk him down, but unexpectedly, it’s Henry, the younger brother of Benjamin, who kills Gavin, echoing Morgan’s claims that he had to.

It’s still shocking that Carl Grimes is gone. He’s been here from the very beginning and grown up before our very eyes. We’ve seen Carl go from being a boy to a man, seen him deal with things no kid should have to, and in the end, deal with them in a remarkable way. He is and always will be a part of the past, present, and future of The Walking Dead. There’s no other character like him on this show, there never will be, and there hasn’t been a goodbye like this before either. It was sad and lovely, and I’m glad they gave him this long goodbye. He earned it.

Also fittingly, his goodbye touched on the past, present, and future as well. When he gave his sheriff’s hat to Judith, he talked about how it always made him feel strong like his dad, like Rick was there with him, and what his mother had told him before she died: that he would beat this world. He says the same to Judith–who starts crying as Daryl picks her up to take her to Hilltop, which might be the first real sound or noise she’s made on this show! That’s the magnitude of this moment. This touching hand-off was a tearjerker to be sure, and Daryl’s affirmation that Carl had personally saved everyone in the tunnels ties that past to the present. Carl has made a difference to all of those people purely through his resolve to do better and make a better world. Rather than spending that last day trying to kill other people, or wallowing in grief over his fate, he’s the one who came up with a plan that saved all their lives and kept them from being killed when the Saviors bombed the town. Siddiq’s goodbye touches on this as well when he pledges to honor Carl and what he did for him, to make sure everyone knows that this loss was not for nothing. And as it turns out he’s a doctor, no doubt he’ll have plenty of opportunity to do so.

Then there’s Carl and Michonne. These two have had a long friendship which has involved each pulling the other back from the edge at different times. Carl was the first person to really bond with Michonne when she joined the group at the prison. So him telling her she’s his best friend is truly touching. It’s unexpected, even when we know how close they are, because it’s not how we usually think of friendships between people of their respective ages. But as soon as he says it, it really fits, and for that, I think it was even more touching than when he tells her he loves her. It shows that Carl knows Michonne is more steady than his dad, too, especially with Rick facing losing his son–Michonne is the one he asks to be strong for all of them, but also to not carry the weight of this and to find happiness again.

Last but far from least are Carl’s words for Rick. It is heart breaking to even contemplate this kind of goodbye, personally, but even from a story point of view, it could go a lot of ways for Rick. We’ve seen Rick be devastated by loss, we’ve seen him go from Officer Friendly to the Ricktatorship, we’ve seen him hopeless and vicious and unhinged, determined and optimistic and loving. The thing is, Carl knows this, too. He knows where his dad is at now, and where he could go after this moment ends and he’s no longer able to do anything about it. And that’s why he says the things he does: not just because he really does believe in finding a better world after this, but he also knows his father needs help to choose the path to that world. He reminds Rick of how he chose that once before, back at the prison, and he knows that Rick did that for him. He tells him it was right to invite in the people of Woodbury, to give up fighting and build a home and a life with others. He tells him about the dream of the future that he has–the one we’ve seen flashes of–and Rick promises that he will make it real.

Now, as a viewer, I know “Farmer Rick” was no one’s favorite from the point of view of wanting to watch compelling television. But from inside the story, it’s a good goal for Rick, and all of them. The world cannot be fighting and war and bloodshed all the time, after all. It shouldn’t be. War and violence may be inevitable, but peace is still the ultimate goal. Rebuilding society is still necessary for any of them to survive and to not either die horribly or completely lose their minds as well as their humanity. Carl, despite his youth, knows this, and in his last hours, he does everything he can to save the lives of others. But more than that, he does everything he can to save the life and the soul of his father. It remains to be seen how successful that effort is, but I suspect this promise will drive Rick from here on out. By which I do mean until the show ends or his character also dies, whichever comes first.

The second storyline tonight was a good complement to this one. It provided some much needed action in contrast to the slower pace of Carl’s goodbyes, and a parallel of sorts to the lesson and final message Carl is imparting to Rick. We’ve seen Morgan go through similar twists and turns, most recently becoming unhinged, cold, and ruthless after the shoot-out at the satellite station. When he goes in to save Ezekiel, and especially when he sees Henry trying to do the same, all bets are off for him–so much so that even Carol is worried about what’s happening to him. Which, given their history, says a lot! But it’s not until Morgan is about to kill the defeated and unarmed Gavin, saying he has to do this, only to see young Henry stab the man from behind through the neck instead, that he has any real pause in his actions. We don’t get to see the fallout of this just yet, but I suspect they are aiming to parallel the story Carl recounts to Rick about how he changed when he saw how his actions were effecting his son, turning him into a killer. This young man whom Morgan trained, whose brother Morgan trained and sought to avenge, has learned his lessons a little too well. While that may make him prepared, it’s unnerving to see someone that young take a life with such precision and calculation. As it should be. On the whole, this storyline playing out is a well-done reminder of what Carl is getting at–and the editing of the climactic moments to show them even more in parallel was very well–how a dark path lies ahead of all of them, unless they chose to find another one. Let’s not forget that Morgan is a man who already lost his son, too. But as Ezekiel puts it, “It is not too late to walk back from a decision made.”

So, we bid you goodbye, Carl, and may you rest in peace. Your sacrifices and work were not in vain, and you saved many lives. Your presence will be felt on this show for the rest of its run, however long that is, and that’s not something we can say about every character we’ve lost. I’d love to hear in the comments what your favorite Carl moments are! I think mine might have to be the pudding.

Other Thoughts:
– Quotes! There were a lot of good ones tonight. Almost everything Carl said, and Ezekiel was especially quotable as well. Here’s a sampling:
– “You versus all of them?” “Yeah.” “They don’t stand a chance.”
– “I made a choice I can live with. Now it’s your time to do the same.”
– “All of us. Together. We’ll be their worst damn nightmare.”
– “You are the author of this night, Gavin. Its close shall be fashioned by your start.”
– “It always kept dad with me. It made me feel as strong as him. It helped me. Maybe it’ll help you, too.”
– “Before mom died, she told me I was gonna beat this world. I didn’t. But you will, I know you will.”
– “You’re my best friend, Michonne.” “You’re mine, too.”
– “It was all for you. Right from the start. …everything I did, it was for you. …It still is… Nothing is gonna change that.”
– “I’m gonna make it real, Carl. I promise. I’m gonna make it real.”
– “A father’s job is protect his son.” “No. It’s just to love.”
– The final shot reveals that the other flash forward we’ve gotten of Rick saying “My mercy prevailed over my wrath,” is said with him leaning against a tree in a field, with stained glass panes hung from it, and bleeding badly from a wound in his side. This does not look good for Rick, but we’ve seen him survive worse.
– What will Negan’s reaction to Carl’s death be?
– The nice touch of dream-Negan harvesting tomatoes from the plant that Carl planted earlier in the episode was another nice touch.

9.0
The final score: review Amazing
The 411
This was, again, a sad but very well-done episode. For me, Carl earned this long goodbye, and I felt the pacing worked out with the Morgan storyline to give us action and a character arc very relevant to everything Carl was saying to his father. The two storylines were a good reminder, too, that this show can do not just good action but good emotion as well, and that it's very possible to have both at once. I will say it did feel a little long by the end, if only because I started to feel we'd heard everything Carl had to say already, but it didn't drag out too much. Though he was an aggravating character at times, I will miss Carl, but he'll always be a part of this show no matter if he's on-screen or not.
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The Walking Dead, Katie Hallahan