After killing off two series regulars and blowing up its central set piece in the midseason finale, The Walking Dead finds itself in uncertain territory. Rick Grimes and his companions are separated, scattered into small groups headed to who knows where. Now more than ever, the future of The Walking Dead is wide open, but showrunner Scott Gimple is offering a few minor teases about the road ahead.
Gimple reveals the next half of Season 4 will see many of the characters “on their own for a while,” including Rick and his son Carl. Rick is in bad shape, reeling from physical and emotional injuries; when last we saw him, he and Carl were fleeing the prison, assuming that baby Judith had died in the assault on the Prison. As a result, expect the younger Grimes to pick up the slack while Rick recovers.
It’s going to hit Rick in a way that we haven’t seen before. If it’s just the two of them, Carl is going to have to step up quite a bit because circumstances are wildly different and a lot will depend on him in terms of them just surviving. They don’t have an awesome, dual-layer fence and brick buildings to hide behind. They’re out in the world.
