Angst-ridden teen wide-eyed little boy, smiling or weeping in fear brave and foolish fierce but clumsy. And as Carl raises the gun to shoot, we see yet another version of him-the weeping, terrified piece of that puzzle, frightened and alone-no longer able to believe that he'd be just fine if Rick died. Later at the house, Rick wakes briefly from his long sleep, wheezing and moving almost like a zombie. The boasting of someone young with so much to prove. "I win," he keeps saying throughout the episode-to his dad, to the walkers. Carl looks content, ready to face the world. There's a great moment after that near-death experience, as Carl sits on top of the roof eating a coffee-can sized can of chocolate pudding he found earlier that day, while the walker's arm waves helplessly from a nearby window. He scavenges for food in a second house and nearly dies again when a walker surprises him. We see the brave and foolish Carl, luring walkers away from the front-door and very nearly dying in the process. "I'd be just fine if you died," Carl huffs. Safer to shout at a passed out parent than to confront them directly. All the anger and resentment and disappointment he feels toward his father come pouring out.
![rick the walking dead smiling on a couch rick the walking dead smiling on a couch](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/09/e0/52/09e052a2b8a3c52a04168356c79e86a9.png)
Later, as Rick lays unconscious on the couch downstairs, the innocent Carl disappears altogether. There's little time to play when all you do is survive each day. The smile fades when he grabs a TV cable to use as a tie for the front-door.
![rick the walking dead smiling on a couch rick the walking dead smiling on a couch](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/21/c0/b521c01f7abd679fadf3635ae2a6b1ea.jpg)
Suddenly we have a young boy again, grinning at toys and games that he'll never have a chance to play. Video games and other trappings of a normal childhood litter the room, and Carl's cold, killer eyes go wide, light up. Then we see Carl the child, standing in an abandoned boy's bedroom. So we're given a haughtily aloof Carl in the beginning, coldly out-pacing his wounded father. He's a teenager, after all, shuffling through that awkward space between childhood and whatever comes next.
![rick the walking dead smiling on a couch rick the walking dead smiling on a couch](https://46.media.tumblr.com/665e55889e1e8304b1d9bfd46a99a23b/tumblr_inline_o3xvckJsxH1t6sfuu_500.gif)
Actor Chandler Riggs does a great job playing Carl's many different parts.Īs with all such tales, there is little graceful about Carl's journey into adulthood. Which is great, because Carl has been one of my favorite characters in the show for a long time, and "After" paints a beautiful portrait of the boy's struggle to become a man, or at least to assert himself as one, if only to hear his father say it back. This is Carl's walkabout tale, and his first real moment in the spotlight, hoarding the entire episode almost entirely to himself. Ultimately the two parties join up, and the episode sounds off on a surprisingly happy note.īut the meat of the story is neither Michonne nor Rick. The footprints in question belong to Rick and Carl, who have stumbled their way into a nice, quiet town with only a handful of undead to deal with, and truly surprising quantities of canned goods and other non-perishables ripe for the plucking. Lots of nice sword action in this episode, which is always a plus. Despair has overtaken her now, and as she makes her way from the prison she passes by human tracks on a dirt road but chooses to ignore them, trekking off into the forest instead and travelling via zombie herd.Īs she shambles alongside the walkers, she sees a zombie version of herself, inspiring some sort of epiphany relating to her past, and rather dramatically chooses the path of the living over the path of the walking dead-cutting down each of the zombies and then heading back to track the footprints.