The Walking Dead Gives Key Rick Grimes Scene to Carol

Because Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is away from The Walking Dead, Season 10 episode “Walk With Us” brought a major comic book scene to life with Carol (Melissa McBride) taking Rick’s place. After some of Rick’s leadership duties were given to Daryl (Norman Reedus), and other comic book moments brought to screen with Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Lydia (Cassady McClincy) in Rick’s absence, another comic book scene was remixed in “Walk With Us” amid the fallout between Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton). Spoilers for both The Walking Dead Season 10 and creator Robert Kirkman’s comic books ahead.

“Walk With Us” ends with Negan luring Alpha to a shack where he murders her before taking Alpha’s decapitated head and gifting it to Carol, tossing it at her feet. “Took you long enough,” she says, revealing it was Carol who secretly broke Negan out of jail in “Silence the Whisperers,” to fulfill her vendetta against Alpha over the murder of son Henry (Matt Lintz).

This is a shift from the comic book, where a fugitive Negan kills Alpha without a co-conspirator. Like the show, Negan claims Alpha’s head but presents it to Alexandria leader Rick Grimes, not Carol, who had long ago died at the prison.

In The Walking Dead #157, Negan arrives at Alexandria and is nearly shot by ex-Savior Dwight, but is allowed into the gated community to meet with Rick. Presenting Rick and Andrea with Alpha’s head, Negan says he did it “to gain trust.”

“I’ve been in your cell for years. I’ve been the model prisoner. How can I prove my rehabilitation in there? I can’t,” a handcuffed Negan says. “You didn’t kill me. You thought there was a better way. I agree. I’m fascinated by your way of doing things. It’s inspiring.”

“I’m on board,” Negan says. “What more could I do to prove that?”

Rick says he put more people at risk by crossing into Whisperer territory, but Negan spits back he could have taken over the Whisperers as leader and waged war on Rick and his people. “Instead,” he yells, “I’m here offering up everything I’ve learned. And I literally took the head off their organization.”

Telling him he will “never live inside these walls,” Rick makes Negan an offer: he’ll be set up with supplies and an outpost away from Alexandria, where he’ll live alone, but he’ll first have to serve on the front lines against the Whisperers.

“One slip up, you shoot an unkind look in anyone’s direction,” Rick warns, “and you’re dead.” Negan eagerly accepts and ultimately proves himself a valuable contributor to the distrustful community.

“I think there’s a mutual understanding between those two characters. I think they might need each other at some point,” Reedus said when teasing a Daryl and Negan team up at San Diego Comic-Con in July. “It’s such a weird world, ’cause some of the bad guys are the good guys, and the good guys are the bad guys, and everybody thinks they’re doing the right thing.”

“I mean, we’ve all killed people,” Reedus added of the Walking Dead survivors. “We’ve all done crazy things, so maybe there will be a time where we need him.”

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.