Expect Those Flashforwards In ‘The Walking Dead’ Midseason Premiere

The Walking Dead‘s flashforward scenes in the Season Eight premiere were ruled out as an eventual narrative possibility when Carl Grimes revealed a walker bite on his core. In the character’s final episode, it sounds like fans can expect to see just how the sequence which saw Old Man Rick and the Grimes family fits into The Walking Dead‘s puzzle.

Showrunner Scott Gimple opened up about the upcoming Mid-Season Eight premiere while talking to Entertainment Weekly, promising a “deep relationship” between it and the 100th overall episode which aired in October of 2017. “Though it’s not the end of the overall story, in many ways its relationship to [Episode 8×01] is pretty important in terms of how it does end certain things and reveal certain things,” Gimple said. “There is a deep relationship between the two episodes.”

The Old Man Rick scenes might not be the only sequences Gimple is referencing. The Season Eight premiere also featured an emotional Rick Grimes uttering, “My mercy prevailed over my wrath.” Such a phrase has only been said by Siddiq and heard by Carl, so far. Should the sequence be featured in the new episode, one more flashforward scene from the Season Eight premiere would be realized in real time while the other is ruled an entirely alternate and non-existent timeline.

“I can’t say exactly what happens, but there is a story there and there are remarkable performances by everybody involved, led by Chandler Riggs,” Gimple said. “And a certain compulsion is given to the story, certain ideas and wishes and even reveals with incredible importance to this season in the overall story.”

Gimple did also promise Carl’s controversial death will be “very important” for the rest of Season Eight. Chandler Riggs, however, may have spoiled what Gimple is trying to tease in his original exit interview, claiming his character’s death was a means to keep Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan alive beyond the show’s eighth season and All Out war story arc.

The Walking Dead returns for the second half of its eighth season on February 25, 2018. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.