‘The Walking Dead’ Recreates Iconic Carl Grimes Moment… Kind Of

The Walking Dead paid homage to an iconic Carl Grimes moment from the comics in Sunday night’s new episode… kind of.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9×10 follow. Major spoilers!

In Sunday night’s Episode 9×10, Lydia and Henry bit into a young love story from Robert Kirkman’s source material. In the comics, Lydia and Carl develop a deep friendship despite the former being a member of an enemy group which threatens the community. Now, that story seems to be handed off to Henry with Chandler Riggs’ character having been killed off in Season Eight.

In issue #137 of Robert Kirkman’s comics, Lydia and Carl take a trip outside of the Hilltop’s prison. While venturing out together, they take some time to sit together, where Lydia decides it would be a good decision to stick her tongue in his eye socket. From there, a romantic relationship begins to blossom.

Check out the moment from The Walking Dead comics issue #137 below…

While the show did not recreate the moment because there is no vacant eye socket which Lydia can shove her tongue into, the AMC series did show Lydia’s habits which are outside of the traditionally accepted.

When Lydia and Henry ventured out of her Hilltop jail cell in Episode 9×10, she picked up some worms from the dirt nearby and ate them. Then, she licked the dirt off of another, before handing it over to Henry. Potentially love struck, he ate it, and uttered shocked words of his own, “I just ate a worm.”

It’s a close as fans are going to get to the comic moment are going to see on the live-action adaptation.

While the two moments are quite different they send a similar message of Lydia developing a relationship with a trusting young man living at the Hilltop by way of bizarre habits and perspective. The show, however, elected to steer clear of Lydia suggesting she show Henry how to have sex as she promised to with Carl in the books.

“The show has often diverged from storylines in the comic,” The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang told EW. “It’s always a process remixing things for us. There’s nobody that’s going to exactly replace Carl. Carl is his own character, but there are definitely plotlines from the comic that we didn’t want to completely lose. Henry just organically would be with this time jump about the age of Carl in the comics. There were certain aspects that we felt play well with Henry, especially because Carol is now that parent.”

Would you have been more interested in the moment from Sunday’s episode had Carl Grimes been alive for it — even if it had stuck to eating worms and not licking graphic facial scars? Share your thoughts in the comment section!

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.