‘The Walking Dead’: Fans Shocked by Violence with Kids

The Walking Dead fans were left shaken Sunday night after learning the unsettling backstory behind [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

The Walking Dead fans were left shaken Sunday night after learning the unsettling backstory behind Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Daryl's (Norman Reedus) matching 'X' scars. The harrowing episode, simply titled 'Scars,' revealed Michonne reconnected with old college friend Jocelyn (Rutina Wesley) almost nine months after Rick Grimes' (Andrew Lincoln) disappearance when pregnant with their son, RJ (Antony Azor).

But Jocelyn betrayed Michonne, kidnapping daughter Judith and other Alexandrian children before raiding the community's supplies and disappearing in the night. When Daryl and Michonne tracked Jocelyn and her nomadic band of feral underlings to a school, the unsuspecting pair were captured, strung up, and horrifically branded by the brainwashed children.

After narrowly winning their freedom, Michonne was ambushed by Jocelyn and beaten with a wooden plank. A distraught Michonne then cut down Jocelyn with her blade, before engaging with a particularly ferocious child who viciously slashed her pregnant stomach. Despite her best efforts to avoid harming Jocelyn's pack — who had taken on a survival of the fittest philosophy, marking to kill before killing their mark — Michonne was outnumbered six-to-one, and was forced to slaughter the children to rescue the young Judith.

The episode, echoing Season Four's 'The Grove' — in which Carol (Melissa McBride) was forced to execute the mentally ill Lizzie (Brightin Sharbino) — has unsettled viewers calling the episode "traumatizing," "intense," and "hard to watch," amid calls for Gurira to be nominated for an Emmy.

Former Abraham Ford star Michael Cudlitz, who returned to set this season as director, previously warned the revelation behind the mystery — first introduced in November's 906, 'Who Are You Now?' — belonged to "a really f—ed up story... It was bad." Now audiences are agreeing.

"This whole episode is disturbing," tweeted one viewer. Wrote another, "This episode was so dark, holy sh-t."

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The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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