The Walking Dead's Most Shocking Moment Recalled By Director

In a show like The Walking Dead, there’s plenty of shocking moments. After all, the [...]

By Megan Peters

In a show like The Walking Dead, there's plenty of shocking moments. After all, the action-horror series follows a group of survivors making their way through a gruesome zombie apocalypse; There's obviously going to be some intense - even downright gut-wrenching - scenes to behold. Season Four holds one such moment in the episode "The Grove," and director Michael E. Satrazemis recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about its controversial ending.

So, spoilers below!

If you're unfamiliar with "The Grove," then you should know the episode ends with a very tragic and touchy death. Carol ends up killing a young girl named Lizzie who was traveling with Tyreese, Judith, and herself. The elder shot Lizzie after the younger, unstable girl brutally murdered his sister Mika and began luring walkers to the gang's hideout. The somber scene followed Carol as she told Lizzie to look at some flowers before murdering the girl and burying her beside her sister.

When asked to describe the episode, director Satrazemis said it is "shocking and horrifying." He went on to say "The Grove" featured some pretty heavy content and that he didn't feel right filming Lizzie falling after being shot.

"We got to this scene and the actual moment, and I never wanted to even shoot Lizzie falling down. It was crazy," he said. "I tried one shot [where you see her fall] but I did it only one time, and it was through Tyreese, a million, million miles away where they're just two little dots and she fell. That was the only time I ever had her fall over. It was one take, and it was just so heartbreaking."

Naturally, Satrazemis wasn't the only one who thought the episode was hard to swallow. The director recalled that he spent an hour talking with standards and practices about what The Walking Dead could show when it came to Lizzie and Mika's deaths. While critics praised the episode's complex storyline and acting precision, there were plenty of fans horrified by the young girls' fate. However, Satrazemis felt fans would understand the deaths weren't written in for the heck of it.

"I was hearing so much stuff, even a couple comments at some point about how we may never be able to air this — that they may pull it. But I was always under the belief that if it was told properly, you'd understand it wasn't horror for horror's sake and death for death's sake," he explained. "We weren't doing it to be flashy, and I tried to really not emphasize any of the gore."

walking-dead-grove-carol
(Photo: AMC)

Since "The Grove" aired, plenty of violent and shocking scenes have played out on The Walking Dead. And, when the series returns later this month for its Season Seven premiere, fans will see a particularly brutal scene featuring Negan. The baddie will be bringing his barbed-wire bat down hard on an unknown member of Rick's group on October 23, bludgeoning the character to a bloody pulp in a show of tyrannical power.

If you want to check out the synopsis for the ultra-violent premiere of Season Seven, you can read it below:

"Last season ended with Rick and our group kneeling helplessly before Negan and his group. What Negan does will haunt those who survive forever."

The Walking Dead returns for Season Seven on October 23 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

[H/T] Entertainment Weekly

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