The Walking Dead Twists Judith’s Comic Book Fate

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Family” episode of The Walking Dead. 11 seasons later, The Walking Dead is ending how it started: with a Grimes getting shot. The penultimate episode of the series recalls the Season 1 premiere, “Days Gone Bye,” where sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is gunned down in the line of duty. In the Season 2 opener — after Rick wakes up from his gunshot coma in the zombie apocalypse — his son Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) is shot in the woods outside the Greene family farm. Sunday’s “Family” ends with a bang when yet another member of the Grimes family takes a bullet: Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming).

The shooting happened after Judith convinced Daryl (Norman Reedus) to let her honor her family by fighting for the future that Carl would have wanted. The one that her parents, Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira), fought for. “What we’re doing could help everyone. Not just us, but maybe everybody everywhere,” Judith says about the rebellion against Commonwealth Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins). “I want to be part of that. To make what my family believed in real.” 

But when the group infiltrates the city with the Commonwealth prisoners exiled by the corrupt Governor Milton, she’s already ordered treasonous good guy General Mercer (Michael James Shaw) arrested for plotting the coup. The prisoners sneak their way right into a trap sprung by Governor Milton, seeking revenge for her son’s death and the unrest that led her to order in a “B-17”: a zombie herd her military diverted toward the Commonwealth.

During the gunfight, Governor Milton fires the bullet that hits Judith, taking the shot meant for Maggie (Lauren Cohan). As Daryl carries an unconscious Judith to the clinic, she wakes just long enough to see the zombie swarm overrunning the streets of the Commonwealth — and her family.

What Happens to Judith in The Walking Dead Comics?

In the comics, Judith’s fate is decided by another “Governor”: Brian Blake, the leader of Woodbury. During Woodbury’s war with Rick Grimes over the Atlanta group settling at a nearby prison, the Governor orders the assault that ends with a newborn Judith Grimes dying in The Walking Dead issue #48. 

Ordered by the Governor to open fire on the fleeing Grimes family, Woodbury’s Lilly Caul shoots Lori Grimes in the back as she carries Judith to safety. The bullet tears through Lori, her body crushing baby Judith to death.  

Did Judith Die on The Walking Dead?

Judith’s fate won’t be revealed until The Walking Dead series finale, “Rest in Peace.”

“We definitely wanted itto feel reminiscent of the scene where Rick was carrying Carl after hewas shot, and it’s kind of the question of: is history going torepeat itself with Judith and what’s going to happen next with her?” showrunner Angela Kang said on AMC+’s The Walking Dead: Episode Insider.”All of those thoughts are running through Daryl’s head as he’s runningwith Judith, out to try to find safety.It was really important to kind of talk about this sense of found familythat our people have, as well as literal families that people arefighting very hard to reunite with and preserve.So we just think that that is one of the most important kind ofemotional themes that runs across the entire series, and it’s somethingthat we really wanted to highlight as we kind of get to the very end ofthe series.”

Kang added: “And obviously, it ends with a very dramatic moment for Daryl, as [Judith] is like a child to him. She means the world to him, and so he’s going to do everything in hispower to try to make sure that she doesn’t just die in his arms.”

The series finale of The Walking Dead premieres Sunday, November 20th, on AMC and AMC+.