CARL STAY IN THE FREAKING HOUSE!

THE WALKING DEAD: CHARACTERS WE LOVE AND HATE






Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs)


Carl, Carl, Carl. If you were my son you'd be grounded until every last zombie was destroyed. Or longer.

I have nothing but praise for Chandler Riggs. He is a professional through and through, which is why his character has created so much... stuff.

Memes, sayings, posters, Carl has them all and for good reason. HE'S NEVER IN THE HOUSE! STOP ASKING OKAY? IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT TIME IT IS HE'S NOT GOING TO BE THERE!

I had an idea for a 'Where's Carl' book but it would only be one page. Carl stands in the middle of the page, and surrounding him are dozens of houses. Not that funny? Eh, can't be spot on all the time. I did create my own Carl meme though of which I am kind of proud. So I have my moments.

Okay back to Carl. He is the son of Rick and Lori Grimes, age unknown (Chandler is actually 12). Seen as an innocent in the first season, after the devastation of both losing his father and the zombie apocalypse he is lost, despondent. He begins to look at Shane as a father figure, seemingly oblivious that Shane and his mother are having an affair. 

As the season progresses and as Carl evolves in Season Two we see a child moving more and more toward violence, disobedience, and downright cruelty. To be fair, try to imagine being a child in this situation - the loss of a parent and a zombie apocalypse. He probably felt totally helpless, scared, depressed and unsure that he would even survive another day.

After his father returns he seems to stabilize a bit but the stress of the situation and the fact that Rick and Lori seem too engrossed in their own problems and dramas (I actually counted several instances where other characters pulled one or the other aside and said to the effect 'You need to talk to your son'). The fact that he's being neglected, together with being faced with constant violence, a horrible gunshot wound, the death of the only other person near his age (Sophia, to whom I will pay my respects later) hardens him and only makes him more rebellious, violent, downright nasty. He actually tries to goad his father into shooting a bound prisoner to his father's dismay. 

He also goes off on his own a lot, not a really smart move in normal circumstances and worse in this world. He steals a gun and is allowed to keep it (oh boy, that's smart). On one of his wandering trips he comes across a Walker who is stuck up to his calves in mud. Perfect. Carl has a lot of fun taunting, poking, generally torturing the Walker, enraging the monster so much he works his way out of the mud and Carl takes off.

This Walker later attacks and causes the death of Dale. So, in effect, Carl caused Dale's death. When the final confrontation of Shane and Rick takes place again Carl is not where he should be and finds his father standing by Shane's dead body. As Rick tries to talk to him (finally!) he raises his gun, making Rick think he's going to shoot him. Instead the kid makes the impossible shot of destroying a now zombified Shane. When he later finds out that Rick had been the one to kill him he becomes even more hardened and in Season Three if they don't get him under control their going to have a little psycho on their hands.


Now Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) is a kind of survivalist and not afraid to kill what may kill him. But he does use reason. He is mature enough and plenty smart enough to know when one is to be killed and when they should be allowed to live. But Carl is just a kid. Letting him keep a gun is just nuts. You want to protect him? Pay attention to where he is and what he's doing people! A neglected, hardened and violent kid with a gun is a horrible scenario that can not mean anything good. Now if he were to take lessons from Daryl he'd have a chance to grow up a little while keeping a survival instinct. Listening to his parents is just going to continue to confuse, frustrate and enrage him (This is my opinion - Lori is an awful mother and Rick is just too absorbed with being leader to be a father).

Let's hope that since Carl essentially represents the future of mankind (if the Walkers don't get them all) that he will be allowed to become a responsible adult with strong morals and leadership skills. He, after all, will probably be a leader of his own generation of survivors one day.

Okay little brother I'm going to ask you
 once and you sure as hell better tell me
the truth. IS CARL IN THE HOUSE?

This is not Chandler Riggs' first experience acting in a zombie setting. In 2006 he was in the movie Jesus H. Zombie (Released in 2007. I have GOT to find that one, just the title is hilarious and it is described as a zombie comedy so...) and has been in several television shows. Be frustrated with Carl all you want, it just proves how great an actor Chandler is.