The Walking Dead brought back its first ever walker and did it in the best way possible

If you think you recognized a familiar scene from the season 8 premiere of The Walking Dead, you weren’t wrong.

In the season 8 premiere of The Walking Dead, Carl is seen scavenging for fuel at a gas station when he runs into a character begging for mercy (also the episode’s title) before Rick runs in and fires over the new character’s head, scaring him off.

The scene was reminiscent of one from season 1, episode 1, where Rick forages for fuel at a gas station and runs into his first ever walker — a little girl with a teddy bear. Well, in the season 8 premiere, during that shot for shot recreation of that scene from 2010, a walker shows up looking very much like that little girl, only, grown up.

As it turns out, that little girl walker was played by Addy Miller who confirmed via Instagram that she was, in fact, that walker behind Rick in the season 8 premiere.

Miller spoke to Huffington Post about her return to The Walking Dead, and how it was a secret to everyone, including star Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes).

"They had to film me separately from Andrew because he’s known to spill some spoilers, so they had me in hiding the whole time so the crew couldn’t even know."

She had to introduce herself to the new cast members, on set, as someone completely different and had to avoid Andrew Lincoln, but the original cast knew who she was.

In case you wanted to see it all play out, there’s a side by side comparison, as well. Thank God for the internet.

https://twitter.com/FTWDFans/status/922269636795797504

Next: ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8 premiere recap

The Walking Dead season 8 returns this Sunday for episode 802, “The Damned.”