Rick buries Carl in this teaser for The Walking Dead mid-season premiere in 2018

The Walking Dead season 8 mid-season finale saw a beloved character reveal a walker bite, and the teaser for the mid-season premiere in February of 2018, shows the aftermath.

Fans of The Walking Dead are reeling from the reveal that Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) has been bitten by a walker in a previous episode. According to Riggs himself, this event spelled the beginning of the end for Carl on the show, and in an all-new teaser for the season 8 mid-season premiere in February 2018, we see Rick (Andrew Lincoln) kneeling at what appears to be the grave of his son.

Right off the bat (pardon the Lucille pun) we see Rick and Michonne kneeling/standing at what looks like the same gravesite where Abraham and Glenn were buried.

This scene is confirmation that the scene of Rick with red eyes from the season 8 premiere was, in fact, a time-jump forward. A time when Rick is visibly shaken by the death of someone close to him. Well, we now know that person is his own son, Carl.

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The two shots that resonate with me, personally, from this teaser, is the opening with Rick and Michonne at the graveside, Rick holding what appears to be Carl’s gun, then the final shot of Rick walking away tucking that gun into the back of his belt.

However, would The Walking Dead actually kill such a main character? Or, is Scott Gimple (showrunner) pulling yet another “Glenn rolling under the dumpster” misdirection? It’s hard to take Riggs at his word (through no fault of his own) if Gimple is feeding him lines in order to throw off the fanbase.

This worked, to an extent, with Game of Thrones and the death of Jon Snow in the season 5 finale. The entire off-season between the end of season 5 and the premiere of season 6, actor Kit Harington (Jon Snow) was forced to lie to fans and media members alike, in order to keep his revival a secret. Could The Walking Dead be headed down that same path with Riggs?

Next: 25 Most Brutal Deaths on The Walking Dead

Only time will tell. We won’t find out for sure until The Walking Dead season 8 mid-season premiere airs in February of 2018.