The Walking Dead mid-season premiere: 5 takeaways from Honor

AMC

4. The truth about The Walking Dead flash forwards

Remember those flash-forwards on the season 8 premiere of The Walking Dead? Remember how everyone assumed it proved that Rick and Michonne and Judith lived and were building a new community? They aren’t real.

It turns out that those scenes — that utopia — were from Carl Grimes’ dreams. The visions are of the community that Carl believes that his father can build if he becomes the man that Carl thinks he can be. This is what Carl wants to happen after his death.

That included two shocking things. One was Eugene back in the good graces of the survivors, helping them plant their crops. However, at the end of the episode — after Carl’s death — there is a scene with Judith running up and seeing a smiling Negan working alongside the survivors. That might be a shock to fans of the television show, but comic book readers know that it is a possibility.

However, while we thought that those flash forwards were spoiling who did and didn’t live on The Walking Dead, they are all just the fantasy of a dying young man.

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 9 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

5. What does the future hold for The Walking Dead?

This leads us to figure out what this episode means for the end of The Walking Dead‘s eighth season. The entire reason for Carl’s death — according to the producers — was that his death would lead Rick to make hard choices down the line. While the preview for next week’s episode shows that Rick still wants to kill Negan, everything that Carl said in this episode makes it sound like Rick needs to think of ways to solve the world’s problems without killing.

In the comic books, Rick wins the All-Out War, but he allows Negan to live, albeit in prison for his crimes. Will Rick repeat that this season? There is a good chance that TV fans will reject that because when it comes to The Walking Dead TV series, fans are bloodthirsty and want deaths.

This Walking Dead mid-season premiere sets up the chance for Rick Grimes to show mercy. Now, with the second half of the season underway, the question is whether or not he will when the time comes.

Next: Carl's death drastically changing The Walking Dead

Watch season 8 of The Walking Dead on AMC every Sunday night at 8 p.m. CST.