Carl Grimes: #5

Carl Grimes

Actor Biography

Carl Grimes is played by a young actor named Chandler Riggs. Chandler was born June 27, 1999. While Chandler hasn't had too many other acting roles in his short career, he has had a couple. In 2009, he played as Tom in the film "Get Low".

In 2010, he received the role of Carl in The Walking Dead and hasn't looked back since.

Who was he before the Apocalypse?

Carl was an ordinary 12 year old boy who lived with his parents in King County, Georgia. Just like every other ordinary child, he attended school during the day. One morning before school, Carl witnessed his parents fighting and having an argument (by then not an unusual thing to see) about whether or not Rick cared about the family or not. Later that day, Lori came to Carl and informed him that his father, Rick, was shot and is in a coma.When the apocalypse began, Carl traveled with his mother and Rick's partner, Shane, to the supposed safe zone, Atlanta.

Personality and Progression

Throughout the first 3.5 seasons, Carl has been seen to a quiet and shy boy. He doesn't talk to many people besides his parents and members of the group that he has known for a long time and is comfortable with. Throughout the show, Carl has idolized Rick and believes that if Rick is going to do something, it will always work out well. Rick is the center of Carl's universe.

Carl's character has undergone an immense amount of development since the beginning of the show.

 In the first season, Carl is seen mainly as a liability to the group. He is just a small boy who needs to be constantly watched and taken care of. Lori is often heard yelling, "Where's Carl!?" because he wanders off quite a bit. His natural curiosity gets him in trouble quite a bit in the first couple seasons.

I have to admit, for the two seasons I was on the #getridofCarl bandwagon. I wanted him gone. I suppose that I wanted him killed off the show. That must sound bad, seeing as he's a kid, but he was the single most annoying character on the show. I disliked him infinitely more than I disliked Lori. All he did was cry and cause problems for the group and get people killed. I know that he's just a child and the show kept it realistic in that sense, but STILL. And then something amazingly beautiful happened.

 Carl has turned into a badass.

Carl has progressed from a wimpy and whiny kid who was disliked by nearly everyone, to a kid that has seen so much terrible shit in his life that he is now a badass whom I love. He makes his own independent decisions that help the group and he can fend for himself as well as protect others. He used to be a problem for the group, someone that always had to be watched, but now he contributes to the group as if he's a mature and capable adult.

To get to this point of badassery, Carl experienced many horrible things.

Life Changing Experiences

The first would be the Apocalypse itself. This one should be self explanatory. No one could be one of the few remaining survivors of a plague that nearly wiped all of humanity off the face of the earth and not be affected. In the first few episodes, Carl initially seems to portray the innocent child, but we then see that he  takes everything in stride. He has a clear head and understands what is going on. He is even seen comforting his mother when she is distraught about the (supposed) loss of Rick.

The next big life changing event for Carl was when he got shot and nearly died. When Carl was finally allowed to go hunting with Shane and Rick, they encountered a deer. As Shane and Rick watched over him, Carl slowly walked closer and closer to the deer. It was a wonderful and peaceful moment in the horrible world. The calm moment was brought to a sudden end when a bullet tears through the deer and hits Carl. A stranger named Otis was out hunting and didn't see Carl on the other side of the deer.
Otis felt terrible about what he had done and takes Rick, who is carrying Carl, to the farm where he lived.

 A man named Herschel owned the farm and had experience as a veterinarian. Using these skills, he saved Carl's life.   After being shot, Carl was noticeably different. For one, his thoughts are plagued with negativity. Additionally, after being as helpless as was, he wanted to fend for himself to prove he was independent and mature. He also becomes rather pessimistic and rude. It's not that he goes out of his way to hurt others, it's just that his point of view is darker. He assesses a situation and sees the hopelessness and darkness with cold clarity.

 The third traumatic experience was when Shane died. After Rick killed Shane in a fight, Carl appeared on the scene and saw Shane dead at Rick's feet. As Rick stumbled over his words trying to explain the situation, Carl raised his gun and aimed in his father's direction.When Carl pulled the trigger, we are momentarily led to believe that he shot his own father. Thankfully, that is not what happened. Carl had been aiming his gun at Shane, who had risen as a Walker behind Rick(see photo on the left). Ever since the outbreak began, Shane had been there for Carl.. He had protected Carl and his mother from certain death too many times to count. When Rick was thought to be dead, Shane took Carl under his wing and acted as a father figure for him. Regardless of if he had already turned into a Walker, killing Shane was like killing his closest friend.

If you were asking yourself, "Could this kid's life get any worse?", the answer is sadly, yes. It most definitely can.

Carl further undergoes his transformation when Lori died during her breech childbirth, after which Carl was faced with a terrible choice. When the prison the group is staying at is overrun, Carl, his mother, and a woman named Maggie are separated from everyone else.When Lori goes into labour, a  c-section is performed on her and the baby is brought into the world. However, Lori died during the process. As Maggie and Carl were leaving the room with the baby, Carl thought about his mother coming back as a Walker. He couldn't stand the thought so he walked back into the room, a pistol in his hand. All that is heard is a single gunshot before Carl came back onto the screen, his cold dead eyes trying to hold back tears.
 
Strengths and Faults

Strengths
- He is a mature and able young man, and he makes intelligent choices
- Wants to always do what's right. He follows in Rick's footsteps and tries to imitate everything he does.
Faults
- At the start he did not help the group at all, he merely dragged them down.
- He whined and cried non-stop. It's not his fault really, but nonetheless it was still irksome to deal with every single episode.

- When things were happening, he was told to stay in the house.
He never stayed in the house!

Some people believe that Carl is seeing and doing things no child should have to deal with. While I would agree nearly 100% of the time, when it comes to Carl I have to disagree. This is a Zombie Apocalypse. The world that we currently live in is gone for the characters in the show. If Carl's parents continued to hide him from the dangers of the world, he wouldn't live long. It's a brutal world and to live in it, one has to adapt to fit in.

So far, Carl is progressing well down that road. I can't wait to see what else is in store for him in future episodes.

- Ben Ferguson