Carl Grimes (TV Series)


 * For the comic book character, see Carl Grimes (Comic Series).

"Everything's food for something else."

- Carl Grimes

Carl Grimes is the son of Rick Grimes, and Lori Grimes. Being told that his father was dead, he followed his mother and Shane to Atlanta for the safe-zone that was supposed to be there. Carl also seems to be a very disobedient due to the fact that he never does anything that his parents tell him, this is seen in most every episode when Carl's parents tell him to stay put, yet Carl just wanders off.

King County, Georgia
Carl was a normal kid who lived with his parents in King County, Georgia where he went to school during the day, and was picked up by his mom, Lori after school and taken home. One morning, Carl witnesses his parents fighting and having an argument whether Rick cared about the family or not. Later that day after he finishes school, Lori comes to Carl and informs him that his father, Rick was shot and in a coma.

Days Gone Bye
When the Apocalypse started Carl and Lori were at home. Shane Walsh (Rick's best friend and another survivor) comes and takes Carl and Lori to Atlanta which is thought to be free of walkers. Shane then tells Carl and Lori Rick is dead. They notice Atlanta is overrun and take cover at a campsite not far from Atlanta where a few more survivors are staying. Carl develops a friendship with a girl of the same age named Sophia and plays with her a lot during his time at camp. He is seen in the picture in Rick's police cruiser.

Guts
Carl is not seen much in this episode; however, he is seen hanging around the camp with his mother. He is still sad over his dad being supposedly dead and spends a lot of time with Shane, his mother and Sophia.

Tell It To The Frogs
His father Rick makes it to the camp and reunites with his family. During the night his father kisses him and says goodnight. The next day Carl is playing in the woods with Sophia when the pair find a walker and alert the rest of the camp. The men surround and kill the walker. Towards the end, when he is trying to catch frogs with Shane, Lori appears and tells Carl to head back to camp, as Lori does not want him around Shane.

Vatos
Carl is seen around the survivors camp talking, and later joins the group to see what Jim is digging holes for. Lori tells Jim he is scaring Carl and Sophia. At the end of that same day, he joins the group for dinner around the campfire, and then the walkers attack the camp and kill many of the Survivors. Carl fortunately survived the attack.

Wildfire
Just after the walker attack, Carl can be seen resting. He then later joins the group on their plan to leave the camp and head for CDC. He says goodbye to the Morales family and everybody leaves the camp.

TS-19
Carl makes it to the CDC along with the group. He is seen playing checkers in the rec room with Sophia and then heads to bed. Towards the end Carl is seen crying as he does not want to die. When Dr Jenner lets the group free he flees with the others to Dale's RV and watches as the CDC burns in flames; then they head to Fort Benning.

What Lies Ahead
Carl is seen gathering supplies with his fellow survivors, and when a walker herd approaches they hide under cars. Sophia is then chased by a duo of walkers, then gets lost. Later, after the herd passes by, Carl finds a Gerber bag of tools, which he is ordered by Shane to give to Dale. Carl and the others then go out to look for Sophia; when they reach a church, they decide to split. Daryl leads the group back the the Interstate, and Rick and Shane keep on looking for Sophia. Carl asks his father to let him help with the search, so Rick says yes. Later, Carl, Shane and Rick see a buck in the woods and Carl approaches it slowly. A loud gunshot is heard and the buck and Carl fall to the ground. When Rick goes closer to his son, it can be seen that a bullet had passed through the buck and hit Carl in his upper body.

Bloodletting
Carl is seen at the beginning going to school like any other regular kid and then is told by his mother that his father has been shot and is in critical condition at the hospital, he cries and hugs his mom as Shane watches on. Back in the present, he is carried by Rick who runs towards Hershel's Farm after being told by Otis that Hershel can help fix him. Carl is mainly unconscious due to trauma and blood loss however, he does wake up while Hershel is performing surgery because he can feel the bullet fragments and Hershel preying his tools inside. He screams in agony and Rick tells Hershel to stop since he's killing him but eventually Carl passes out from the pain. Later, Shane and Otis head towards a former FEMA evacuation center which used to be a high school for medical supplies to operate on Carl.

Save The Last One
Carl is still unconscious and is losing too much blood due to internal bleeding and Rick is unable to donate anymore to him since his blood levels are critically low as well. Hershel informs Rick and Lori that if Shane and Otis do not arrive in time with the needed medical supplies, they have a choice to make whether to allow Hershel to perform the surgery or not knowing the risks of what would happen to Carl. In the end, Shane makes it back to the farm with the supplies but sadly without Otis.

Cherokee Rose
The surgery was a success and Carl begins to slowly recover, he wakes up from periods of time asking if Rick found Sophia yet. He is told the truth later by Lori since at the time, they didn't want Carl to worry and wanted him to recover. Later, he and Rick talk for a bit and Rick gives his sheriff's hat to Carl to wear and takes the badge off.

Chupacabra
Carl is seen at the beginning of the episode with Sophia wanting some food, Lori and Shane are off watching the military bomb Atlanta. Sophia comments to Carl and says she likes his dad (think Shane was his father) but Carl responds with "Shane's not my dad... my dad is dead." Carl is seen later in the episode still lying in bed sleeping and still recovering.

Secrets
Carl is finally seen walking on his feet after recovering from getting shot. He is now being taught how to use a gun. He goes to a practice, along with the other survivor group members. He continues to care and want to help with the search for Sophia.

Pretty Much Dead Already
Carl tells Shane that he doesn't want to give up on the search despite Shane's arguments and wanting to move on. Shane decides to support Carl for now until the end of episode where the group of survivors shoots all the walkers from the barn. Carl is sadden to see that Sophia was in fact a walker and clutches to Lori for comfort as Rick shoots Sophia.

Nebraska
Carl talks to Lori, his mother, about Sophia, saying that he wanted to be the one to find her alive, but thinks that Rick did the right thing, and that he would have done the same in his place. Carl attends the funeral of Sophia, Annette and Shawn with Lori and Rick.

Triggerfinger
While Lori is returned to Hershel's farm by Shane, he accidently reveals to everyone that Lori is pregnant, including Carl.

18 Miles Out
Carl did not appear in this episode.

Judge, Jury, Executioner
Carl speaks with Shane about Randall but Shane tells him that Randall's fate is adult's business. He later sneaks into the barn where Randall is being held prisoner but Shane discovers him and tells him to stay away from Randall. Carl then insults Carol for believing that Sophia is in a better place, stating that Heaven does not exist and that she is an idiot for believing in it. Rick later tells him that he must keep the group together, not separated by different thoughts. Carl then steals a gun from Daryl's motorcycle and goes to the woods. He finds a walker trapped in the mud and decides to kill it. But he takes too long and the walker frees and attacks him. Carl runs back to the house, where he is forbidden to talk about Randall's life. Then, he sneaks to Randall's execution and tells his father to kill him while he is watching. Shane takes him away and Rick spares Randall. Later, Dale is attacked by a walker that mortally wounds him. Carl arrives to the scene and sees that the walker that attacked Dale is the same one that attacked him in the forest. Horrified and feeling guilty, he goes to cry in his mother's lap as Daryl kills Dale.

Better Angels
At the first moment Carl is crying at the funeral of Dale. Then he goes with Shane, telling him that he stole Daryl's gun, and the walker that killed Dale was the same one he found in the swamp and that Dale's death was his fault. He asks Shane not to say anything to his parents. Shane, however, tells Rick what happened to Carl. Rick finds Carl in the barn. They have a father and son talk, and Rick says he needs him and that he should keep the gun. Later, outside the farm, Carl finds his father, who just killed Shane. The boy is frightened and points his gun in the direction of Rick and dead Shane. Rick asks Carl to calm down thinking he's going to shoot him, when in fact Carl is pointing the gun at Shane who has risen as a walker and is about to attack Rick. At the end of the episode, a horde of walkers heard the shot and are on their way to the farm.

Beside the Dying Fire
After shooting the reanimated Shane the gunshot rings through the woods, causing a herd of walkers are seen advancing through the woods, following a helicopter that they saw, but instead heard the gunshot that Carl shot and walked towards the noise. As Carl and Rick walk back to the farm, they see the herd of walkers. Back at the farm, Lori is worried about where her son is. As chaos ensues he goes into the barn with Rick and kills more than a dozen of walkers with fire. As the pair run, they find Hershel about to be killed. After being saved, they go on the road just as the sun awakes. They soon meet up with the others that are still alive on the highway, where they were first attacked by the herd. At night, he is seen crying into Lori's shoulder as Rick talks to the group, saying why Shane was killed.

Killed Victims
The list shows the victims Carl has killed:
 * Dale Horvath (Indirectly Caused)
 * Shane Walsh (Zombified)
 * Patricia - (Carl's gunshot attracted the walkers to the farm)
 * Jimmy - (Carl's gunshot attracted walkers to the farm)
 * Numerous amounts of Walkers (Burned in the barn)

Trivia

 * Comic/TV Differences
 * In the comic Carl is 7 years old, while in the series he is 12
 * In the comic, Carl killed Shane while he was alive to defend his father. And Rick killed his reanimated self. But in the TV series, Rick kills Shane during a forced confrontation with him. And a shaken Carl, shoots Shane as a walker to defend Rick.
 * Carl is indirectly responsible for Dale's death, as he provoked the walker who killed him. It is arguable that he also unintentionally caused the deaths of Jimmy and Patricia because he fired the shot that attracted walkers to the farm.
 * Carl is sometimes seen wearing a Science Dog T-shirt, a character from Robert Kirkman's other comic book series Invincible.
 * Carl is the first person to receive medical care from Hershel Greene. The second person being Daryl Dixon after he was nearly shot in the head by Andrea, and the third being his daughter Beth after she tried to commit suicide.
 * Carl is the first of four people among the survivors to fall victim to friendly fire, Otis who was second, Daryl Dixon who was third and Dale Horvath who was fourth.