Karen (TV Series)

"We are not soldiers. You want us to kill biters... of course, but this is crazy!"

- Karen to the Governor before he kills everyone.

Karen is a former resident of Woodbury that appears in Season 3 and Season 4 of AMC's The Walking Dead.

Rural Georgia
Nothing is known about Karen's life before or as the outbreak began. It is possible that she lived in or near Woodbury before the outbreak began.

"The Suicide King"
The morning after the arena infiltration, Karen is one of the residents demanding Martinez to let her and the other townspeople leave town. When Richard Foster, a resident living in Woodbury, is attacked by zombies, she watches in horror and pleads with Andrea to do something, as he is suffering from his wounds. She asks repeatedly while Andrea just stands there, watching. The Governor then walks out of his apartment, aims his gun, shoots Richard in the head and then he walks back into his home like nothing happened.

Later that day, Karen, along with Paul, Eileen, and other townspeople gather outside The Governor's apartment until Andrea comes out and calms them down.

"Home"
Karen is seen on the front wall, armed with a rifle, on watch duty with the other guards. When Andrea inquires Karen on The Governor's whereabouts, she refuses to give her an answer, claiming that she doesn't know anything.

"I Ain't a Judas"
Karen argues with Martinez about Noah being trained for combat. She watches the Governor evaluate the townspeople with Andrea. She is on guard duty when Andrea returns to Woodbury, but lowers her gun when she realizes it's Andrea.

"Welcome to the Tombs"
Karen joined the raid on the prison but retreated after they were overwhelmed by walkers. While on the road, she joins the other Woodbury survivors in protest against The Governor, but survived the massacre by hiding under a corpse, appearing to be dead. She hides in one of the trucks that The Governor left behind, and is later found by Daryl, Rick, and Michonne. Karen informs them about how The Governor massacred the other survivors and tells them that Andrea jumped the wall and left Woodbury, and the four go back to the town to look for her and meet the remaining citizens.

At the end of the episode she is brought back to the prison with the remaining Woodbury survivors.

"30 Days Without An Accident"
Karen is seen on fence-duty killing walkers alongside David, Chloe, and two other prison residents. Eventually, before leaving on the Big Spot supply run, Tyreese pays her a visit and kisses her. He talks about the supply run and confesses that he never enjoyed killing the walkers outside of the fence. He only did it to spend time with her.

Later that night, Karen and Tyreese are seen in their cell talking to one another before going to sleep.

"Infected"
Karen is seen with Tyreese until she leaves for Cell Block D. She stops at the showers for some water when she hears a strange noise. She investigates, finds nothing, and returns to her cell. However, a zombified Patrick emerges and follows Karen back to D Block. He feeds upon, and thus turns, a man and the two launch an attack on the prison inhabitants. Karen manages to survive and is led to safety by Tyreese. She is later seen coughing (a symptom of a fatal unknown disease). The Council places her under quarantine in another cell block along with others who may have been exposed. When Tyreese goes to visit her, he finds a blood trail that leads outside. He discovers two seared corpses, one of them being Karen, as it is wearing her bracelet.

"Isolation"
Karen's charred corpse is seen again as Rick and the others discover that she was murdered. After Rick investigates the crime scene where Karen and David where burned, he goes to ask some questions to Carol. One of them being if she killed Karen and David. After a long pause, Carol responds "Yes" and walks away.

Killed By
After displaying symptoms of the unknown illness, Karen is separated from the healthy people in the prison. She is later found murdered. Apparently, she was stabbed and then dragged out into the courtyard. There, her corpse was set on fire. It was later revealed that Carol apparently killed her to prevent the infection from spreading to the whole group.
 * Unknown flu (Indirectly caused)
 * Carol Peletier

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Karen has killed:
 * Numerous counts of zombies and possibly unnamed people.

Andrea
"We can't stay here anymore, this place is crazy. Please, you have to let us go!"

- Karen begging Andrea to allow her to depart Woodbury.

Karen seemed to be friends with Andrea as shown in "I Ain't a Judas" when Karen turned to Andrea for support when Martinez was forcing Karen to let Noah fight and handle a gun.

Noah
Karen, as confirmed in an interview, was a schoolteacher who taught Noah near Woodbury. She cares deeply about his well-being. She is very protective of him as shown in "I Ain't a Judas" when Karen would not let him fight and was outraged when The Governor made him.

Tyreese
"You find out who did this and you bring them to me!"

- Tyreese regarding Karen's death.

After becoming the sole survivor of the Governor's assault on his own militia, Karen is rescued by Rick's group and she in turn takes them to Woodbury. Tyreese is initially hesitant in allowing the group inside until Karen reveals herself to be alive, detailing that the Governor fired on his own people and that Rick's people saved her. In Season 4, it is revealed that Tyreese and Karen have formed an intimate relationship and Tyreese volunteered to kill the walkers on the fence so he could get to know her better. In "Infected", Tyreese is bringing flowers to Karen, but finds her charred corpse in the courtyard. He is devastated when he sees her corpse, and breaks down emotionally. He seeks revenge on someone who kill Karen.

Trivia

 * Karen is first seen during the mid-Season promo trailer for Season 3.
 * Karen is the third person to use a human as a shield, the first being Michonne using Tim to protect her from Merle's shots, and Carol being the second using Axel to protect her from a hail of bullets.
 * Coincidentally, they are all female and used a dead male body to protect themselves when they were getting shot at.
 * Karen is the only member of the Woodbury Army confirmed to have survived the massacre by The Governor's hands at the end of Season 3.
 * Laurie Holden and Melissa Ponzio have speculated that before the outbreak, Karen was a schoolteacher, which would also explain as to why she cared so much about Noah being in the Woodbury Army.
 * In this interview (with MTV), Ponzio and Holden also confirmed that Noah is not Karen's son (as was previously believed), and that he was killed by The Governor off-screen in "Welcome to the Tombs".