Carol (Comic Series)


 * For the TV series character, see Carol Peletier (TV Series).

Carol Peletier was Sophia's mother and one of the survivors of the original Atlanta band.

Pre-Apocalypse
Not much is known about her pre-marital days. She had always had a good relationship with her sister, and specifically when she was a teenager, had dated a share of guys. She had dated her husband for a significant amount of time, before he eventually talked her into marrying him (the proposal she only accepted because of her fear of being without someone). It's been heavily implied that she faced little satisfaction throughout her many years of marriage and only stayed with him because she both needed as much help as she could get taking care of Sophia and also because of the needy tendencies.

Her husband was the breadwinner of the family, working as a successful car salesman. Because of the large amount of money he brought in daily, she herself didn't have to venture out into the working world, so she played the role of an average housewife, although she occasionally brought in some extra money by maintaining an at-home business where she would sell tupperware out of catalogues (though her customers mostly tended to be just friends and family). She tended to indulge in a lot of arts and crafts during her free time, whether it be knitting or scrap booking (the latter she had frequently been taking classes for).

Once the apocalypse broke out, her husband had the misfortune of being forced to watch his parents die in front of him, and supposedly become zombies. After this event, he was driven into a deep depression, and Carol's relationship with the man had become increasingly strained. Even despite talking a distressed and doubtful Carol into staying with him, he ended up giving up on life eventually and committing suicide, leaving her and Sophia all alone. Shortly after his death, Carol had decided the best next move for the two of them would be to move to Atlanta to be with her sister, where they both would be safe and secure from the zombies.

Atlanta
On the way to Atlanta, she and Sophia met up with Shane and the other band of survivors in Atlanta and set up an initial campsite in a nearby quarry. Throughout her time at the quarry, she constantly assisted the other mothers in domestic duties such as washing clothes and looking after the children (though often she let Donna and Lori do work for her while she observed and made sure they were washing right). Usually coming off as a friendly and chatty (albeit neurotic) woman, she was able to befriend most everyone around her fairly quickly and usually tended to stay close to the women in the group. The person she most bonded with was Carl's mother Lori, with the two of them constantly conversing about the current happenings around them. Lori was also who she relied upon the most for support whenever it was needed.

She and Sophia managed to survive the deadly attack at the campsite, nearly coming towards death but being saved at the last second by Glenn.

Wiltshire Estate
After abandoning the quarry campsite and hitting the road, they come upon a man named Tyreese, who Carol is almost instantly drawn to. Several times she flashes sexually suggestive glances at him, to which he gladly responds to. During the group's campfire dinner, she makes flattering and admiring comments towards him, such as how grateful she and everyone else was for him and how they wouldn't have lasted without his help. Seconds afterward, Tryeese makes a physical advance toward her and gropes her leg which Carol visibly enjoys. Holding each others hands they leave with everyone else for their housing quarters and, upon arriving, the two end up sleeping next to one another. She notices Tyreese's small nervousness about being this close as he puts his hand on her shoulder, but she calmly keeps his hand on her shoulder as comfort, with the two embracing each other as they wait to fall asleep. This officially starts off their relationship. The next day and so on, she appears confident in herself, and in a joyful mood.

Hershel's Farm
Throughout the group's stay at the farm, they're shown together, whether it be relaxing and teasing each other in Hershel's living room or Tyreese helping her shoot a gun during one of the group's target practicing sessions. The two appear to be very much happy, thus serving as a distraction for Carol from all of the horrible things going around, filling Carol with joy and providing her with positive energy to distract her from the otherwise nightmarish world she was living in. She and Tyreese stayed close from here on out, until Hershel ordered all of them away from his propety and and resulted in them meandering around rural areas until they stumble upon the abandoned prison.

The Prison
Tension started to come between them however when Michonne was introduced, and Carol began to notice, much to her dismay, their similar physical and personality traits. She tried to ignore this for some time and simply just brush it off as a normal friendship, until she saw Michonne performing oral sex on Tyreese inside of the prison gymnasium. Initially, this led to her to think that she had to try and compete with Michonne for his affection, so during one night when they were bed she shamefully and tearfully attempted to give him a blowjob as well. She openly expressed how she couldn't bring herself to do such a degrading act, and broke down into tears. It was then that she officially split up with him, demanding Tyreese that he gather his things and move out the following day.

Soon after the break-up however, her healthy mentality came into question, due to both the stress of her surroundings and the global apocalypse in general. It escalated to the point where she deeply cut her wrist (in front of a terrified Sophia). Soon after the cutting, Carol became desperate for companionship, seeing as how Sophia (one of her only true friends left) now looked down upon her. She saw that the Grimes were the only ones in the survivor group who offered her comfort and relaxation (especially after the cutting), the only bright aspect in her otherwise disaster of a life. On one occasion, she passionately kisses Rick when he attempts to console her, only to be shot down when offering the idea of a polygamous or plural relationship between him, Lori, and her (explaining that they could all become one and provide each other emotional assistance). Visibly hurt, she goes to Lori and attempts to propose the polygamous relationship to her, only be to shot down a second time.

Things turned even more depressing for her when she showed genuine compassion to Lori while she was under a significant deal of distress (gently putting a hand on her lap) only for Lori to mistake the woman's actions as another advance and a sign that she was still trying to get her to accept the idea. This resulted in Carol being angrily berated, which showed her that even her best friend didn't trust her anymore and now thought of her as being a freak just like everyone else.

This rejection by the two people she was closest to at the moment (and the mistrust they now had towards her) pushed Carol over the edge and gradually she began to formulate a plan to commit suicide - the only solution in her mind that would put a definite end to the increasing amount of suffering she had been going through. She attempted to converse with people before she put the plan into action to see if there was even one person who still had respect for her - that person was Alice, who was very kind to her (which Carol outwardly said).

On her last day alive, she joined Lori for a picnic outside in the prison recreation yard and discusses with her if she were to die. Lori agreed that she would take responsibility for Sophia, unaware of Carol's plan. She then joked about finding a man before it's too late, which Carol took literally, as she went and had sex with Hershel's son Billy, whom she had recently taken a subtle liking to (it's unknown whether this attraction to him was for sex, comfort, or true genuine feelings toward the man). After the sex, she wandered into the courtyard where Alice was keeping a zombie for testing purposes and opened herself up to it. Assumingly in a state of delusion, she began talking to it, explaining how everyone no longer trusted her and that she now had no other friends in the world besides it.

Characteristics and Role
A relatively calm and collected indvidual at first, Carol's friendly and normal attitude served as a facade to hide some of her underlying mental instabilities, which would later reveal themselves and eventually lead to her untimely death.

One major theme throughout Carol's time in the comics is her need for companionship amidst the daily chaos, due to the fact that she is a weak and dependent person. The people around her kept her balanced and helped the woman maintain the image of a sane individual. Yet however once she no longer received this support from them, she gradually began to slip and lose the control that she initially had over herself. The boundaries between rationality and irrationality became blurred to her, as she fully believed that she and the Grimes could be a family together.

Killed By

 * Zombie
 * Andrea

Carol successfully managed to kill herself by letting the zombie bite deeply into her neck, while remarking "Oh good, you do like me" and for a moment enjoying the pain (knowing that she'll bleed to death in a matter of seconds). A handful of the surviviors rushed to her side, but she refused to let anyone help her, saying that she wants them to leave her to so she could die in peace. Carol died being cradled in Tyreese's arms, and was killed by a merciful Andrea during her almost immediate reanimation process before she had the chance to bite Tyreese (who was deeply saddened and thus vulnerable to an attack).

Killed Victims
This list shows the people Carol has killed.


 * Herself (Suicide)
 * An unknown number of zombies or people, if any (Carol's victims, if any, have not been portrayed).

Rick Grimes
She was relatively close to Rick, looking up to him as the de facto leader of the group like everyone else. She also never hesitated to give her opinion when she believed it was needed, similiar to Dale (although not as regularly). Before her death, she realized that his perspective of her had changed after she proposed that she, he, and Lori get married and raise their children together.

Lori Grimes
Lori and Carol maintained a strong friendship, often conversing with each other about various things and looking out for each other. This friendship however become strained during their stay at the Prison after Tyreese cheated on her with Michonne, as Carol (with her mental instabilities becoming increasingly apparent to Lori) proposed a polygamous/plural marriage and continued to talk about how alone she was. Carol began to realize after a while that Lori was beginning to pick up on the fact that she was ill and thus distancing herself.

Sophia Peletier
She remained extremely protective over her daughter throughout their stay within the group, often setting ground rules and making sure she behaves the way she's supposed to. For a significant amount of time however, she made herself keep Sophia in the dark about her inner feelings so that she could try to come off as just a typical mother like every other mother in the group (showing her true self possibly would've weakened her image). Though she eventually couldn't keep these feelings contained, as she began crying every night in her prison cell with Sophia and Carl around her, and even reaching the point where she committed an act of self-harm directly in front of her.

Tyreese
She had a close and romantic attachment to Tyreese soon after he joined the group. He acted as an emotional and physical protector towards her and made her feel better about life, while at the same time keeping her balanced (which she otherwise wouldn't be with all of the chaos that was happening around them). Their relationship crumbled however shortly after she caught him cheating on her with Michonne.

Michonne
She was visibly jealous of Michonne during her interactions with Tyreese, made even angrier when realizing that the woman was oblivious to both her relationship with him and her feelings in general. She was constantly fearing that Michonne could and would take away Tyreese at any second, as it was obvious to her their similar personalities and body structure.

Billy Greene
After taking Lori's advice and decidng that she wanted to be intimate with a man for one last time before she ended her life, Carol seduced Billy inside of his jail cell and had passionate sex with him.

Trivia

 * Carol is currently the only character who has committed suicide (alongside Alexandria Safe-Zone citizen, Beth.)
 * Carol's last name has never been mentioned in the comic but in the TV series (all the original Atlanta survivors' last names came from TV series) it is mentioned by Jim as being Peletier. This may not reflect the comic character's last name.
 * In the comic, Carol's husband (who was nameless) died before the events of the zombie apocolypse. On a similar note, the husband in the television show was abusive, whereas in the comics Carol claims that her husband used to be abusive towards her.
 * Carol in the television show appears to be a somewhat different character. Carol in the comics, was naive, neurotic, and sarcastic, whereas the TV character appears shyer and meek, with a warmer demeanor. The TV character's incarnation still seems to share several traits with the original incarnation.
 * A reader asked:
 * "[W]hy did you make Carol the one who does all the weird crazy things?"

Robert Kirkman responded:
 * "...I just wanted to show how stressful life in this book actually is and how crazy it can make weaker people. Carol was a pretty weak, dependent person. Things wouldn't work out for people like her in this world."