The Walking Dead: ‘Caryl’ could be the endgame
Caryl shippers were disappointed to hear that Carol and Daryl won’t be together in season 9 of The Walking Dead, but there’s good reason to have hope for the future.
It has been a really rough time for Caryl shippers as new showrunner Angela Kang confirmed that Carol and Ezekiel will be an item on The Walking Dead instead of Carol and Daryl, but does that mean that Caryl is over and done with? Not so fast, because Carzekiel might just be a speed bump on the road to the Caryl endgame.
The word “endgame” has been floating around The Walking Dead fandom lately after a tweet dating back to 2013 reveals that Caryl could be the “endgame” for the show. Succinctly put, an endgame is what you are hoping for at the end of a story or a project, so no matter what happens in this moment in time, the plan – or endgame – is all that really matters.
Now, we can’t put too much faith in a tweet from 2013…but Carol and Daryl shippers can – and should – put hope into that tweet from 2013.
Here’s the tweet:
@KerryBowler #Caryl is endgame!
— The Walking Dead (@WalkingDead_AMC) March 25, 2013
There’s no denying the chemistry between Carol and Daryl in the sneak peek from season 9 that was revealed on the preview show. The dynamic duo met up to discuss Carol’s relationship with the King, and many fans are interpreting the body language as two people trying to ignore their feelings and failing – miserably.
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The Caryl relationship saga has always been punctuated by will they-won’t they and are they-aren’t they moments, with a smile here and a nod there and a few hugs along the way. Carol and Daryl bonded during the search for Sophia, and they’ve both been the outsiders of the group. Carol is often seen as a maternal figure for Daryl, but shippers see that as an expression of how much she cares about him.
From a fan’s perspective, it’s hard not to see the spark between them, and it certainly helps that stars Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus are so close in real life. That tweet from 2013 seemed to suggest that the Powers That Be saw the same thing, which is why this Carzekiel news was so shocking.
However, that tweet might offer a hint at a story still to come. Remember Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in Speed? Relationships based on intense emotional experiences never last, and if anything the relationship between Carol and Ezekiel blossomed out of their shared traumatic experience in All Out War. Carol hasn’t seen the things Daryl has, but she was fighting side-by-side with Ezekiel, and so this could be the right time for Carzekiel and not the right time for Caryl.
Not yet, anyway.
If The Walking Dead is a marathon, perhaps this relationship between Carol and Ezekiel is at the halfway point of the big race, designed to give the apocalyptic heroine a relationship while she and Daryl heal from the events of All Out War and come to terms with the fact that they belong together. You know the old expression about not being able to see the forest for the trees. This might be the same thing.
There’s another point to consider here about Caryl, and it’s rooted in the Carzekiel revelation: Since when do The Walking Dead showrunners offer up so much information ahead of the season premiere? Mum’s usually the word for the cast and crew, so to share this news about Carol and the King could also mean that it’s nothing more than a passing flame, a tiny detail that is so inconsequential in the long run – think: Endgame – that they can toss it out to throw fans off the trail.
But the TWD Family knows better. It’s all about “Endgame.”
Next. Sad news for fans of Carol and Daryl in season 9. dark
It’s so very hard to tell what the future holds for Carol and Daryl on The Walking Dead, but seeing them in the sneak preview is enough to keep Caryl fans hoping for the endgame scenario. Be sure to keep watching the show because there will no doubt be more hints and clues about what’s really going on between them and that’s worth seeing.
The Walking Dead returns October 7, 2018.