The Walking Dead: Carol’s decision for dialogue influenced by her past

Carol is one of the strongest fighters in the history of The Walking Dead but she made a shocking decision to talk instead of fighting the Highwaymen. Her choice to talk may have a lot to do with her past experiences.

In season 9 episode 13 of The Walking Dead titled “Chokepoint”, the Kingdom came across potentially dangerous strangers. While they were planning their festivities, Dianne and Jerry were recovering from being jumped by the Highwaymen. They left a ransom note, and the Kingdom were planning their next possible move. Carol’s past may have played a role as she made a highly unorthodox plan for potential dialogue.

Carol clearly has adopted other ideas she has heard in the past. The only other person that entertained the idea to talk instead of a fight was Morgan Jones. The first time was when he held the Wolf captive, and the other was a plea for alternatives before the dangerous mission to the satellite outpost against the Saviors.

When Morgan wanted to talk to potentially help the Wolf, Carol just wanted him dead without even entertaining the idea to talk. She seemed to express regret after killing the Wolf when she observed him sacrificing himself to protect Denise. Carol initially didn’t want to fight against the Saviors but found her fighting spirit. She expressed no regret for the many Saviors killed during and after the war.

Last season, Carol was terrified when she saw the consequences of pushing Morgan to fight. Genuinely worried about Morgan during the war, Carol tried to be there for him to make sure that he was safe. Those moments seeing Morgan struggle could have disturbed her to the point of being willing to give dialogue a try after the war with the Saviors.

The Kingdom was ready to fight but were clearly annoyed by the idea of fighting a similar battle like what they went through before. The Kingdom was under Negan’s rules through Gavin for a long time without conflict. Ezekiel is not opposed to a fight now and is not willing to give up anything for any group of bandits ever again.

The Highwaymen are new people and Carol knew it was a chance to avoid another war as they went through with Negan and his army. They approached the meetup location where they were set-up and immediately the feeling was like one of Negan’s outposts. Carol scouted their set up, and even though they had guns, she wanted to take the risk to talk to them and if that didn’t work, they would kill them.

When they came face to face with the Highwaymen, it looked as though talks were breaking down in a hurry. It seemed like the Highwaymen were going to make the foolish mistake of fighting. Carol gave a major swerve that threw everybody in the room off with a proposal for movies. Those words made The Highwaymen drop their tense stance and love the proposal.

Carol has played many tricks in the past, and it seemed like she was playing a trick once again. Many viewers likely expected Carol to grab that sword and signal for a quick attack while they were stunned by what she said. Since the mysterious group has guns, it seemed logical to catch them off guard and hit a blitzkrieg on them.

There was no conflict, and Carol made a deal without any death or bloodshed. If Morgan witnessed what happened, he would be confused and would require a long explanation from Carol. Regardless, the Highwaymen are on their side thanks to Carol’s unusually risky plan for peace., and they can resume their plans for their fair.

Carol still has no idea about the Whisperers and what they have done. Even though Carol avoided a fight this time, there are no guarantees once she learns about Alpha. Tune in Sunday as The Walking Dead continues on the road to the season finale only on AMC.