The Walking Dead: The best Carol moment from each season
By Dawn Glen
9. Carol takes Lydia’s hand: Episode 916 – “The Storm”
After years of stability and safety with Ezekiel and Henry at the Kingdom, Carol’s life once again comes crashing down at the end of season 9 when Henry is amongst Alpha’s heads-on-pikes victims.
Henry is the cornerstone that held her life together and without it, everything crumbles. The Kingdom is no longer liveable, and with a storm pressing down, the remaining community pack up and head to Hilltop, but with one extra member – Alpha’s daughter Lydia.
The presence of Henry’s girlfriend is a constant reminder to Carol of what she has lost, and who is responsible – and Lydia knows it too well. When the group takes shelter, Lydia walks off into the snow, planning suicide as she is aware of the danger she brings to the group, as well as the torment to Carol.
However, Carol follows her and in a tearful stand-off refuses to end Lydia’s life. It is perhaps the most healing moment we’ve seen from Carol, as she sees some of herself in Lydia – someone who believes she is destined to a life of misery and hurting everyone around her.
It also acts as a moment for Carol to show that the heavy loss of Henry has not prevented her from reaching out – both literally and figuratively – to another youngster, and let her into her life.
The scene is the start of a complex and incredibly moving relationship between Carol and Lydia, and is aided in its depiction by wonderful acting chemistry between McBride and Cassidy McClincy. The swirling snow laying over the land is a metaphor for the chance for both of these troubled people to create a blank slate, white-out their world, and start afresh with spring bringing new life.