The Walking Dead: The best Carol moment from each season
By Dawn Glen
2. Sophia’s fate revealed: Episode 207 – “Pretty Much Dead Already”
There is no doubt that the most pivotal moment in Carol’s life is when Sophia walks out of the barn on Hershel’s farm. It’s a scene that was – at the time – hugely shocking to the audience, as well as the characters.
Building the whole season on the search for Sophia, focusing on Daryl’s hope of finding the little girl, and Carol’s dwindling spark was a brave move for the show itself, but to then reveal that Sophia had in fact been dead the entire time truly shook the show to its core.
It is a scene that is impeccably staged. It comes as the hideous punctuation in the escalating Shane versus Rick row and the unraveling of Hershel’s sense of control. While the main characters engage in a mass shooting of the walkers coming out of Hershel’s barn, Carol is – as ever – in the background. Only when a calm falls, and then the little shuffling feet of Sophia emerge from the barn does she run forward, her mother’s instinct overcoming her sense. Her sobbing on the ground, with Daryl holding her back and holding her together, is a hugely powerful moment.
The old Carol dies at that moment along with the reanimated Sophia, and it’s a new Carol who rises up afterward.