The Walking Dead: The best Carol moment from each season

4. Confronting Lizzie: Episode 414 – “The Grove”

There can be only one pivotal moment for Carol in season 4- Lizzie’s death. If Sophia’s death is the moment Carol steps out of her old persona, “The Grove” is the moment that old Carol crumbles away and “new Carol” is forged in steel.

Once the killer flu (how timely!) hits the prison, it seems as though everything Carol touches turns to dust. She kills Karen and David in an attempt to stop the spread of the flu, is banished by Rick, and then just when things seem to turn the corner and she meets Tyreese with Judith, Mika, and Lizzie, it all goes horrifically wrong, in the most disturbing way.

Lizzie murders her sister Mika in a twisted idea that she will come back as herself, and in order to save Judith from the same fate Carol must step in – in a way no one would ever want to contemplate.

McBride is absolutely Emmy-worthy in this episode, and no more so than when Carol and Tyreese come across Lizzie, standing over Mika, bloody knife in hand. The utter horror of the scene is reflected in McBride’s wild eyes, as she tries to remain calm and nonchalant to prevent further slaughter. The moment she promises Lizzie she’ll just tie Mika up with her shoelaces is heartbreaking in the extreme.

While “look at the flowers” has become a meme amongst fans, it doesn’t take away from the chilling moment Carol tries to distract Lizzie from the inevitable as Carol must end her adoptive daughter’s life, to prevent further deaths. It’s haunting in the most tragic of ways.