The Walking Dead: The best Carol moment from each season
By Dawn Glen
6. Carol versus Paula: Episode 614 -“Same Boat”
Over the seasons, one of the things that have been underplayed in Carol’s story is her relationship with other women. After Lori’s death, we don’t often see Carol in scenes with her female friends and family members, and that fact is one of the reasons why “The Same Boat” (written by current showrunner Angela Kang) is so powerful. It is an episode that takes Carol and her oldest friend Maggie, and pits them against another equally powerful and ruthless group of women.
The battle with the Saviours is only just beginning when Rick and co agree to kill a group at a satellite station. In the midst of the plan, Maggie and Carol are captured by Paula (played expertly by Alicia Witt), Molly, and Michelle. Paula takes the women to a slaughterhouse while she awaits back-up and instruction.
Carol initially uses her Alexandria cookie-mom persona to attempt to outwit their captors, but over time Paula sees Carol as an equal in wit and fearlessness, and Carol – to her horror – sees herself in Paula.
It comes at the culmination of a season where we see that all Carol has seen and done is taking a toll on her. Her need to constantly be the one to make the tough decisions, to kill first and worry later is tearing her apart.
The episode really explores the cost of the life they are forced to live, and McBride expresses every minuscule flicker of Carol’s will and heart throughout the disturbing scenes. We see how much she doesn’t want to be this person, that she doesn’t want to take another life, and yet with Maggie and her unborn baby in danger, she knows she is utterly compelled to do just that.
The climax of the episode shows just how much Carol has become an enemy to be feared, and none more so than by herself.