The Walking Dead: Top 7 fatherly lessons learned from Rick Grimes

7) “I don’t need you anymore!” “…I was wrong.” (Season 4, Episode 9, “After”)

This final lesson Rick taught to Carl might be the important lesson a father can teach his son, and, once again, it wasn’t even one Rick taught through words, in fact, all the words you see above belong to Carl.

In the season four midseason premiere, “After”, after losing everything — The prison, the rest of the group, Judith — Rick and Carl needed to find food and shelter, fast. They found a house not too far from the prison, and, almost immediately after doing so, Rick passed out, exhausted from the battle for the prison, and the beating he’d taken at the hands of The Governor.

While Rick lay unconscious, Carl ventured out on his own to find food and, in the process, trouble, nearly getting caught by a trio of walkers before killing them, and claiming his prize of a massive can of pudding.

When he returned from his adventure, Carl looked at Rick, lecturing him on how he was the one who needed Carl to save him, then, it all came out: Angry over having lost everything, and feeling like he and his dad were right back where they were just before collecting the Woodburians — Specifically that his dad had failed to act, and caused them to lose everyone they cared about — Carl yelled at Rick about all of these failures, finishing by saying:

“I don’t need you anymore!”

However, that would soon change. As night fell, and Rick still hadn’t woken up, Carl became worried. Those worries compounded when Carl began to hear his dad moan. Carl scurried away and reached for Rick’s Colt Python, only to see his dad reach out for him, before falling to the floor and crawling towards him. Carl prepared himself to have to put down his father, who he (Reasonably) believed had died from his injuries and turned, but, as he sat there, waiting for a zombified Rick to attack him, Carl lowered the gun, unable to bring himself to putting down his dad, before saying:

“I can’t. I was wrong.”

And, at that moment, Carl learned the lesson.

What was this most important lesson Rick inadvertently taught his son?

Appreciate the people you have, because you never know when they’ll be gone.

It is, frankly, a lesson we should all take to heart, but, especially as we approach Father’s Day (A day that goes rather underappreciated to begin with) we should all take it as a day to truly appreciate our dads, because the day will come when they won’t be around to appreciate. Some of us have already come to that day.

So, take my lesson this week, and spend some time with your dad. Make sure he knows how much you appreciate him.

If you enjoyed this and want lessons of your own, specifically about how to survive a zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also find it one Amazon here, and on iTunes here!