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'Walking Dead' wraps up first half of Season 8 with shocking twist [Spoiler alert!]

By Karen Butler
"Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick interviewed "The Walking Dead" producer Scott M. Gimple Sunday about the shocking fate of a longtime character on the zombie-apocalypse show. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
1 of 2 | "Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick interviewed "The Walking Dead" producer Scott M. Gimple Sunday about the shocking fate of a longtime character on the zombie-apocalypse show. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The Walking Dead wrapped up the first half of its eighth season by showing a longtime zombie-apocalypse survivor apparently on his deathbed.

Carl Grimes, the character Chandler Riggs has played since the show began, saved the lives of his family and friends in a bloody battle with Negan [played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan] and the Saviors, but he revealed to his father Rick [played by Andrew Lincoln] at the end of the action-packed episode that he had been bitten in the abdomen by a walker.

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Carl fought off several undead attackers in a previous episode, but it was unclear until Sunday night's episode whether a zombie had actually broken his skin in a spot which would prove fatal, meaning it could not be amputated.

Asked by host Chris Hardwick on the analysis program Talking Dead if there is any chance Carl might survive the injury, executive producer Scott M. Gimple said: "That is a bite on his side. ... It will play out as bites play out on the show. ...

"It's very important to Carl's story and the entire story what happens in the next episode. So, I am just focused on the fact that Carl, right now, is alive and he has some business to attend to," Gimple said. "That is a one-way ticket, but I'd like to think that the things that we see in the next episode are so important to his life and the other characters' lives."

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"A lot of really hard work has gone into this episode from the entire cast and crew to make something incredible, exciting, and emotional. you don't wanna miss this one. trust me," Riggs tweeted before the episode aired.

He followed up after the broadcast with: "Jokes aside, thank you. you'll hear from me soon."

Season 8 is to continue early next year.

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