After twelve years and eleven seasons, the final of “The Walking Dead” is actually within reach. In a week’s time, the 177th and final episode of the long-running zombie hit will hit the screens. And that we are on our way back is also made clear by the recently released 23rd episode of season 11, in which events are already coming to a head in a very dramatic way.
Virtually all of the main characters of “Walking Dead” have infiltrated the Commonwealth to rescue their children and overthrow Governor Pamela Milton’s (Laila Robins) government, which is based on lies and injustice. But only shortly after arriving in the city, there is a real scare moment: Rick’s daughter Judith (Cailey Fleming) pushes Maggie (Lauren Cohan) in a shootout to safety and is shot himself.
Daryl (Norman Reedus) and the others then desperately make their way through the streets of the Commonwealth, which are overrun by soldiers and soon (climbing) zombies, to carry the badly injured Judith to the hospital. In the episode’s closing scene, in her delirium on Daryl’s arm, she then elicits a faint “daddy?” up, her fate left open.
Does Judith really see Rick?
The fact that Judith is talking about Rick naturally makes “Walking Dead” fans prick up their ears, especially since the camera remains focused on the zombie horde for an unusually long time following the “Daddy” statement she and Daryl just made. left behind. So Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) rushes to the rescue while hiding somewhere among the undead? That’s quite unlikely.
Rather, Judith, in her near-unconscious state, briefly mistakes Daryl, who holds her protectively and caringly in her arms, for her father. – and not without reason, because the taciturn survivor has been caring for Judith since birth and has finally become a father figure to the girl after Rick’s supposed death.
That’s exactly how ‘The Walking Dead’ showrunner Angela Kang explains the ‘Daddy’ moment in an interview with the website referring to the fact that Judith has been thinking about a possible reunion with her father and foster mother Michonne (Danai Gurira) all along anyway.
But even if the wind is taken out of the sails of a possible Rick Grimes comeback at that point, the scene could already indicate that and we could see the former “Walking Dead” figurehead again in the grand finale…
Rick alone as a hallucination in the “Walking Dead” finale?
As The Walking Dead comes to a close, many fans are hoping that Rick, who dropped out at the start of Season 9, will reappear in the very last installment of the series he once defined.
While some are hoping for the theory that Rick could be part of a strike force for the Civic Republic Military (CRM), most prominently in the spin-off The Walking Dead: World Beyond, who races to save the Commonwealth and are a – Time friends, Rick opened up through the Judith incident, there’s a whole other possibility for the comeback now.
After the little fighter has apparently already envisioned her father at the end of the current episode, it would be conceivable that in the next episode we will see how she really imagines him in her fight for survival. Rick himself had a similar experience during his near-death experience in season 9, when he met his deceased companions Shane (Jon Bernthal), Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Hershel (Scott Wilson) again in a dream.
And who knows, maybe this will also temporarily bring back Judith’s birth mother, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and her brother, Carl (Chandler Riggs). Something like that would definitely fit the ending of the series, even if it would be a bit disappointing, at least in Rick’s case, if he only appears as a utopia at the end.
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That those responsible for “Walking Dead” take such a path for the hoped-for Rickkehr does not seem so unlikely because in this way the story of the planned spin-off miniseries about Rick and Michonne would not be in the spotlight. way. Of course, even with a Rick hallucination, it can’t be ruled out that the ex-cop will still drop by in person – but this could only happen at the end or even mentioned in a post-credits scene as a teaser for the offshoot.
In a week we will be smarter: The final episode of “The Walking Dead” will be released in Germany on November 21, 2022 on Disney+ and ProSieben Fun. Viewers can then look forward to a far too long episode of the finale, which will run for 60 minutes instead of the usual 45 minutes.