Perfectly summed up. Great post, @Chr1s.

 

If this is actually what the writers want to portray Carol, I suspect Carol, as a character, is coming close to her closure because, as you said, this Alpha is the summation of all Carol's life hardship since the beginning. Now, she is going to deal with them all in one last final go.

 

I think it can still go either way. This could be a coming closure for her before she dies, or before she emerges from this ordeal even stronger than before, finally embracing Daryl's way of thinking, and will be able to leave the past behind, live in the present and catering for the future. I'd rather hope it's the latter. When she's on her game, she's a real asset to the team.

 

Could go the other way too. If she is denied that death and someone else kills her, maybe a remix of a comic moment with Carol and Negan. That would give her the opposite of closure. Instead of being relieved she would be upset that she didn't get to do it and really send her down a different path.

 

The worst part of it is that aside from Magna, everyone forgave her for the first incident, then she goes off and does it AGAIN, just as they were about to escape the cave.

I liked how everyone just walked away from her and left her alone.

 

I don’t think the others have forgiven her for getting them trapped. They were just on the opinion of Daryl and Aaron: this was not the time to start having an internal fight. They all had to pull together to escape. Beyond the “we can have this out later when we are all safe”, Connie looked out for Carol, because she realised how far gone Carol was in the darkest depths of her own mind, and because Connie knows how important Carol is to Daryl.

I must admit though, I too liked that everyone walked away from her at the end, because it felt so realistic. They needed space from her, she was clearly too much for them to handle, a liability, and with the urgent task of having to go back in the cave (because of her) they just needed to be rid of her. No amount of empathy with Carol could have surpassed their other emotions at that moment. And Carol needs to stew in this for a while. This was too big to receive instant salvation for. And hopefully this will finally wake her up.

 

Her crying made it all even worse too, because it came across as so self absorbed.

 

It was completely self absorbed. But that’s the thing with mental illness. She finds it almost impossible to think from other people’s point of view right now. With the exception of recognising Daryl’s feelings for Connie, and now it crushed down on her how her actions ruined the dreams of the only person who always stood by her and supported her. This realisation must hurt like hell. No wonder she cried. Every fibre in her body was begging for punishment and forgiveness, and she was refused both.

 

Nah, I think we have just seen Carol bottomed out. Next we will see her pull herself up by her bootstraps & rescue those trapped in the cave in. After all, this is Carol we're talking about. She'll tap that inter strength. . .She's got grit. Yep, that little lady has grit.

 

For not watching this is some great insight to the matter. I loved Carol's character and I would like to see her redeem from this but if it brings to her demise hopefully she can have a slight redemption before the end. Either way I think it will bring good story (if done right of course)

 

I think you and I are the hard asses of the forum

 

Yeah, we're both taking warmup swings with Lucille.

 

Hate that idea!

Let's see.....where have we seen that lame storyline before???

 

I certainly agree that Carol is now several fries short of a Happy Meal.

And I think the way Melissa played it was spot on. The crying/begging is a hard place to go (as an actor) and get “right.”

This does not, however, negate the fact I want to slap the shit out of her.

As for her character’s future:
I think it would be best for her to vanish off into Rick/Anne/Michonne movie-land.

Currently, I would find it hard to embrace yet another “Carol has a tragedy/break” storyline. As it stands now, even showing her overcoming nightmares would fall into an “oh my gawd, what NOW?!?!?” category for me.

As Barbra Streisand sang to Donna Summer in 1979: Enough is Enough.

 

Unless Melissa McBride wants to leave the show, I'd be surprised if they killed off Carol this season, particularly with Michonne going. I think the more likely deaths would be Gabe and a couple of people from Magna's group.

 

Gabe bores me to tears!!! And agreed, as much as I'm tiring of Carol's breakdowns and introspective stages, I just don't see how it would be prudent to kill her off. But then again, who knows?

 

true, they wouldn’t want her to leave at this point. But they can’t continue on with the storyline of “poor tragic Carol” for much longer, either.

 

It’s a shame, I used to like Gabe, Now I have no idea what his purpose is except to show up out of nowhere and be unpredictable and coo at Rosa. Which I ain’t feelin.

 

I am really getting tired of the writers writing Carol as such a crazy and mentally broken character as soon as it fits the plot!

And people who think it be weird if they kill off Carol? This is the show that offed Rick (he wanted to leave sure) and Carl (even more odd!) and had Saddiq tossed out the window with the bathwater as soon as he was getting a bigger role in the community. It would not suprised me if Daryl dies to finally close the lid on the "Old" squad of Ricks. Carol is in it to but she did not really grow into a commando until a few seasons in. Daryl always been there for the gang one way or another while Carol was exiled. But...they could off both of them for all we know.

 

I am done with Carol, and that's hard for me to say. She was my favorite character. Now she's just reckless and selfish.

I just don't see any other way back.