Walking Dead: After the smoke clears

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Emily Haase
Entertainment Editor

The AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is one of the most popular shows on television, with this season’s premiere garnering 16.1 million views. Now, all of the fans know that the midseason finale back in December left everything entirely up in the air, or more so up in smoke. No one knows where anyone else is and the entire group is scattered, making any sort of prediction for the second half of the season incredibly difficult, but I’ll do my best.

Judith Is Alive

After Rick and Carl found her empty car seat full of blood, the general assumption was that Judith had been eaten by zombies. A very easy call to make, but I think there’s more to it than that. The empty car seat could simply mean Judith had been taken from it, and as far as the blood goes, there was blood everywhere and there are numerous ways it could have gotten there. The fact of the matter is every single person in the camp was out looking for Judith, and somebody had to have found her. Not to mention “The Walking Dead” doesn’t pull any punches, always showing important character deaths in explicit detail. Judith is out there somewhere, but with who is the mystery.

Carol Will Be Back

Carol has always been an important player in the game, and she’s far too tough to be eaten by a hoard of zombies in the middle of nowhere. Even though Rick exiled her to some random neighborhood with a car full of supplies, she’ll definitely return. However, she’ll probably have her own group assembled where she is the leader, causing her to clash even further with Rick once what’s left of the group finds each other.

Rick and Michonne Will Get Together

Now this may be a long shot, but seeing the way they looked at each other throughout the beginning of this season was a bit more than friendly in my opinion. Not to mention the fact that Michonne has gotten incredibly close to Carl, always bringing him back cool stuff from her voyages out to find the Governor. And let’s be honest here, there’s no better way to warm a single dad in the end of the world’s heart than to take care of his son.

At Least One Main Character Will Die, and It Will Be Beth

Beth is a great asset to the group considering her incredibly caring nature and how well she works with kids, but she’s not the brightest crayon in the box and losing her wouldn’t be detrimental to the show. And more importantly, it would leave Maggie completely alone after the intensely tragic loss of her father and show favorite Hershel, and that could spawn a lot of new directions for the show to go in, including bringing her and Glen even closer together because they’re all each other has (and they will find each other).

Something Terrible Will Happen To Carl

Something terrible always happens to Carl. He got shot, he had to kill his own mother, and the list goes on. However, he won’t die. Carl always gets the worst end of the deal, but it makes him stronger and even more unkillable. The end of this season will be a defining moment for Carl either way, as this season has had a big showcase on him redefining his relationship with Rick, and learning more how to protect himself and his ‘clan’. He’s going to keep progressing, but not without a little Hell to pay first.

Overall, this should shape up to be a very interesting second half of the season. And no matter what happens, you can always count on blood and tragedy.