The Walking Dead viewers will debate for years whether Rick Grimes was given an appropriate send-off in Andrew Lincoln’s final episode (for now), but there’s one thing everyone can agree on: it was a treat to see Shane (Jon Bernthal), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), and Hershel (the recently deceased Scott Wilson) again, after the three characters died in previous seasons. But, um, where were Carl and Lori? Surely, Rick would hallucinate his son and wife before Sasha, right? Showrunner Angela Kang has an explanation for that.
It basically comes down to Rick not walking towards the bright light.
“We dove into this idea of the ‘third man phenomenon.’ When people are close to death, sometimes they imagine seeing somebody that they knew or that they don’t know that helped drive them to survive and keep them going,” Kang explained. “We had these three particular characters who are sort of filling an emotional need for him in the moment, but Rick’s entire journey is looking for his family, and I felt, creatively felt, that if he sees Lori or Carl he would feel like, I fulfilled my mission. I found them. I’m home. I can lay down and die now.”
Instead, Rick boarded a helicopter and, with respect to The Walking Dead‘s “Western vibe,” got the hell out of Dodge. It’s not as if he didn’t think of them, either: he hears Lori’s voice in his half-dead state. “[Lori] says, ‘What’s your wound?’ before he sees Shane,” Kang explained. “Each ‘What’s your wound?’ is kind of connected to the hallucination he’s having in the moment.”
Rick Grimes will return in three feature-length Walking Dead TV movies. As for the rest of the characters, it’s the Daryl, Carol, and Michonne show now.
(Via The Huffington Post)