Carol Peletier's journey is one of the most wide-ranging in The Walking Dead: She begins
as a battered wife but ends up a queen, a warrior, and above all, a survivor.
With a spinoff focused on her and Daryl Dixon on the horizon, there's never been a better
time to explore her entire story.
Carol has been a survivor for many years.
Prior to the story's start, she meets and marries Ed Peletier, who quickly becomes abusive
toward both Carol and their daughter Sophia.
When the apocalypse hits, the family tries to go to Atlanta, only to realize that the
government is in more of a Napalming mood than a helping one.
While stuck in traffic, the Peletiers befriend Lori, Shane and Carl, who manage to get them
and a handful of other survivors to a campsite just outside the city while they figure out
their next move.
There, Ed's abusive behavior continues, but now it's happening under the watchful eye
of a former police officer and a group of like-minded women.
Shane eventually beats an appropriate amount of snot out of Ed for slapping Carol in front
of everyone.
As a result of his injuries, Ed isn't exactly in fighting shape when walkers descend on
the camp.
He's killed and eventually put down before becoming a walker by none other than Carol
herself, marking her first step towards independence.
"I'll do it.
He's my husband."
After the survivors go to the CDC and discover how dire their situation truly is, they set
out on the road once again.
Unfortunately, they are waylaid when their RV gives up the ghost.
When a herd of walkers approaches, Carol is separated from Sophia.
Rick tries his best to save her, but he too is separated from the child in the thick Georgia
woods.
It isn't long before the group discovers Sophia is a walker, locked up with her undead brethren
in a barn, and Rick is forced to put her down.
When the farm they've taken refuge at is overrun by walkers, Carol isn't much help in the ensuing
battle.
With no one to guide her and no real fighting skills to speak of, she must rely on others
to stay alive.
After a brief, failed attempt to replace her former husband with Daryl, Carol begins to
understand that her survival is in her hands and no one else's.
Season three begins with a minor time jump that reveals a very new Carol.
She's gained a lot more confidence in the intervening months and a whole lot of new
skills, ranging from combat to medicine.
The loss of her family has hardened her in a unique way: She is no longer afraid of Ed's
wrath, nor of losing Sophia.
When the survivors hole up in a prison, she busies herself with first aid and preparations
to deliver Lori's baby.
Unfortunately, a walker attack sets those plans aside and Carol is trapped alone in
an overrun part of the prison for several days.
Fortunately, Daryl finds her and nurses her back to health, as she once did for him when
he was injured looking for Sophia.
Their relationship is stronger than it's ever been when Daryl's older brother, Merle, returns
to the picture.
Carol sees a lot of Ed in Merle and tries to encourage Daryl not to lose the man he's
become, in favor of reverting back to who he was around his older brother.
In their final interaction together before he dies, Merle comments on how different Carol
has become since the last time he saw her at the camp outside Georgia.
"Well you don't seem scared of nothing anymore."
"I'm not."
When the war with the Governor and Woodbury begins, Carol proves just how right he is
by encouraging Andrea to assassinate the Governor.
After the citizens of Woodbury are welcomed into the prison, Carol begins teaching the
children how to kill walkers.
Soon, a flu starts spreading throughout the prison, and Carol takes it upon herself to
execute two carriers in an effort to stop the spread.
When Rick figures out what she's done, he banishes her from the group.
As a result, she's away when the Governor returns to destroy the prison.
In the aftermath of the attack, Carol finds Tyreese, who has rescued young sisters Lizzie
and Mika, as well as Lori's baby, Judith.
Together, they find their way to a small cottage where they decide to figure out their next
move.
While there, Lizzie starts to develop a soft spot for walkers.
Carol and Tyreese try to get her to change her mind after a few encounters with dangerous
walkers, but it's all for naught: Lizzie eventually kills Mika, convinced that she'll be back
as a walker and that everything will be fine.
What's more, Lizzie confesses that she's planning to do the same to the baby.
Realizing how far gone she is and how much of a threat she poses to the rest of them,
Carol and Tyreese silently agree to execute her, which Carol, now a grizzled survivor,
is willing to do.
They agree to never speak of it again.
"Just… just look at the flowers."
Eventually, the group arrives at Terminus, and Carol and Tyreese realize that it's crawling
with cannibals who have taken their friends hostage.
Carol launches a one-woman, full-frontal assault on the compound, almost single-handedly taking
it down with some clever explosions and a herd of walkers.
Thanks to her bravery, she's welcomed back to the group, but it isn't exactly the boon
to survival it once was.
With the prison gone and Terminus a proven sham, the remaining survivors wander the woods
aimlessly.
After Beth is kidnapped by a group of vicious survivors living at a hospital, Carol ends
up getting hit by a car and taken into the belly of the beast, where she spends a good
deal of time unconscious before Daryl and company rescue her.
Their fates change when Aaron arrives and invites them to be a part of the Alexandria
safe haven.
But Carol is skeptical of this apparently apocalypse-proof community -- she reverts
back to her cheery old housewife persona, lying in wait for the moment her true new
nature will be needed.
It doesn't take long before she and Rick discover a man in the community, Pete, is abusing his
wife and kid.
Carol stops baking cookies for a moment to threaten Pete's life, ultimately turning that
particular conflict over to Rick, who executes him.
With Rick pretty much in charge of Alexandria, Carol is forced to abandon her housewife act
when a group of nomadic survivors known as the Wolves infiltrate the camp and start killing
its citizens.
She dons a disguise and manages to almost single-handedly stop the invasion, blowing
her cover within the community forever.
Fortunately, her bloodthirsty nature is curtailed a bit by the arrival of Morgan, who's on a
warrior monk kick and doesn't want to kill living people.
That attitude, coupled with a new love interest by the name of Tobin, helps Carol pull back
from the abyss of violence.
Unfortunately, this comes just as the group fires their first shots in what becomes an
all-out-war with their toughest enemy yet, the Saviors.
When Rick agrees to take on an outpost held by their new enemy, Carol finds herself kidnapped
alongside a pregnant Maggie, and she's forced to use every bit of her cleverness to escape.
However, the experience sours her to warfare, prompting her to leave Alexandria and Tobin.
Unfortunately, she's too late, as the Saviors are already monitoring who goes in and out
of the colony.
She's gravely wounded in a one-versus-five skirmish.
Just when it looks like she's about to be executed, Morgan arrives to save her.
"Will you please just let me go?"
"It's not your time."
Carol wakes up in the Kingdom, an enigmatic colony where everyone defers to the judgement
of King Ezekiel.
After some lighthearted bonding with Ezekiel, she decides she still wants to be alone, but
settles on an abandoned cottage that's not too far from the Kingdom.
She crosses paths with the Alexandrians again when Rick and the gang seek the Kingdom's
help in overthrowing the Saviors.
Carol has an emotional reunion with Daryl, during which he lies and tells her that the
Saviors haven't hurt any of their people.
Morgan reveals this to be a lie, however, and Carol opts to get back to what she does
best: protect the people she cares about.
"We have to get ready.
We have to fight."
By the time she convinces Ezekiel to bring the Kingdom's forces to Alexandria's aid,
Negan has managed to breach the walls of the safe haven and subdue Rick and his fighters.
The brash villain is about to execute Carl as punishment for what he sees as Rick's rebellion
when he's stopped by the united forces of the Kingdom and the Hilltop.
And just like that, Carol finds herself as a general in the Kingdom's army against the
Saviors.
It doesn't take long for Carol to become one of the most important fighters in the rebel
army.
She leads right beside King Ezekiel as members of his faction ambush a Savior outpost in
the hope of obtaining heavy weapons.
Just when the mission seems to have succeeded, however, the group is cut down by a hail of
gunfire.
Only Ezekiel, Carol and Jerry are left standing.
Heroically, Carol makes one more bid to obtain the weapons, but ultimately decides to save
her allies instead.
These events leave Ezekiel in a spiral of self-pity.
Carol employs tough love to help him out of it, and the two eventually become makeshift
parents to a youngster named Henry.
When Negan launches a counter-attack on the Kingdom, Carol is able to get everyone out
in time.
They retreat to the Hilltop, where they quickly learn that Negan has also taken out Alexandria.
With just one safe haven left, the entire army prepares for a last stand.
A battle ensues, in which Carol is forced to put Tobin down.
In the fray, Henry runs off, forcing Carol and Morgan to go looking for him, killing
walkers and Saviors along the way.
They rejoin Rick's army just in time to witness all the Saviors' guns backfire, allowing them
to finally defeat Negan.
A year and a half later, Carol reigns as queen of the Kingdom, having started a romantic
relationship with Ezekiel.
Meanwhile, their colony, the Hilltop, and Alexandria are doing their best to rebuild
and assimilate the Saviors and their Sanctuary into their ranks.
Unfortunately, things aren't going well, as constant in-fighting and small acts of defiance
threaten the very terse alliance.
Carol personally takes over control of the Sanctuary briefly, but it doesn't last, as
several of the more defiant members leave just before Rick sacrifices himself to unite
the groups.
Six years go by, and she and Ezekiel continue to keep the Kingdom running while raising
young Henry.
In an effort to make him more useful, she escorts him on a trip to the Hilltop so he
can learn blacksmithing and finishes off a group of former Saviors along the way.
"I swear you'll never see us again."
"I know."
Back at the Kingdom, Ezekiel is busying himself with a fair that he hopes will convince the
three allied colonies to sign a charter that will bind them to each other for life.
This finally comes to fruition when the Alexandrians ask the Kingdom to harbor Lydia, the daughter
of the Whisperers' leader, Alpha.
Furious at the kidnapping, Alpha builds a border that she makes clear the group is never
to cross.
Marking the border is a line of heads on spikes ... including Henry's.
Carol is devastated by Henry's death.
She leaves Ezekiel shortly after getting the remaining survivors to the Hilltop, after
the Kingdom succumbs to deterioration.
She sets off to live life by herself as a fisherwoman, but eventually returns, still
holding a grudge against Alpha.
When a satellite crash-lands near the Oceanside colony, they all have to cross the border
to put out the fire.
This causes Alpha to unleash a relentless herd upon them.
When they meet for peace talks, Carol pulls a gun on Alpha.
Fortunately, Alpha is in a forgiving mood.
It is revealed that Carol has been taking pills to keep awake, both as a survival strategy
and to avoid dreams of what her life could have been.
After the group discovers this, she's taken back to Alexandria for treatment.
She promptly leaves to take revenge on Alpha's herd.
However, in a shocking twist, it's revealed that killing the herd is just one part of
Carol's revenge plan: She also frees Negan from captivity in Alexandria, with the sole
purpose of having him assassinate Alpha.
"So you bring me Alpha's head, and that's what the people will remember you for."
He succeeds, but Carol isn't able to finish off the herd.
She returns to the survivors and attempts to sacrifice herself in order to walk the
zombies off a cliff, but she's saved by Lydia at the last moment, effectively ending the
Whisperers' reign of terror.
Carol returns to the camp where she has an important conversation to fully reconcile
with Daryl, who she's spent the better part of a year at odds with despite otherwise being
each other's greatest ally.
Daryl asks if she got what she wanted during the battle.
She admits, without actually saying it, that she now realizes she never actually wanted
to die, even in a heroic sacrifice.
With the Whisperers a thing of the past, Carol is ready to take on all comers with her best
friend at her side and a new zest for life.
Daryl then asks if she may want to hit the road for New Mexico, to which she notes that
there are still things they need to do at home first.
This is the clearest setup for her spinoff in The Walking Dead franchise beyond the flagship
series ending after season 11.
Norman Reedus told Entertainment Weekly that he and Melissa McBride's series will be more
of a road show than anything else, meaning the duo will fight one more battle before
going off into the sunset together.
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