- Warning: There are spoilers ahead for “The Walking Dead” season nine, episode 15, “The Calm Before.”
- On Sunday’s episode of AMC’s “TWD,” Carol (played by Melissa McBride) is gutted to find her adopted son Henry (Matt Lintz) killed. His head is featured on a pike along with nine other acquaintances and friends the Whisperers killed.
- As Carol is about to discover Henry, Daryl (Norman Reedus) runs up to her and holds her back, telling her not to look at her adopted son.
- Episode director Laura Belsey confirmed to INSIDER that moment is a “direct echo” of Daryl holding Carol back on season two when she finds out her daughter, Sophia, is dead.
Sunday’s episode of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” killed off a mix of 10 new and longtime characters.
If you weren’t gutted by seeing any of the deaths, you were probably moved by seeing Carol (played by Melissa McBride) and Daryl’s reaction to her adopted son, Henry, on the final pike reveal.
The moment is doubly heartbreaking because it was a direct mirror of an iconic moment between Daryl and Carol from season two. After a season of searching for Carol’s daughter, Sophia, viewers learned she was among the undead holed up in Hershel’s barn. Similarly, Daryl held Carol back so she wouldn’t run up to her zombified daughter as she mourned her death.
“Exactly. Exactly, and that’s one of my favorite episodes of all time,” Episode director, Laura Belsey, told INSIDER of the two scenes mirroring each other seven seasons apart. “I remember when I saw that, I just bawled my eyes out, so yes, that is a direct echo from that moment.”
"That cemented this really special bond that Daryl and Carol have," Belsey added. "They have such a great, interesting, wonderful bond, and it started with the whole Sophia story and how much he cared."
It's also hard to watch that moment on Sunday's episode and not think about the scene from season four where Carol puts down Lizzie after she shockingly killed her younger sister Mika.
"Carol and children. It just, it never ends well," said Belsey. "How much can she take?"
The moment was also extra special because Lintz, who played Carol's adopted son on the show, is also the brother of Madison Lintz. Madison played Carol's daughter back on season two. Matt Lintz told INSIDER they noticed the similarity in the script right away.
Belsey said she binge-watched the entire series when she got the job to prepare for directing Sunday's big episode. That's no easy task. The show had a total of 147 episodes before season nine began airing in October 2018.
The emotional moment between Carol and Daryl didn't take many times on set to get it just right.
"Shooting that scene was so intense and powerful, and these actors, they're just the best. They're so wonderful, and they delivered from the very first take on," said Belsey of everyone filming the pike scene. "I didn't do a ton of takes, because I needed to do a bunch of different angles, but they were so there, right there. And I think the fact that just being there with the pikes, experiencing that, just felt so real, in a way, that everybody just was at a hundred percent right out the gate."
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