Walking Dead: How Did Carl Lose His Eye?

Here’s how Carl Grimes lost an eye during season 6 of The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is based on Robert Kirkman’s long-running graphic novel, where was intended by the author to be a zombie movie that didn’t end. The story follows Rick Grimes, a cop who wakes from a coma to discover the world has been overtaken by zombies. The graphic novel was gripping from the beginning, featuring great characters and genuinely harrowing deaths and twists. The comic eventually did come to an end with issue #193 in 2019 and provided readers with a fitting epilogue to the saga.

The Walking Dead TV show arrived in 2010 from Frank Darabont, with Andrew Lincoln playing Rick. The show became a global smash and helped The Walking Dead become a full-blown franchise, spawning spinoffs like Fear The Walking Dead, video games, novels, toys and more. The series has often broken from the comics, with characters who died in the show lasting much longer in the comic or vice versa. In fact, Rick Grimes isn’t even part of the main series anymore, though Lincoln will return to the role for an upcoming movie.

In a major break from The Walking Dead comics, Carl Grimes was also killed off in season 8. Poor Carl suffered a lot during the show, including watching his mother and countless friends die. Just like the graphic novel, he also lost an eye in one of the most stunning moments of season 6. This happens during “No Way Out,” where Alexandria has been invaded by a herd of the undead.

During their time in the community, the Grimes had a tangled relationship with the Anderson family. Rick developed romantic feelings for mother Jessie – which is complicated by the fact he killed her husband Pete, who was an abusive, alcoholic bully. Jessie’s son Ron despises Rick for this and during season 6 fully intended on taking revenge by killing Carl. The zombie hordes get in the way of his plan, and in “No Way Out” the Grimes and Anderson’s have to sneak their way through the undead to safety. Unfortunately, Ron’s younger brother Sam gets too scared and ends up getting eaten alongside mother Jessie.

This prompts Ron to pull his gun on Rick, but Michonne stabs him before he can fire. The dead Ron pulls the trigger on reflex and Rick turns to see Carl has been shot in the right eye, who promptly collapses. Luckily, his injury wasn’t fatal and he recovers and hides the injury with an eye patch. How he lost the eye is a slight change from The Walking Dead comic, where he was accidentally shot by Alexandria community leader Douglas instead.