Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for Sunday's "The Walking Dead."
Sunday's episode of "The Walking Dead,""The Lost and the Plunderers," showed a grieving Michonne and Rick trying to hold it together after Carl's death in the mid-season premiere.
As they drove off from Alexandria, Michonne started going through the many letters Carl wrote to friends and family before his demise. It was one of those letters in the large stack that caught both Michonne and viewers off guard.
Last chance to head back before spoilers.
Among letters written to Michonne, Rick, and his apocalypse girlfriend Enid, Michonne was surprised to find a note to Negan, the leader of the Saviors.
Instead of giving an immediate response, Rick says he needs to speak with Jadis, the leader of the Scavengers, to gather their weapons and people in their cause against Negan.
However, when Rick and Michonne discover that all of them except Jadis were wiped out by the Saviors, the two head back out on the road. It's there, Michonne suggests that maybe this is what his son Carl was talking about in his final moments. They have a choice of what to do with those who are still living.
That gets to Rick.
He pulls over to the side of the road and takes Carl's letters with him. Instead of opening his own, he goes straight to Negan's. He opens it up and we see it for a brief moment.
We never get a great look at the full letter on screen. Instead, Rick gives Negan a call over the long range walkie talkie. Instead of enlightening him about the mass slaughter committed by his Saviors — something that would have been in Rick's favor — Rick informs Negan that Carl is dead.
After telling him how it happened, he tells him a summary of the letter's contents.
"He asked you to stop. He asked me to stop. He asked us for peace," Rick tells Negan.
But that's not all it said.
INSIDER went back through the small flash of the letter shown on screen and you can make out quite a lot of what Carl wrote to Negan.
While you can't read all of it, here's what we could make out along with our best guesses in brackets:
Negan,
This is Carl. Back when I ... someone. I got bit. We didn't even have ... doing. I was just helping someone ...
You might be gone. Maybe my dad made ... [maybe] he killed you — but I don't think so. I think you're ... working on a way out. Maybe you got out. Maybe ... lost cause and you just want to kill all of us.
I think you have to be who you are. I [just] ... what you wanted. I wanted to ask you ...
Maybe you'll beat us. If you do, there'll just be someone [else.] The way out is working together. It's forgiveness. It's believing [there doesn't] have to be a fight anymore. Because ...
... offers you peace ... everything can change.
Start [over].
- Carl
We'll add more to this if AMC releases the full contents of the letter. Email me at kacuna[at]thisisinsider[dot]com if you can decipher more of the note.
The important takeaway here is that Negan is receptive of Carl's wishes when Rick tells him about his son's death. He wouldn't mind making some sort of peace. He tells Rick he saw Carl as the future of this world. As evidenced earlier in Sunday's episode, and earlier in the season if you've been watching closely, Negan doesn't want to kill every living human. He sees people as a resource and a necessity to keeping what's left of the world alive.
In his mind, that's why his group is called the Saviors. Of course, he's not able to currently see that not all of the men in his group share that same philosophy. (Simon just slaughtered all of the Scavengers.)
It's Rick who needs to be convinced. He's currently blinded by a rage and vengeance where he simply wants to lash out at and kill Negan when it's not really clear what that will solve at the current moment.
Negan smartly calls Rick out. He tells him Carl is dead because of him, because Rick didn't "stop him from doing something stupid." Now, sure, Negan has a bit of an inflated ego and tells Rick that's he is someone who stops people from dying, but he does make one valid point.
"It may have taken a hard lesson for you to hear it, but you should hear it now. It's time," Negan tells Rick. "Do not let any more of your sh-- decisions cost you to lose anyone else you love. That garbage, it sticks with you, forever, just like Carl will."
Here's the crazy thing. Negan's not all wrong! Rick has made some awful decisions that have led to the deaths of others. There have been lists made about Rick's poor leadership skills.
As teased in the mid-season premiere, it looks like Rick will eventually realize his son and Negan are right. They can't continue this inane fight. It will just take some time, like five or so more episodes, and maybe the opening of Rick's letter from Carl.
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