‘The Walking Dead’ reaction: Robert Kirkman, Sarah Wayne Callies talk [spoiler]

Just as we did with our recent review of “The Walking Dead” season 3, episode 4, we’re starting this article off with the largest warning ever: do not continue reading this article if you want to be spoiled before watching the episode. You will hate your very existence otherwise.

Are you still wiping off the tears? We’re betting so, since this may very well go down as the most-shocking episode of the AMC series’ entire run. We lost not one, but two major characters during the episode in T-Dog and Lori, and you could even add Carol to the list since the show never revealed just what her fate is.

There is but one question we have to ask now above all others: why kill so many major characters in one episode, especially someone in Lori who is an enormous part of Rick’s story? Speaking on this very subject to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer and source writer Robert Kirkman re-emphasized what we said earlier in our review: this was a necessarily evil for Rick’s ultimate journey:

“Well, like with any death on Walking Dead, it’s all about sitting down and figuring out what gives us the best story and what realistically portrays that world. I’ve always said that people are going to die — that’s just how we’re telling the story — and to not have people dying left and right would just be fake to me.

“We didn’t think we could get through that prison riot-with-zombies kind of thing without losing a few characters. So, when we sat down to figure out who was going to go [we thought about] the things that Lori’s death does to Carl and Rick but also to Maggie and other characters. It’s really important that we focus on that kind of stuff and I think that death gives us the most story coming out of it. So, that’s what we did!”

As for T-Dog’s death, Kirkman added that he wanted to see the character die in a way that was heroic; and while we do not know whether or not Carol lives just yet, we can at least say that his actions gave her a chance.

Now, we turn to the woman behind Lori in Sarah Wayne Callies, who told the website a little bit about how even though she knew her character would die eventually, she wanted the way in which it happened to remain a secret for as long as possible:

“We talked a little bit about how it was going to happen. I didn’t necessarily want to know too much, because Lori doesn’t know she’s going to die, so I figured I’d wait until the script came out.”