How Rick May Finally Die On The Walking Dead
Just about every character we've ever cared for on The Walking Dead has been brutally and senselessly killed. But there's one constant on the show and in our lives: Rick Grimes abides. Still, we have to wonder just how Rick will finally die when the showrunners inevitably run out of other ideas (or actor Andrew Lincoln leaves). There are plenty of ways Rick could meet his maker, so here's a look at some of our favorite theories. Spoilers ahead...
Carol puts him down
There's a good reason Carol is no longer with the main group: She's too hardcore even for Rick Grimes to handle. She does what she thinks needs to be done, including killing her own friends. We've seen plenty of evidence of this over the years, from Karen and David to poor, poor Lizzie. So what happens if Carol finally decides that Rick himself is the biggest danger to the survivors? In any showdown between the two, we're putting our money on Carol to walk away and Rick to end up six feet under.
He just gets infected
How Rick Grimes has managed to avoid getting infected this long is pretty much anyone's guess. The dude is apparently the luckiest survivor on the face of the Earth. But eventually, every gambler's luck runs out, and Rick has been taking bigger and bigger gambles with his life every season of The Walking Dead. He's so worried about his fellow humans that he hardly even seems to take the zombie threat seriously at this point. One moment of complacency is all it will take for Rick to suffer the most fitting death in the history of the show.
Everyone else in his crew gets zombified and they eat him
Rick has spent the entire series just trying to protect the other people under his care. So what would his worst nightmare be? No, not dying — failing the others. And the ultimate expression of this would be if the rest of the gang all gets infected and turns into zombies. Sure, having zombie Maggie and zombie Michonne voraciously eat Rick alive would be a really bleak way to end The Walking Dead, but it would also be perfectly in keeping with the show's nihilist message. Seriously, do you really think anyone is going to survive the series?
He dumps Michonne
They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, so they apparently are familiar with resident Walking Dead badass Michonne. It's just a really bad idea to cross the katana-wielding Michonne, especially when it comes to romance. After all, we're talking about someone who dragged the zombified corpse of her ex-boyfriend around on a chain just for the giggles. So now that Rick and Michonne are lovers, the biggest mistake Rick could possibly make is breaking her heart. The biggest — and the last.
He kills himself
How much pain and loss can one man take? When is surviving simply no longer worth the emotional cost? Given how much Rick has been through and all the terrible things he has done to survive, it's hard to imagine him ever giving up. We've already seen proof over the years that no zombie is a match for Rick, and no living person we've met so far has been either. But Rick's greatest enemy has always been himself.
He never dies...but everyone else does
Here's perhaps the most realistic ending for The Walking Dead: everyone Rick cares about is dead, and Rick is cursed to live on seemingly forever. At his core, Rick Grimes is a tragic figure. He fights for values that no longer have a place in the world, trying to recapture something that is gone forever. He fights a fight that is doomed to fail, but because of his nature, he can never stop fighting or admit that the fight is futile, even as everyone he loves dies around him. Eventually, he could be left alone, doomed to outlive everyone he swore to protect. Poor Rick. Poor, sad Rick.