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[that-left-turn]

Hi, I'm a bit confused about the one week filming. Norman posted about the first day and it looked like they were indeed filming scenes and didn't just do pre production stuff like location scouting. But since he left for promotional work for Ballerina, he went back home and I haven't heard of anyone filming, scouting etc.

Does it even make sense to film for a week and take a months break? Accommodation for cast and crew, flights etc had to be booked and one week of filming isn't surely a financially wise decision.

Have you heard they continued filming without him? Because it's probably a logistically nightmare especially if crew has other jobs/projects too.

Is it possible they continued to film with Melissa and keep it under wraps? Other cast members are happily posting everything like Norman but I find it strange they just stopped.

What you describe sounds like reshoots and pickups to fix issues in post-production. Could be as simple as them needing summer weather to shoot some scenes.

A show can't work around the absence of its star and you can't hide a whole crew and all the gear that comes with a production. Melissa would be featured more than Norman too, if they were shooting with only her and we all know that's not happening.

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The studio can exert pressure, but it's delicate situation because Melissa isn't under obligation to attend SDCC and they need her there. She followed the brief, but anon is on the money that she didn't go beyond the bare minimum. The male EPs never allowed her to answer any questions without jumping in, so you'll probably see a lot of that and because Carol is relegated to being a supporting character, the lion's share of the promo will center on Norman.

Heading into the promo circuit for S3, would the powers that be ever tell Melissa to tone down her displeasure? For S2, it became clear that she had some thoughts. Seeing Melissa like that right away, before S3 even airs, would only confirm what we all know but I wonder if AMC would tell her to be more "positive" in order to try and get us to watch?

Both AMC and the male EPs try to use Melissa as a shield from feminine audience rage. The idea is that if she supports them, then we’ll support what she supports. You’re not ever going to hear her say something negative about a show she’s obligated to promote. White men can get away with saying whatever they want. Women and POC cannot. That’s why it’s important to listen to what isn’t being said along with what is.

[that-left-turn]

You probably get way more asks than I do (about 50/month) and the signal to noise ratio can sometimes get pretty bad. Some people go off-topic about other shows or actors, others make ad hominem arguments, etc. I appreciate the asks I get, but because they tend to come in bulk—they don’t trickle in one or two a day—it’s possible that some sincere anons fall through the cracks 😬

It has felt important to keep asks and comments open, so Carol/-yl fans have somewhere to talk without the mayhem on other socials. But, it means getting asks from people who hate on all things Carol/-yl, which in turn means some moderation is necessary. Fandom is supposed to be fun and I don’t want people who read my posts to come across unnecessary anxiety triggers.

I try not to curate too much because I want people to not feel hesitant about whether their ask meets some imagined standard of content and then opt not to reach out for fear of committing a faux pas. Sometimes, I'm just too busy to respond promptly, but I do want everyone who checks out my posts to feel welcome 🎪🎟️ I hope your anon reaches out to you again with their question.

Hey! You didn't answer my questions :(

I don’t know which questions were yours, but I’ve been very selective with my asks in the last little bit. While I appreciate and welcome all asks, I’m short on time, so I want to make absolutely sure that what I’m putting out there when I do have time is the most helpful it can be.

Again, not sure what you asked, but as a general note to anyone who reads this, I tend to block or delete asks that come off as unnecessarily hostile or misogynistic to me, other Caryl fans, or the women who work on the show.

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Do you know what the circumstances are of Norman complaining about characterisation in the main show? He apparently thought Daryl was characterised as weak or something, but why? Is it because he didn’t like the season 9/10 story that made Carol a queen while Daryl was lost in the woods? Or he didn’t like that Daryl was always chasing after Carol when she was grieving? If so, I don’t think we’ve got any hope because that was the last time most of us felt like Daryl felt like ‘the real Daryl’. When he was prioritising Carol and people he loved… and if Norman doesn’t like that version of Daryl, then we’ll never see him again.

S9 still had Maggie and Rick for the first block and there were a lot of inherited storylines that Angela Kang had to resolve, plus the influx of comic book characters, before the show fully transitioned to hers. Norman had expected to become the main character/star when Andy Lincoln left the show and let's just say it was a rude awakening for him when S10 centered the women's (Carol and Michonne) grief arcs.

Norman uses Daryl and the spinoff as an audition tape for the kind of roles he'd like to be cast in. Zabel is beholden to Norman for the showrunning job, so he won't contest poor story choices. He makes a lot of them all on his own, but as bad a writer as Zabel is, even he has to be able to see that a nearly 60-year old man can't pass for a guy in his thirties. As long as the showrunner is a mere puppet, we won't see the Daryl with whom the audience fell in love.

A showrunner has to manage wayward cast members, other EPs and the room, in addition to the studio and audience expectations. That's every bit as much a part of the job as writing. TWD Caryl needs a new showrunner who'll keep everyone accountable. Someone who'll listen to Melissa's input too and treat her with respect.

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"This kind of strategy is usually used when someone is problematic on set but never as blatant as this and Melissa is NOT difficult to work with."

This. It's blatant and obvious. Even IF Melissa doesn't want to work after her engagement ended, it's leaving a bitter taste of her involvement and reputation. How are the agency and management usually reacting to this? She's also a former agent, so knows more about this topic than the usual actor. And if she wanted to work bts after TWD, it may destroy her career plans. Is there nothing anyone can do? Is this situation completely hopeless?

And even other actors involved in the franchise have to know what's going on? How is no one stepping up like they did after the announcement 2022?

It's kind of difficult to wrap the head around especially when one actor involved is as problematic as Norman.

At this point it's not even a hush hush situation. They're destroying a career for what? Because they can? Ego? Under those circumstances, did Melissa even sign for another season last year?

Unfortunately, it does affect Melissa's bankability. I would've loved to see her direct (and maybe write!) for the show, so it could've been an option for her to work behind the camera in the future, but that would take the spotlight off Norman, so it's not happening.

Speaking up as another actor and voicing support for Melissa is fraught with potential consequences to your own career. If you're seen as someone likely to make waves, if affects your future casting prospects. Studios and showrunners want a smooth running set because there are enough unforeseen complications during a production run that you don't need to add an extra headache. None of the EPs of this show are powerful in a larger context, but making enemies out of execs and EPs can also destroy your career.

(Related, but not really on-point with your ask: Norman isn't going to get any leading parts in movie franchises. If you're a petty, sulky and vindictive star, you need to have the ability to drive the box office. Featuring in indie films which are done on a shoestring budget without studio backing and relying on contacts to get bit parts in bigger movies are indicative of a big screen career that's going nowhere.)

Unless there's a new showrunner, things aren't going to change for the better. On the studio side, the bunch of men in charge are looking for a younger male skewing audience. McDermott, the president of the studio used to be in programming earlier in the flagship show's run (Gimple era) and the EVP of programming, Ben Davis, is also a misogynist. I think the argument has been made to the studio (by the showrunner) that Melissa/Carol didn't provide a ratings bump, so her presence is inconsequential to the show.

The only thing that can aid Melissa's ability to get work is for fans to speak up on social media. If AMC and other studios see her name being mentioned in positive ways, it's more likely that casting directors and showrunners will think of her when they hire. If AMC sees strong support for more of Carol on the show, they're more likely to do something about the showrunner and other problems with this spinoff. That's the reason why the EPs have done their utmost during all promo to insult and drive away Carol and Caryl fans.

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Hey, I have a question regarding the recent developments in promotion. They release a teaser after DC with only one shot of Carol and the rest was Daryl blabbering about how young he was at the beginning of the ZA.

The official AMC account released another the very same teaser only without that ONE Carol shot. Decimating her appearance to a microsecond of the back of her head...

Is there a certain reason? Incompetence or rage bait? Or did they want to distract us from baby Daryl?

We know Melissa barely filmed and may only appear in half the episodes, maybe even less if they cut her further. Why are they less and less secretively about her obvious misplacement in the spin off? I believe the dudes don't want her to be there. It was less obvious last season but now it's shockingly evident. Did they just get more freedom? Or is there a plan?

Have you experienced something similar before?

They're pushing Carol out, minimizing her importance and involvement in the narrative. Melissa was maneuvered out of the spinoff because the stooges didn't want her there and that sentiment hasn't changed even if the studio brought her back. The trailer is just testing the waters for what the viewers will accept and still keep watching.

There's less Carol in S3—Zabel discusses story arcs with Norman and he doesn't pitch joint arcs. It also paves the way for getting rid of Melissa again if they can retain their viewership with a diminished arc for her.

In the meantime, AMC gets engagement from the promo because Carol fans are angry and they hope that will entice others (i.e. young males) to watch to see what the fuss is about. Fans shouldn't watch S3 'for Melissa' because it's not helping her. They should speak up about not watching and why.

(This kind of strategy is usually used when someone is problematic on set, but never as blatant as this and Melissa is not difficult to work with.)

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If you’re still open to doing scene breakdowns, please could you do a scene breakdown of carol and daryl’s fight at the end of Find Me in season 10? Especially when daryl says “I know where I’m supposed to be.”

I think I saw a special feature once where Angela Kang said something like that the tensions were high and that Daryl was ready to settle down (in Alexandria with Team Family?) and he was frustrated with Carol because she kept running away instead of being ready to settle down. But after an episode of seeming to wrestle with not knowing where he belonged, he wrote to Leah that he belongs with her. What do you think the audience was supposed to think about Daryl’s headspace during that fight, especially when he said “I know where I’m supposed to be”?

It was also strange to see him tell Carol “New Mexico’s still out there”, which felt like peace had been restored between them, in the season finale, to then suddenly being ‘off’ with her. It felt like a major change to their dynamic that is still felt even now (because it was never resolved), so I don’t understand why they did it in episodes that weren’t even originally planned to be in the series. Why do you think they chose to make caryl have this big fight and talk about lost luck between them in the bonus episodes?

And given that Daryl had an existential crisis in France in the spinoff, are we supposed to think that he was wrong when he said “I know where I’m supposed to be”?

I really enjoyed reading your long answer to the question about Carol’s scene with Didi in TBOC. So, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the Find Me fight scene in the broader context of the episode and other parts of the series if it feels natural to you to add more context.

Sure, I can do a breakdown of the fight scene. If you don’t mind, please, give me a bit of time to get to it and in the meantime, here’s a more general reply to your ask:

I know “Find Me” is a controversial episode for Caryl fans, but there’s so much to unpack and I appreciate how things come to a head in a way that feels true to how Caryl would fight. It's not a cliché screaming match with instant catharsis, and neither one of them know how to communicate their emotional needs to someone else because they’ve always had to self-soothe. All of S10 saw Daryl getting increasingly wound up and here, his string finally snaps. Carol’s emotional turbulence during the season was visible, like a storm-tossed sea, all foam and fury, but Daryl had a parallel arc. His was just the deadly strong current beneath the surface, no less destructive.

“Find Me” superficially looks like a slow-paced bottle episode which could easily be skipped without missing a thing, but it sets up Caryl’s intended S11 emotional arc and hints at some intriguing story beats set during the S9 time jump. It provides additional information about Daryl’s facial scar and opens avenues to explore both his toxic hero complex and abandonment issues. There’s also a much needed acknowledgment of how much and for how long he’s been hurting due to Carol’s past choices. The narration is deliciously unreliable—the audience can’t trust Daryl because he’s in pain and nothing of what’s presented is anywhere near as simple as it seems.

The fight scene also contains the loveliest acting choices, which really showcase the subtext. Mute the sound, turn off subtitles and just watch their faces. It’s delightful, gorgeous work and will tell you what’s going on in the scene, you don’t need the words. It’s one of Norman’s best performances on the show, so understated and yet raw, and Melissa makes me feel like a hand’s reaching into my chest to squeeze my heart. Both Carol and Daryl’s pain is visceral, even though so different in expression.

On a structural level, the fractured timeline of the episode is marked: “five years ago,” “six months later,” 8 months, three... The time stamps are a cue for the audience and also a sign that Angela has plotted out the time jump (like a showrunner should) between Rick’s disappearance and when Magna’s group appears. She knows what happened during that timeframe, but is only delivering information to the audience on a need-to-know basis. It’s organized so that viewers can track the events and Daryl’s memories are color coded, with a underwater quality to much of the sound, to make it easier for the audience to recognize the hazy subjective nature of the retelling of Leah’s story. “Find Me” shows an understanding of technique in a way that both Gimple and Zabel lack, and you could use it as a textbook case to teach screenwriting basics of visual storytelling.

What do you think the audience was supposed to think about Daryl’s headspace during that fight, especially when he said “I know where I’m supposed to be”?

“I know where I’m supposed to be” has gotten a lot of fan attention and while it’s obviously an important line, it’s also a little bit of dangled bait—a distraction. Angela wants viewers to focus on it, so they won’t pay too much attention to the other clues she dropped in the scene. Her writing isn’t a days-old baguette to the face. She doesn’t foreshadow her plot points with big flashing lights and the things the characters don’t say are just as important as how they say what’s said. (More on all that in the actual scene breakdown 🤓) Down the line, it would’ve provided the audience with a nice “yes, of course” moment if the arc hadn’t been completely disrupted by the BTS power struggle in S11.

It was also strange to see him tell Carol “New Mexico’s still out there”, which felt like peace had been restored between them, in the season finale, to then suddenly being ‘off’ with her.

The impact of Carol’s self-destructive choices has festered in Daryl for far longer than the cave incident and the “New Mexico’s still out there” exchange in 1016 didn’t solve any of their problems. That beat was also in the wake of Daryl having gotten yet another scare when Carol ran off to do something potentially fatal without regard to what it’d do to him and he was so relieved to see her alive that none of the other stuff mattered. In between that moment and the fight at the cabin, Lydia has told Daryl what happened at those cliffs, so that’s been weighing on him for a few days. Being back in Leah’s cabin (the site of his grief and trauma) is also a trigger because he remembers the reason he was there in the first place: because Carol hurt him. (Again, I’ll expand on that in the breakdown.)

Why do you think they chose to make caryl have this big fight and talk about lost luck between them in the bonus episodes?

The “bonus episodes” had to be of smaller scope and slower paced because of COVID restrictions, so they lent themselves to introspective character studies. It would’ve been impossible to devote two whole episodes (“Find Me” and “Diverged”) to develop Caryl’s emotional arc in the regular season, so I assume this opportunity to go in a tonally different direction from ye old TWD was a welcome one. The alternative would’ve been smaller beats in a C plot, sandwiched into the overarching external plot during the season, which also had to accommodate other characters.

Regardless of how AMC chose to label these episodes, it’s just an extended season order because the studio realized the setups to launch their new TWDU slate needed more development. Angela had to ground her own spinoff, make sure that Maggie and Negan landed where they needed to for that spinoff and wrap up the main show (which introduced a host of new characters in the last season) in addition to complying with other studio expectations. A set of episodes for Caryl, one for Maggie and Negan each, one to float the idea of a Gabe-Aaron focus, and one to introduce a new character (Princess), expand on the primary setting for S11 and move the overall TWD plot forward sound more like a studio seeing to its own needs than offering loyal fans any bonus, doesn’t it? At that point in time, the studio had lost valuable momentum and wasn’t sure of any lasting impact on production from COVID protocols, so it made sense to greenlight additional small-scale episodes.

The problem wasn’t that Daryl's sense of belonging was explored in unanticipated “bonus episodes,” but that the subsequent BTS shenanigans in S11 completely derailed the arc and destroyed the groundwork laid in “Find Me.”

[G]iven that Daryl had an existential crisis in France in the spinoff, are we supposed to think that he was wrong when he said “I know where I’m supposed to be”?

There’s no narrative bridge between the spinoff and the flagship show. It’s unprofessional for a showrunner to ignore or retcon character development they’ve inherited from a predecessor, but Daryl’s existential crisis is due to Zabel not having watched the flagship show (and Norman having an existential crisis of his own that’s unfortunately spilling over into work). It’s also an old staple trope from that TV Book of Tricks Zabel claims not to use, but I don’t think either Norman or Nicotero cared that they retread an old storyline. After all, they blatantly copied the immunity/escort arc of TLOU. Ellie’s also a smug li’l shit, but unlike Laurent, she’s suffered significant psychological trauma and her relationship with Joel grew organically. The audience also wasn’t aggressively expected to sympathize with the character who manipulated their initial relationship into existence.

The male EPs of DD aren’t storytellers, so they don’t care that the characterization is contradictory. Unfortunately, there’s only a headache and heartbreak involved in trying to look for a throughline.

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Do you know whether angela kang still has EP credits for seasons 2,3 and 4 of the spinoff?

She's an inactive EP which was part of her exit agreement.

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So, we had a few days... The Upfronts. I have thoughts and they ain't good. First off, Melissa looked gorgeous, healthy and glowing. But that's the only positive.

Why haven't we seen any interviews of Melissa? Not one? And the ones Norman gave were straight out embarrassing. He was a kid at the start of the show? He could've said immature, juvenile whatever but a kid?

Is this the ominous rewriting of the narrative?

Was Melissa forbidden to give interviews? She prefers to be light on the numbers but the only time she didn't give an interview was at the press conference at SDCC 2022 but the day before she did one with EW which wasn't filmed. So why nothing now? Doesn't it look suspicious after last year? Especially in comparison to Normans embarrassing answers.

Have you seen Norman holding Mrs Dolans hand? Yes, they did it last year too but the people on their right side didn't.

I don't know, I wanted to wait for promotion to actively start to judge my involvement in the upcoming season but I already have the feeling it gonna be a disaster.

The promotional posters? Carol wasn't included. Melissa was left out completely.

Please, am I too negative or are these valid issues that needs to be called out?

The Upfronts are for advertisers, not the media, so Melissa not giving an interview doesn't mean anything in this context. The purpose for having the stars there is for them to schmooze company execs into placing ads. Melissa's perfect for it because she's as unproblematic as any of these brands could possibly wish for. Good conversation over dinner. Easy laughter. She wasn't there to seek out interview opportunities or to self-promote.

Norman embarrasses himself every time he opens his mouth. He's obviously going through it and projecting onto Daryl. I only hope that his reps haven't told him he'll be able to get better parts, for younger men, if he pretends to be 20 years younger than he is. At this point, he's just making a laughing stock out of himself.

Kristin Dolan held hands with her ex (the owner of AMC) too, on the other side of her. I guess Melissa didn't want to hold hands with a rapist. Can't say that I blame her for that.

The show is about Zabel's original characters Daryl and Carol has the B story in S3. The subtitle has been dropped, so there's no reason to keep her in the poster. Less confusing that way for people who buy ad placement.

Like I said, Upfronts isn't about promotion to the public, it's about selling ad space to companies, so it's a little too soon to judge exactly how big a disaster the season will be. But, you're not paranoid. Your issues with the show are valid.

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Angela Kang was not pro-Caryl. She was anti-Caryl. She created Connie and Zeke to disrupt Caryl because Norman Reedus didn't want them together. She tried to act like they were just friends by creating that stupid friendship bracelet. She threw in some mush to keep the fans appeased but in season 11 she mostly wasted Melissa McBride's talent and stole the obvious storyline with Leah that was meant for Carol and gave it to Maggie and ruined the entire season.

Angela Kang chose to separate them for 8 episodes at a time. You people need to stop praising Angela Kang. Norman's was her puppet master but then he found a literal hand to stroke his ego and here we are.

There is a reason the show no longer mentions, the book of Carol. That's because the book has been discontinued. Just wait. You will see.

Angela Kang was not pro-Caryl.

No.

She was anti-Caryl.

No.

She created Connie and Zeke to disrupt Caryl because Norman Reedus didn't want them together.

Connie and Zeke were "created" before Angela became showrunner and had nothing to do with Norman.

She tried to act like they were just friends by creating that stupid friendship bracelet.

The friendship bracelet signified that Caryl were anything but friends.

She threw in some mush to keep the fans appeased but in season 11 she mostly wasted Melissa McBride's talent and stole the obvious storyline with Leah that was meant for Carol and gave it to Maggie and ruined the entire season.

Gimple was heavily involved in S11 and it bears all the hallmarks of his writing, such as the separation of characters, fractured timeline which stalls the pacing, dropped storylines, cartoony villains and unrealistic character motivation. All female relationships were by and large dropped, and vehicles and guns made their reappearance after the show had crafted a frontier atmosphere for a decade plus into the ZA setting.

Angela Kang chose to separate them for 8 episodes at a time. You people need to stop praising Angela Kang. Norman's was her puppet master but then he found a literal hand to stroke his ego and here we are.

S11 was such a bad experience for her that she had to go to therapy to cope with the work environment. The catering to Norman and the aborted storylines were not of her doing. Angela Kang is a good, detail-oriented writer whose story arc was completely butchered in S11.

There is a reason the show no longer mentions, the book of Carol. That's because the book has been discontinued. Just wait. You will see.

Look at my back posts. I've been saying that TBOC was a seasonal title since it was first introduced. That's not a revelation, but it also has nothing to do with Angela Kang.

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Last point and I'm going to sleep. (Sorry for all the questions. I was scrolling and asked when I saw something) BUT, Not all contracts have an NDA, not in the sense you are selling. (Melissa not being able to speak her mind) Because Candace King who plays Caroline on The vampire Diaries has ALWAYS said, her and Klaus are toxic and she wants not part of them being a couple. When on the show. When off the show. She wanted no part. Now that the show has been over forever she says things like, "Oh you guy like that" but she isn't being hired so she needs these comic cons for money to raise her kids.

Goodnight, Sarah.

Hello Sarah,

There's the legal NDA and then there's the self-preservation muzzle. You speak your mind and you end up out in the cold. I've talked extensively about women getting labeled as 'difficult to work with' and what that does to a career.

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Wait, what? What scene did they cut?

Apparently they cut a leah-daryl scene from Find Me. So, if they knew to cut that, why didn't they know to cut the darabelle kiss?

I don't think this is in response to a post of mine, but Angela talked about a scene in which the relationship between Daryl and Leah was less vaguely suggestive. No context given of what the scene tried to convey in terms of the larger arc, but it was cut because it didn't work.

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If this is true...

Norman clearly wanted to explore Daryl's "young adult life" and I think that's why the kiss made the cut. He wants Daryl to awkwardly make out with random women and the idea was likely backed by Greg 'likes them blonde' Nicotero.

Why did Norman have a deal with the front runners of TWD that his character would never have a girlfriend (not word perfect?)

I don't know who "the front runners" are supposed to refer to, the studio? The showrunner? You can have a rider in your contract that limits intimacy, but I doubt Norman had that. Not sure where your information comes from either, but please, bear in mind that you can't trust what actors say in interviews and you really can't trust anything Norman says. You also can't trust stories going around fandom if you don't have a direct, credible source for them because gossip morphs over time, the more times a story is retold.

Gimple would've had no interest in giving Daryl a girlfriend for his own reasons and as we saw in S10, Daryl did have a girlfriend.

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I'm sorry but, WHAT does this mean?

Many things happened in between signing the deal and getting sidelined: Gimple’s many many many attempts at drafting a feature, cancellation of said feature(s), complaints from the male star about characterization and screentime, the poor reception of Leah, etc.

In the time between Melissa and Norman signing their deals for a Caryl show and when she got sidelined in S11, Gimple had tried and failed to write a screenplay for the first of the Rick movies. One draft after another circulated at the studio and they were all bad because Gimple couldn't write a feature for theatrical release. (Writing for film is different from TV.) That's why the trilogy of movies turned into a limited TV show and the decision was made to have Danai and Andy come onboard as co-creators. (She was really the one who made that happen.) That means, Gimple was too busy during S9-10 to interfere with the flagship show. He wasn't too busy to "roll up his sleeves" and "help out" in S11.

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How does a show deal with re-writes when it comes to giving credit to a writer? (Like what does it say on the broadcast on who wrote the show?) (I am reading your older blogs and asking questions. Sorry for that:)

Individual writers don't come up with the plots for the episodes they write. I know you didn't ask about this, but it's the foundation to what you're asking. The showrunner will tell their writers' room what their vision for the season is and the writers will pitch ideas that fit the direction of the show. The season will be broken, i.e. plotted out in its entirety and the showrunner will assign episodes to writers. They will write an outline for their episode, which is very detailed. Every scene, every nuance mapped out.

If one person writes the outline and another end up writing the script, you'll find 'story by' credit for the person who wrote the outline and 'written by' for the writer who wrote the screenplay.

A script goes through many drafts and passes by a lot of people's desks, but credit only shifts if a different writer contributes more than 50% of original material. If it's the showrunner, it has to be over 55%. That means, half of an episode might not even be your writing, but your name will still go on the screen. Writing a TV script is a communal process and writers have no autonomy, unless you're the showrunner.

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You said, Norman didn't want Daryl to look weak but Daryl looked week all season 2. Daryl put his hands up when they had Isabelle and acted all wimpy and whiny all season when otehers were in danger. If Zabel allowed this why isn't Norman asking him to be fired?

I don't share that interpretation of S2. Daryl was moody and brooding during the season, but he hasn't been a testosterone fueled 'speaks with his knuckes' kind of guy since the farm. The horsemen of the post-apocalypse seem to have modeled his characterization in the spinoff on the 'silent but tough guy' that was common in the 50's-70's. Think Westerns and hard boiled detectives.

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You said the studio nixed killing Carol when the front runners wanted too. Who exactly? I read that the actress who played Lori talked them out of killing Carol in season 3. Then they wanted to kill her in season 4 and Melissa pretty much talked them out of it.

I'm not sure who you mean by "front runners" as it means a 'contestant' most likely to win, but these discussions usually happen in production meetings if it's on the creative side, or it's negotiated between studio execs and the showrunner.

There are always a lot of apocryphal stories of actors 'saving the day' and they should be taken with a grain a salt. 95% of the time when an actor claims they were responsible for an idea, they're just trying to make themselves look good in the press. Who would Sarah even have arranged to meet with to discuss another actor's story arc? She talked to the then showrunner about it being important to her that they not kill the baby along with Lori, but that's related to her own character arc and really about as far as an actor can safely push an issue.