The Next Episode Of 'The Walking Dead' Has Me So Scared For The Hilltop

The ongoing “All Out War” on The Walking Dead is hitting new heights. With everyone’s favorite baby Grimes, Carl, now out for the count after the Season 8 mid-season premiere, it looks like Rick has nothing left to lose. After a shouting match (via walkie-talkie) with Negan in the end of this week’s episode, the drama just keeps increasing — not least of all because of the The Walking Dead’s Season 8 Episode 11 promo, which has me really worried for the Hilltop. It just shows that the attacks between the multiple factions of The Walking Dead are only escalating.

After we saw the destruction of Alexandria in the past few episodes, it looks like the Hilltop might be next up for the firing squad. The promo for next week's episode looks shows what looks like literally my worst nightmare, with survivors forced to try to cross one of the only unguarded routes to the Hilltop: a zombie-infested swamp that literally had half-buried zombies waiting to chomp legs and feet of anyone who tried to pass. Meanwhile, at the Hilltop itself, it looks like Maggie is done with the whole "prisoner of war" thing, as she tells a captured Savior that she's going to stop feeding them. But scariest of all? Seeing Negan walking along the gate of what appears to be The Sanctuary, carrying Lucille and addressing what looks like a group ready to go out for battle. Because after what happened between him and Rick tonight, things aren't calming down.

The whole "All Out War" thing is helped along by the exchange between Rick and Negan in the final minutes of tonight's episode. After reading a letter Carl wrote for Negan before he died, in which he asked the two rivals to try to come to a peaceful accord, Rick clearly seemed to think he has nothing left to lose. He called up Negan — but not to try to end the violence between them. Instead, he told Negan that it was "too late" for peace, and that he wouldn't rest until Negan was dead. So, ~drama~, is what I'm saying.

It’s been a rough season for Rick and company, not least of all in the last two episodes. In the mid-season finale in December 2017, it was revealed that Carl Grimes, who’s managed to survive for literally eight seasons, had been bitten by a zombie and was basically done for. The emotional reveal of a bite mark on Carl’s stomach came before the show went on hiatus for more than two months, which means that fans were on the edge of their seats wondering if Carl was going to make it. Personally, I was hoping for some deus ex screenwriters way to finagle Carl out of his inescapable death, like some crazy immunity or it-wasn’t-a-zombie-after-all backpedaling.

Sadly, it was not to be. In the mid-season premiere on Feb. 25, we saw that Carl was really and truly dead. After an entire episode that was basically an extended goodbye to a character that had been with us for literally the entire show — I mean, Carl is literally an adult now, as opposed to the kid he was when this show started — Carl shot himself to avoid turning into a zombie, and was buried by Rick and Michonne. It was one of the show's most emotional moments in a sea of emotional moments. And fans had just, all the feelings.

I mean, we maybe should have been ready for it. This show is only rivaled by Game Of Thrones in terms of killing off your faves. Even before Carl bit it (well.... got bit) there were only a handful of characters who had survived all the way from Season 1, and with Carl's death, that number just dropped by 20 percent.

So where is this show going to go next? Who knows. All I can say for sure is that it's not going to hold back. And no one is safe.