10 Greatest 'I'm Dead And I Know It' Moments In TV History

4. Carl Grimes - The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead
AMC

Across The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Carl Grimes is one of the rare characters who is well aware that their inevitable death is well and truly on the horizon.

For Chandler Riggs' character, his death gave The Walking Dead an emotional shot in the arm at a time when the series and its characters needed it most. Having been bitten on his stomach by a walker, Carl knows that he has zero way of avoiding death; unlike certain other walker bites, there's no way to simply amputate a limb here.

Prior to this reveal, we see Carl stepping up to protect the residents of Alexandria from Negan and his Saviors, with the young man making the bold decision to interrupt a Negan who is about to bomb this one-time save haven.

After providing a distraction that allows the Alexandrians to be led to safety, it's only at the end of this whole ordeal - the closing moments of the How It's Gotta Be episode - that Carl reveals to Rick and Michonne that he had previously been bitten when helping Siddiq.

That moment is beautifully delivered, and it explains why Carl had what felt like a new sense of purpose for the prior 50 minutes of that episode. From there, the following outing, Honor, is a gut punch of an episode as we see Carl say his emotional goodbyes while death slowly circles in.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.