Possible spoilers for The Walking Dead TV show, as well as details from the comic series are below.
After the mother lode of head-squishing that The Walking Dead presented to viewers with its Season 7 premiere, the zombie drama will look to brighten things up a bit in the next episode with the introductions of King Ezekiel and new location The Kingdom. These narrative additions come straight from the comic books, but we're wondering if a big change from the source material is also on the way, with Carol taking over one of Michonne's storylines: her romance with Ezekiel.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm not diving off the deep end of speculation here, since Carol hooking up with the tiger-leading Ezekiel isn't the most likely scenario, but it exists within the realm of Season 7 possibilities. This train of thought was already lurking when it was first revealed Carol and Morgan would be the first survivors to head to The Kingdom, and I admittedly let it run wild after The Spoiling Dead Fans shared what we can expect to see from Carol in the burgeoning world.
Carol continues her Suzy Homemaker act, but Ezekiel catches her when she drops her facade. He seems to understand her.
Nothing was said about how people shouldn't "come-a-knocking" when Carol and Ezekiel are together, but this gets to the heart of Carol's more recent identity crisis. As the show's core group reached Alexandria, she began showing off a completely different exterior personality than the darker persona under the surface. The homemaker Carol is the one that Tobin fell for during their brief tryst, but it's only the remaining long-term survivors that understand Carol through and through.
So if Ezekiel is able to pick up on her true self so quickly - even if it was her own actions that tipped him off - then maybe she will start to understand him as well. And then they can make so many babies. Kidding on that last part, since childbirth doesn't go well in the post-apocalypse, but a romantic encounter between the two would hopefully spin Carol back around to regular bouts of happiness. And it would pick up the slack on a comic angle that seemingly got squashed when Michonne and Rick got together.
Of course, Michonne also got with Tyreese in the comics long before she and Ezekiel did - in fact, this was the reason why Tyreese and Carol broke up on the page, oddly enough - so it's entirely possible Richonne will fizzle and give way to Michekiel or Ezekionne, with Carol getting the shaft (only metaphorically, of course). But even if these two newly bonding characters don't make sparks fly, here's hoping he's can bring a smile to her face on a regular basis.
Whether it's romance or blood-curdling screams in the air, The Walking Dead will be back in front of its loyal fanbase every Sunday night on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET. So long as Carol doesn't get her own comic storyline, we're all good. To see what else is hitting the small screen in the near future, check out our fall TV schedule.
