Ever since The Walking Dead made its return, we’ve been preparing for life in the zombie apocalypse without Rick Grimes. We’ve known that star Andrew Lincoln will be departing the show after nine seasons of horror, and the moment is finally arriving… as heralded by a pale horse. No, seriously.
AMC has released a gallery of no less than 25 photos — you can see the whole thing over at EW — from “What Comes After”, Lincoln’s final episode as Rick Grimes.
They give us a taste of what to expect after this week’s episode saw poor Rick stuck in a sticky situation… quite literally stuck. Seems like he’s gonna get out of that situation pretty easily though, and then, if these pictures are to be believed, traipse around on a horse for a bit:
Before finding his way to somewhere where he can bleed out (and maybe hallucinate an old friend):
And then everyone else will be shocked:
But good news: The zombies will still be there, even if Rick Grimes isn’t:
It’s all understandably very fawning — the show is dealing with the loss of one of its most important, most central stars.
But when you’re getting to the point of releasing artistic photos of Rick’s fallen revolver and multiple close up shots of Andrew Lincoln clutching his bloodied side atop a horse, then maybe there are better ways to mark the fall of a Walking Dead hero.
Just maybe. The bell tolls for Rick Grimes this Monday, November 5.