Did Judith Die on 'The Walking Dead'? What Comics Tell Us About Her Fate

The Walking Dead is almost at its end, but the show still has several surprises in store for fans ahead.

The AMC show aired its penultimate episode, "Family," on Sunday. It saw Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) get shot, with her fate hanging in the balance going into the finale.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 23.

Did Judith Die on The Walking Dead? What Comics Tell Us About Her Fate

Judith is the adopted daughter of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). She decides to help in the fight against Commonwealth Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins).

During the rebellion, Governor Milton tries to shoot Maggie (Lauren Cohan) but Judith takes the bullet instead. Daryl (Norman Reedus) carries her to a clinic while she's unconscious, but she wakes up long enough to see undead Walkers overrunning the Commonwealth.

In the comics, Judith's fate is decided much earlier in her lifespan as she is killed when her mother Lori Grimes is carrying her as a baby away from Governor Brian Blake. The governor shoots Lori, who then falls on top of baby Judith and inadvertently crushes her.

It may well be that The Walking Dead is evoking this comic book storyline by having Judith be shot, but viewers will only learn of her fate in the show's series finale, "Rest in Peace," which airs on Sunday, November 20.

Showrunner Angela Kang spoke about Judith's storyline in AMC+'s behind-the-scenes feature about the newest episode, in which she explained how the shooting was meant to see viewers think back to the second season where Rick carries his son Carl (Chandler Riggs) when he was shot.

Kang explained: "We definitely wanted it to feel reminiscent of the scene where Rick was carrying Carl after he was shot, and it's kind of the question of: is history going to repeat itself with Judith and what's going to happen next with her?

"All of those thoughts are running through Daryl's head as he's running with Judith, out to try to find safety. It was really important to kind of talk about this sense of found family that our people have, as well as literal families that people are fighting very hard to reunite with and preserve.

"So we just think that that is one of the most important kind of emotional themes that runs across the entire series, and it's something that we really wanted to highlight as we kind of get to the very end of the series."

The showrunner added that the storyline was meant to be a "dramatic moment" for Daryl because of how much Judith means to him as his surrogate child, and Kang shared: "He's going to do everything in his power to try to make sure that she doesn't just die in his arms."

The Walking Dead series finale airs on AMC on Sunday, November 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET.