The episode’s most self-subversive theme was the disturbing transformation of Carl the likeable badass into Carl the scarred child soldier. For most of this season, Carl’s growing competence at killing has been received by critics and fans as a welcome use of a previously useless character. Maureen Ryan sums up the consensus, which I shared, as: “we trust this kid to take care of post-apocalyptic business.”
But actual child soldiers aren’t efficient killers. They’re children ripped from their families, made into slaves, and tortured until they kill for their warlord masters. The psychological effects are devastating, but varied: some child soldiers, for example, become suicidally depressed and some develop dissociation symptoms that haunt them for their whole lives. Another symptom is that they become violent, especially in defense of the group they were fighting for — just like Carl:
Research shows that former child soldiers have difficulties in controlling aggressive impulses and have little skills for handling life without violence. These children show on-going aggressiveness within their families and communities, even after relocation to their home villages….Former beliefs about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ actions might clash with current ones, and in order to regain cognitive homeostasis, identification with the rebel group is aspired. Interestingly, this study showed a positive correlation between collective identification and reactive aggression (physical and verbal aggression and anger).
So when Carl murdered the surrendering boy, it wasn’t just creepy because his reasoning (“I did what I had to do”
was identical to the Governor’s stated motivation for killing Andrea and Milton (“you kill or you die”
. He was displaying textbook symptoms of a child forced to kill. By inextricably tying Carl’s “badass” turn to such a deranged real-life evil, “Welcome to the Tombs” forced viewers to confront just why it was they were cheering for Carl’s pistol proficiency and what, exactly, that says about their sanitized views about war and redemptive violence.