If only cute animals were behind that barn door.

It’s hard to believe it, but The Walking Dead lasted an astonishing eleven seasons, an impressive feat, especially for a show that wasn’t a sitcom or animated, but rather a serious drama dealing with the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. While The Walking Dead limped to an end worse than a rotting corpse, it’s hard to forget just how powerful those early years were. For about the first half of its run, The Walking Dead was one of the most talked about things on TV. Every week we tuned in to see what craziness would happen next, and who might die.

In the final few seasons, so many characters died that those still left watching didn’t even feel it. It came to be expected. Someone shows up, someone gets bitten, the show introduces someone else, and the cycle repeats. The Walking Dead‘s earlier episodes kept a core group together. We got to know these characters and became fully invested in their survival. We were still learning the rules of how far The Walking Dead would go when they ripped apart everything we knew and expected by killing off a child. It was the series’ most heartbreaking moment, and after it, nothing was ever the same.

‘The Walking Dead’ Has Never Held Back With Character Deaths

You obviously can’t have a horror series about zombies without the undead taking a bite out of living humans from time to time. What’s to be scared of if they’re not a threat? Characters have to die, and it can’t just be minor ones, making the main cast feel safe and invincible no matter what obstacle they encounter. That would take the tension out of every episode. Characters had to die on The Walking Dead, even the ones we loved the most. While we could have been pretty certain that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) as the leader was safe, and we were prepared to riot if the showrunners were ever daring enough to kill Daryl (Norman Reedus), everyone else was literally up for grabs. Still, in those first two seasons, most of the core group is the same until the brutal demise of Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn), and then Shane (Jon Bernthal) being justifiably killed.

As The Walking Dead picked up, so did the shocking deaths. Season 3 said goodbye to T-Dog (IronE Singleton) and Rick’s wife Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies). Hershel’s death broke our hearts in Season 4. The hurtful hits kept coming throughout the long years. Even Rick’s son Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) was written off forever! And then there was the brutality of the near series destroying deaths of Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and poor, poor Glenn (Steven Yeun) at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Before all of them, however, came the most shocking death, one that showed anything was possible, even the unimaginable.

Sophia Peletier’s Walker Reveal Was a Brutal ‘The Walking Dead’ Moment

Few characters in The Walking Dead made it from beginning to end, though one that did was the fan favorite Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride). When we first meet her, she is a broken and battered woman, not just by the end of the world, but by the words and hands of her abusive husband, Ed (Adam Minarovich). She is doting and protective of her daughter, a shy and respectful 12-year-old named Sophia (Madison Lintz). Surely nothing bad could ever happen to such a sweet and innocent child… right? While she didn’t do much other than act scared a lot like any kid would be, we loved her because she was so innocent and vulnerable, and because we were quickly growing attached to Carol. In the Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead, “What Lies Ahead,” Sophia disappears after running away during a zombie attack. The next several episodes are largely dedicated to trying to find her, as her mother, Carol, falls apart. Carol’s already lost her piece-of-shit husband in Season 1, and now her daughter is missing. Thankfully Rick, Daryl, and the rest of the crew were becoming her new family.

Maybe another group has kidnapped Sophia and they have to rescue her? Surely there would be an answer to her disappearance in which she was still alive. In the mid-season finale, “Pretty Much Dead Already,” Sophia is finally found, but there’s nothing to celebrate. When a barn full of zombies opens, the entire group is there to deliver a shot to the brain of every walker inside. After they’re all dispatched, one more walks out, a pallid, growling thing that looks like what used to be Sophia. While everyone else stands there stunned, Carol wails and runs after her daughter, only to be stopped by Daryl. Rick then steps forward and lifts his revolver, shooting Sophia between the eyes.

Melissa McBride’s Carol Was Never the Same on ‘The Walking Dead’

Other deaths in The Walking Dead have been more gruesome. You can’t even talk about Glenn without people getting angry at how over-the-top and drawn-out it was. Sophia’s was tame in reference to gore, but the surprise and the heartbreak of it were leveling. This was The Walking Dead, the show we’re still getting used to, whose rules aren’t quite known, telling us that no one is really safe. Anyone is expendable, even children. As any longtime viewer can tell you, Sophia wouldn’t be the last child to die in the series.

As painful and hopeless a moment as it is, there is also some beauty and hope to be found in it. The tragic scene brings the group closer. They are united as one in their shock and grief. The look on Rick’s face, which goes from sadness to anger, as he forces himself to do what others can’t and put Sophia down, is the moment where he truly becomes the leader. He was a man who wasn’t just good and heroic, but who would also do the dirty stuff to spare anyone else from having to go through it.

It’s touching how Daryl holds Carol, not just keeping her back, but comforting her. It’s also the pivotal turning point for Carol’s character because she is no longer the downtrodden character to pity. While she mourns, she grows. She’s in pain, but she moves forward, making friends, falling in love, and fighting for a better world. Yes, there is heartbreak and distrust in her eyes, but the wounds she carries are not fatal. There would be bigger, bloodier deaths on The Walking Dead, but none shocked us or shifted its surviving characters like Sophia’s did.