Maybe Carl Shouldn't Be So Trusting Of His New Friend On 'The Walking Dead'

The concept of Carl disobeying Rick on The Walking Dead isn't that wild to longtime fans. He runs off so much it's practically a joke at this point. Who is Siddiq on The Walking Dead? Carl's new friend (played by Avi Nash) is still a bit mysterious, and Rick did tell his son never to trust anyone.

The character finally gets to step out of the shadows in Sunday's episode. Siddiq has been on the outskirts of the All Out War this season. Rick fired warning shots to scare him away from Carl, who returned with canned food and an apology note later. After that peace offering, they are officially pals.

When Siddiq first appeared in the Season 8 premiere, Carl was mirroring a scene from the pilot. He's still paying homage to Rick's methods in the latest episode, even though he thinks he isn't doing what his father would do. He asks Siddiq the standard three survivor questions about how many walkers and humans he's killed, and why. It's kind of the only personality quiz that matters at this point. Carl is really making himself worthy of the sheriff's hat. Siddiq and Carl head back together for Alexandria.

"I'm responsible for you now," says Carl, which seems presumptuous. "That's how it works," he says. Is that how it works? Especially if Siddiq ends up being a Savior in disguise. That's not necessarily likely, though. Siddiq seems trustworthy. As The Talking Dead pointed out, he had a good relationship with his parents. What could go wrong?

Siddiq does offer some interesting philosophical perspective via his mother, in honor of whom he has been killing as many walkers as he can. It's just not about survival for him. Siddiq's mom believed that killing the walkers would help release the souls of the living trapped inside of them. That's certainly not a villainous credo, and Siddiq has rid the world of a lot of walkers.

Siqqiq is actually a comic book character. In The Walking Dead comics, Siddiq is a resident of Oceanside — the all-female community on the AMC series. He's from Miami, goes on fishing expeditions, and was the one to find Rick Grimes and tell him about Oceanside instead of Tara. Siddiq also had a bit of a romantic fling with Rosita in the comics, who was at the time dating Eugene. So that's a complicated web that seems unlikely to happen any time soon, but still interesting.

What does this mean for Carl and Rick's relationship going forward? Is Carl going to get grounded? Rick already got into a fight with his BFF Daryl this season. However, Rick may be a little busy at the moment. He gets captured by the heapsters and thrown naked into a truck marked "A" — a very unsettling reference to Terminus that should not go unnoticed — so finding out that his son brought home a stray survivor will have to wait.

This theme of rebuilding the world in the wake of all out war has been running in the background on Season 8. By offering a home to Siddiq in Alexandria, Carl is taking a pretty strong stance towards prioritizing the new world. Is he going to become the new recruiter, with Aaron orimdb replacing Aaron?

For now, it seems like Siddiq is a good guy. However, the next person who Carl trusts might not be. Plus, even if Siddiq is a good guy, he could still get Carl killed. At least this generous and protective Carl is better than the Carl that may have looked up to Negan. Let's hope that he's not trying to emulate him in this leadership position. Until we learn more, Carl's friendship with Siddiq on The Walking Dead is a good sign. Hopefully it stays that way.