Warning: If you are not caught up with "The Walking Dead" there are huge spoilers ahead.
The latest episode of "The Walking Dead" took fans by surprise.
While most fans are still reeling over, what appears to be, the death of one of the show's biggest characters, there's something else fans should be paying close attention to from Sunday's episode.
Last chance to head back before spoilers.
Toward the beginning of Sunday's episode, we see Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) running down a road on his own.
The scene was heavily teased in previews for the week's episode.
He comes across a few zombies. No problem. Rick takes them out.
However, one of them has a machete sticking through them, and Rick ends up injuring his hand.
Many fans think Rick ended up getting zombie blood mixed in with his blood.
—äbî måe✌ (@abi_hooton31) October 26, 2015
—Tate Bucalo (@tatebucalo) October 26, 2015
What does that mean!?
Everyone's already infected with this supposed virus, so what's a little infected blood going to do?
A lot.
If you keep up with comics, there's been another time this has come up before.
In issue 122, a future villain in the series, Negan, orders his group to put zombie guts on their weapons. That way, when they attack Rick and his group they'll get infected and will slowly turn into zombies.
So Rick's boarding the train to zombieville?
Not yet!
We're about to get into some serious comic spoilers.
If Rick chops off his hand he should be okay.
Yes, you read that right.
It's actually something fans of the series have been waiting to see on screen for a long time.
Rick loses his right hand early in the comic series — in issue 28.
It happens during his first encounter with the Governor, who has been long gone on the show.
However, that may not end up happening.
Creator Robert Kirkman explained awhile back on an episode of "The Writer's Room" that having the lead character in the show lose his hand would lead to a lot of difficulties filming.
"To be perfectly honest, the practical difficulties of having a guy who doesn’t have a hand is extremely complicated in the comic and would be impossible in the show. Because the comic book doesn't move," said Kirkman. "It would add a huge complication to the TV series, and probably a lot more money to the budget, especially since Rick is the main character and involved in many action scenes. Enough people (Merle, Hershel) are already losing body parts on TV without Rick needing to join in."
That doesn't mean they haven't changed their minds, though.
Clearly, something needs to be done about that wound, and fans are thinking it may be time for the hand to go, too.
—James Matthias (@JamesMatthias2) October 26, 2015
—BRUCE WAYNE (@Rick_Grimes95) October 26, 2015
