The Walking Dead: Judith Grimes has some really big shoes to fill

Rick Grimes is gone. But after this season’s time jump, it looks like Judith Grimes is ready to take on her father’s legacy.

Rick Grimes’ final day on The Walking Dead has come and gone. Now the communities he left behind face the daunting task of determining what direction to follow in his absence.

Rick, who is presumed dead by all his loved ones, was whisked away by Anne and the helicopter people. Based on the teased TWD movies, we know Rick will have a new life elsewhere — just not surrounded by the present Walking Dead communities.

Whether stories from the upcoming films will bleed into the show is unknown at this point. And that brings up the question of how life will go on in Alexandria and in the other areas that were touched by Rick’s leadership. They’ve lost their guiding light in trying to achieve a new world that is worthwhile. So, now what do they do?

The estimated six-year time jump at the end of “What Comes After” allows us to skip the mourning and growing pains after Rick’s departure and go straight into how everyone has evolved without Rick’s leadership. If the older more sophisticated introduction of Judith Grimes is any indication of what has happened since Rick died, then we’re about to witness some unusually tough characters.

Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Judith is now about Carl’s age when the walker apocalypse first started, but I doubt she resembles the Carl of that time. Carl got to experience “normal” life for a child in a world without constant threats, and Judith doesn’t know anything outside from the everyday struggle of keeping walkers at bay and working together just to be able to eat. Those important differences will inevitably affect Judith’s perspective on life.

In Rick’s last episode, we learned that Judith is actually Shane’s daughter. But after seeing Judith wearing Rick’s sheriff hat, sporting a Kitana on her back, and carrying a gun holster for her pistol, there’s no doubt that she has become Rick and Michonne’s child. How much of an impact Rick and Carl left behind is to be seen, as it’ll all depend on how much she even remembers them. If nothing else, we know that Michonne has raised Judith and she will be considerably influenced by those fierce values.

While we may think that we know Michonne by now and we can guess what type of upbringing she gave Judith, we have to consider the possibility that Michonne has changed. There’s no telling how Rick’s “death” affected her and how much of that trickled into raising Judith.

Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

What we do know based on the few seconds we got of this new post-Rick existence is that Judith is a strong little girl and possibly a leader in her own right. Michonne has probably taken full responsibility for Alexandria, and Judith has also absorbed a lot of the lessons that come with governing a small town.

The rest of the questions that we may have about Judith and life after Rick will have to be addressed in the coming episodes. Who will Judith Grimes be? How has Michonne changed since Rick left? And how will everyone fare against the Whisperers without Rick to lead the pack?

Above all, our biggest burning question is whether Judith will take Rick’s place as the new hero on The Walking Dead, and the chances that the answer is yes are looking more and more promising.

The Walking Dead airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. on AMC.