The cigarrette is a way of selfharming.

Carol is doing it to punish herself because the weight of all the deaths she's taken and will inevitably continue to take to keep her family safe is breaking her apart. She can't cope with it anymore.

The reason why this episode was pivotal for her is because it's character development, Carol continues to grow, and she's not regressing by all means, she's still capable of doing everything she needs to do to survive, she simply is beggining to allow herself to feel and process everything she's been through since pretty much Ed died.

And it's phenomenal they're giving Melissa McBride this opportunity to show her range, Carol needs to keep developing, she can't be stuck in ruthless stone dead killer, that will eventually get her killed as it has every morally grey-villanous character in this show (except Rick who is downright sociopathic at this point and dgaf about it).

THE EPISODE SLAYED ME

Both Carol and Maggie

One of my favorite episodes of the show... PERIOD!
Only 3 more episodes of this amazing season.. I'm not ready for what is coming, and then, knowing we have to wait SO long...

Carol and Maggie were AMAZING

Shame those Saviors died though. They all actually had a personality despite being a very minor character who only lived for two episodes. Kind of a shame they all died so early, I kinda liked them.

My heart was in my mouth the entire episode. I really hope Carol doesn't turn into a Morgan/Priest hybrid. I was struggling to decide whether her panic attack and everything she said was genuine or if she was fooling them.

I love this episode!!!

Carol and Maggie were just badass awesome!

That was what made the epusode amazing in my opinion.I truly don't know either.
A shame Paula died,I liked what we saw from her character.

the woman had TEARS coming out of her eyes. she wasn't faking

This may be the start of Carol's breakdown. She was clearly sufferring emotionaly this episode. She almost died two times because she hesitated to kill when she had to. Paula said something like ''You're as much of a killer as the people in your group'' and the way she reacted to Rick killing that guy in the end tells me that there will be conflicts between her and him in the future.

I don't know much about the comic storyline of Maggie and Hilltop but if Maggie dies this season (unlikely but there are rumours about that) maybe Carol and Morgan can lead Hilltop. That way they wouldn't have to kill and everybody would be happy.

Paula lowkey was EVERYTHING.

Paula really was a great character. I wish she didn't die.

!!!!
She is literally FLAWLESS


She really have snatched the best episodes of the season since season 4

Yeah she was a great villain actually, I actually feared for Carol and Maggies life


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That was an amazing episode, I just hope Morgan hasn't damaged Carol

Thats twice now that Carol playing her "timid, scared" character has literally saved her life and others this season. I really hope that it doesn't fail to work on Negan or something and gets her killed

Season 2 of Fear The Walking Dead should focus on Paula

FANTASTIC episode. I love how female-centric it was.

Carol SLAYED. The queen continues to grow

I actually really liked Paula. She had potential, but she just had to go!

^^^ and bitch isn't Negan dead?

^

I wasn't sure what everyone meant when they were like "i'm negan" does it just mean they work together really well as a group and therefore they are all a threat ?

According to the comics, there should be two deaths next episode. Both significant characters in Rick's group.
Nah.

That's what they meant, but I'm questioning if that's how it happened in the comics because from what I heard about the comics, Negan IS an actual person

(and I don't want to know so don't @ me)

hmmm

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I hope someone gets rid of morgan soon

It's amazing how much I hated Carol at first, crying about Sophia 24/7, and then she shot that little girl in S4 and she suddenly became the best character

Loved this episode