In this very first episode featuring The Kingdom and King Ezekiel they make a couple references to the pomegranate. When first meeting the King, Carol turns down his offer of a pomegranate because she found the seeds ‘too much trouble’. King Ezekiel mentioned the oddness of a sweet fruit surrounded by a bitter shell. At the end of the episode, Carol is in a house close to the Kingdom but not in the Kingdom when King Ezekiel visits her with a pomegranate in his hands, saying “You’ve got to try one of these”.
When he first mentioned the pomegranate and tried to get her to eat one, I was instantly put off due to Greek Mythology. In Greek Mythology, if you eat an entire pomegranate or a certain amount of seeds in the Underworld you are stuck there forever.
The pomegranate, first, symbolizes Carol. With the tough, bitter shell it represents who she sees herself as and what face she puts out. She wants everyone to think she is tough and bitter, and is convinced of it herself. But, we all know she has a soft and sweet inside that we’ve seen before (taking care of the kids, putting herself out to save her fellow group mates, etc). King Ezekiel said it was such a funny thing that the pomegranate was a sweet fruit with a bitter outside- the fruit itself symbolizes Carol.
Also, the fruit symbolizes staying, like with the Greek myths. In the very beginning, Carol wouldn’t eat the fruit. She refused. She did not want to stay in the Kingdom. But, by the end of the episode she had ‘gone and not go’, and had a house. She was staying. By King Ezekiel visiting her and saying “You’ve got to try one of these” we can infer that she eats the fruit and is staying.
I love the symbolism in the Walking Dead.
Also, King Ezekiel is the best character ever.
I love it when you turn nothing into something awesome like that. :D
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