Lizzie Samuels is a character from the fourth season of The Walking Dead. She is one of the two daughters of Ryan Samuels who are cared for by Carol Peletier following their father's death. She is portrayed by Brighton Sharbino.
Personality[]
Lizzie is seen to be a disturbed young girl, unable to completely come to terms with the world around her. Though she tries her hardest to be polite and altruistic, Lizzie nonetheless is prone to acts such as lashing out at people and torturing animals. She is often pessimistic, frequently assuming absent people to be dead. While Lizzie can also be seen exhibiting normal childlike happiness and playfulness, these moments quickly give way to her character's increasingly dark turn throughout her appearances.
Lizzie's most notable quality is her obsession with the zombies; she sees them as being "just different," and thus not a threat to humans. She shares an eerie connection with them, describing them as her "friends," and saying that she can "hear them" talking to her. Lizzie most likely is mentally ill in some capacity, as evidenced by the fact that Carol and Mika are aware of her coping mechanism (looking at flowers when she's feeling upset). Interestingly, she seems to "flip-flop" her position on walkers; sometimes she recognizes that they're dangerous and attempts to keep herself and others away from them without hurting them, and other times she sees them as friends at best, harmless presences at worst.
History[]
Lizzie and her family lived in Jacksonville, Florida before the undead outbreak. After her mother died, she spent a great deal of time on the road with her father Ryan and younger sister Mika until they were offered refuge at the West Georgia Correctional Facility by Rick Grimes and his group.
When a deadly flu strain began spreading through the prison, many prison residents fell victim to it and reanimated as walkers after death. Ryan was bitten by one of the undead and died soon after, asking Carol to take care of Mika and Lizzie as though they were her own. When the prison is later destroyed by the Governor, the survivors become divided, with Mika and Lizzie taking Rick's baby daughter Judith and joining Tyreese in fleeing the prison.
During her time in the forest, Lizzie seems to display signs of psychotic behaviour when she mutilates a group of rabbits. Later, she is shown hiding in the woods with Mika and Judith, covering Judith's mouth to stifle her cries so the walkers cannot hear. However, it appears disturbingly more like Lizzie is actually trying to kill Judith by smothering her, as evidenced when she ignores Mika's pleas for help.
Tyreese and the girls later reunite with Carol who had been exiled by Rick after killing Karen and David. After a few days of travelling, the group arrive in a grove where an isolated, empty cottage is standing. With food and water readily available, it seems that they may be able to live at the cottage indefinitely. During their time at the grove, however, Lizzie's psychosis becomes more apparent as she becomes enraged when Carol kills a walker that she was "playing" with. Later on, in an attempt to make the others see the walkers the way she does, Lizzie kills her own sister Mika, intending to let her reanimate. She also states that she wants to do the same to baby Judith as well. Carol manages to talk her out of it and has Tyreese take Lizzie and Judith back into the house. Without Lizzie watching her, Carol stabs Mika's brain to stop her from reanimating.
Death[]
In the episode "The Grove", after Lizzie has killed Mika, Carol and Tyreese discuss what to do about her. It is clear now that Lizzie is psychotic and beyond help. Realizing that she poses a threat to other people, Carol decides that Lizzie cannot stay with them and needs to be executed.
The following day, Carol takes Lizzie out into the field. Sensing that Carol is upset, Lizzie begins to cry, thinking that Carol is angry with her for pointing a gun at her and yet still showing no remorse at all for murdering her sister. She pleads with Carol not to be mad with her and Carol tells Lizzie to look at the flowers in the grass. As Lizzie looks at the flowers and sobs, Carol draws her revolver and sorrowfully pulls the trigger. Lizzie's body is later buried in the grove alongside Mika.