The Walking Dead season 8 episode 3: New baby Gracie theory teases most shocking moment yet

*Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 8 episode 3*

The latest season 8 episode of The Walking Dead featured a moment that many fans believe may foreshadow what could well be the AMC show's most disturbing moment yet.

Having discovered a baby girl in the Saviours compound that he stormed with Daryl last week, Rick ends up taking her into care and hands her over to a grieving Aaron (whose partner Eric had earlier succumbed to wounds suffered in last week's episode).

The baby's name is Gracie, and her introduction saw a brief reprieve from the episode's bleakness - until a new rather disturbing theory began doing the rounds suggesting that her presence spells bad news for someone very close to Rick.

Cast your minds back to the season 8 premiere - in particular, the flashforward scenes showing an older version of Rick as well as characters Michonne, Carl and a six-year-old Judith.

Well, the theory asks: what if that young girl isn't Rick's daughter at all, but the new baby?

Backing up the theory is the premiere episode's cryptic scenes showing close-ups of a devastated Rick's bloodshot eyes. Now, we know All Out War is building to something that will clearly find Rick more tested than he has ever been - an event so cataclysmic that he seems to consider finding another way to sort out his troubles with Negan than to wage battle.

All this points to the possible death of baby Judith, an event that would most certainly go up against several of the show's previous moments as one of the most shocking yet (you can see a collection of the others in the gallery below).

The Huffington Post points out that the teddy seen in Gracie's cot is rather similar to the one Judith is seen carrying in the flashforwards.

Merge this with the fact that the premiere episode seems to hint that the event which rocks ricks world is the death of Carl (Chandler Riggs) - this could be a ploy from the producers to dupe fans and would most certainly add relevance to the Old Man Rick scenes.

The newly-released nail-biting trailer for next week's episode throws one of the show's original characters into mortal danger. In case you missed, you can read our review of latest episode 'Monsters' here.

The Walking Dead season eight airs every Sunday in the US on AMC with the UK premiere arriving the following evening on FOX. It will also be available on NOWTV

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