In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman seemingly confirmed that Rick Grimes will survive the season finale...but suggested that fans will be "shocked" by what the character does in order to do so.

“This is Rick Grimes being pushed to his absolute limit," Kirkman said, reiterating something he had said in a Reddit AMA earlier in the month. "And if you think you’ve seen that before, you haven’t. And the Rick Grimes that comes out of this is really going to shock people.”

That could gel with some predictions being made online that Daryl's group -- led by the charismatic but brutal Joe -- is in fact a twist on The Marauders, a group of violent survivors who brought out Rick's dark side in the comics and died for their trouble.

Kirkman added that while Rick Grimes hasn't really been featured in the last several episodes, the second half of Season Four is very much his journey, and fans should expect a resolution of sorts on that score.

“This last half of season 4 has been a character defining group of stories for everyone,” Kirkman told EW, “but really, Rick Grimes — really finding what this guy is going to be able to do and how he is going to carry on, and is he going to get these people back together, and where is he going to go from here? And I think there are some big questions that are asked that are going to be answered in this final episode.”