Season 8 returns on Sunday, February 25 at 9/8c.

Episode director Greg Nicotero recently promised that the upcoming mid-season premiere of “The Walking Dead” is “one of the most powerful episodes we’ve ever produced,” admitting that it completely broke him upon his first watch of the first cut. Of course, the reason is because it’s the final episode for Carl Grimes; as we saw in the mid-season finale, Carl was recently bit by a zombie, and his days are incredibly numbered.

We’ve learned today, via EW, that next month’s mid-season premiere will be an extended episode to allow for the “RIP Carl” story to be told properly, running 82-minutes long.

The episode, we can only assume, will primarily center on the final hours of Carl’s life, and it’s also safe to assume that there won’t be a dry eye watching on February 25.

Make sure you’ve got plenty of tissues lying around.