‘The Walking Dead’ has an opportunity right now to connect its current storyline with Rick’s disappearance

Is Pamela Milton underestimating Hornsby?Jace Downs/AMC Warning: There are spoilers ahead for season 11, episode 18 of “The Walking Dead,” “A New Deal. ” Lance told Pamela that if anything happens to him, certain alliances may become a problem. Does Lance secretly have an alliance with the CRM and could they show up on the final episodes? On Sunday’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) tells her right-hand man Lance Hornsby that his life at the Commonwealth is over.

Milton recently learned that Lance, power-hungry, and out to prove himself, was going rogue and abusing his power as second-in-command, killing others without her knowledge. Shocked and in disbelief, Lance warns Pamela that she still needs him: “If something happens to me, certain alliances the Commonwealth has, certain stabilizing factors, are likely to become a problem. “Milton may believe Hornsby is bluffing in order to weasel his way out of getting stripped of his role in the Commonwealth, but she may be very, very wrong.

Does Lance have a secret alliance with a group we may already know?AMCIf you’ve been watching “TWD” closely, that single line of dialogue should’ve made your ears perk. We’ve seen one group that Lance has an alliance with, but it’s possible there’s a more important alliance Hornsby formed that hasn’t been seen on screen yet. For some time, “TWD” has been dropping potential clues that the Commonwealth has ties to another nameless community.

And it has us wondering: Does Lance Hornsby have some sort of secret arrangement with the Civic Republic Military? In case you don’t recall, they’re the group of 200,000 people who took Rick and that was at the center of the spin-off series “TWD: World Beyond. “We hope so. It would be a great way for the series’ final episodes to wrap up some loose ends and tie the flagship to some of its spin-offs.

 Let’s walk through the clues that have us convinced we could see a connection between Lance and the CRM on the show’s final episodes. Where are all of these other missing people at the Commonwealth? The CRM provides the perfect solution. The CRM soldiers are seen in all black on “TWD: World Beyond.

“Zach Dilgard/AMCThe final episodes of “TWD” have the opportunity to link together disappearances at the Commonwealth with a few other mysterious ones we’ve seen over the years on the apocalyptic drama. We know that Sebastian was inadvertently responsible for the deaths of some people at the Commonwealth, but, as a reminder, there was a pretty long list of missing people that Kelly and her sister Connie acquired on season 11, episode 11. A few episodes later, on season 11, episode 17, Connie briefly mentioned to Kelly that there are still a lot of missing people whose whereabouts they don’t know about.

We’re hoping that’s not a random plot that will be dropped. Are other missing people being traded to another community we may already know?AMCWhere could they be? If they’re not dead, one thought is that they could’ve been traded to another community either for supplies or in exchange for an alliance or to be left alone. If that sounds out of the blue, it’s not.

“TWD” has previously brought up the idea of people going missing only to later reveal on or off screen that they wound up in the care of the Civic Republic Military.  Heath went missing on season seven of “TWD” and was traded to the CRM off screen. Gene Page/AMCSeasons earlier, showrunner Angela Kang told Insider that Jadis traded Heath to the CRM in exchange for supplies.

 On season 11, episode 13, we briefly learned that Lance was setting some supplies aside for something, possibly a group. He revealed that he took some of the resources to rebuild Alexandria and directed them toward a secret project, referred to as “that other thing. “Are we ever going to find out what Lance was talking about?AMCUnfortunately, because of Daryl’s former girlfriend Leah, those supplies were intercepted and never found their way to their original destination.

The hiccup resulted in Lance’s rogue Commonwealth militia wrongfully accusing Annie’s group of stealing the supplies and murdering a good number of them. Before getting locked up, Lance became so preoccupied with Daryl’s extended group that he never circled back to the fact that his supplies didn’t go to “that other thing. ” Is someone going to come looking for them?It would seem strange if the Civic Republic Military wasn’t aware of the Commonwealth’s existenceThere are too many people in the Commonwealth for their community to not be a secret.

Josh Stringer/AMCIt’s becoming increasingly unbelievable that the CRM’s massive group of 200,000 wouldn’t be aware of a group the size of the Commonwealth’s 50,000 in Ohio. From “TWD: World Beyond,” we know that the main three CRM sites were located in and around Ithaca, New York, Portland, Oregon, and Omaha, Nebraska. The latter site was destroyed.

 Additionally, season one, episode seven of “World Beyond” revealed that the Civic Republic Military had secret oil reserves hidden throughout the US so they could refuel their helicopters. Some of the many oil reserves that the CRM has hidden throughout the US. AMC, composite by Kirsten Acuna/InsiderWhere are these reserves?Two are in Ohio while others are located in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Virginia, near what appears to be Washington, DC.

The Commonwealth is situated in an unknown spot in Ohio. Additionally, Daryl and his crew’s main home is located in Alexandria, Virginia. Are we supposed to believe the CRM and the Commonwealth haven’t crossed paths while Lance has been out forging alliances? Even if Lance doesn’t have some sort of alliance with the CRM that could go sideways, it’s a little impossible to believe that the CRM’s helicopters haven’t caught sight of the Commonwealth or its militia.

 And, if by some miracle, the Commonwealth has stayed off their radar, there’s another more obvious Civic Republic Military connection to “TWD” who should know about the Commonwealth by now: Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). Could we see Jadis again sooner rather than later?Steve Swisher/AMCIt would be short-sighted of Jadis, as a leader of the CRM, to not be keeping tabs on Daryl’s people after leaving them. She knew what they were capable of, after all.

 It would make more sense that Jadis, who used to date Father Gabriel, was keeping some sort of tabs on or a spy within Daryl’s extended group and learned of the existence of the Commonwealth through them. An interaction or showdown between the Commonwealth and CRM could help seamlessly set up the show’s future spin-offsBringing back the CRM would help make sense of why they were introduced in the first place and why so much time was devoted to them since 2018. Jace Downs, Gene Page, Steve Swisher/AMC / composite by Kirsten Acuna/InsiderIt was always a belief that the end of “TWD” was going to set up the long-fabled Rick Grimes movie.

Now, that it’s becoming a show — one of three upcoming shows centered around “TWD” characters — “The Walking Dead” has to set up these series somehow, right?Bringing in the CRM, would be a clever and easy way to wrap up some loose ends while setting up the future of “TWD” universe. How? I’ve long postulated that it would be awesome to see some sort of war break out between the Commonwealth and CRM before “TWD” ends.  Otherwise, why dress the Civic Republic Military and Commonwealth armies in opposite colors?I’d watch a war between their two armies.

Steve Swisher, Josh Stringer/AMCI’m partially hoping the CRM comes in guns blazing on the final two episodes of “TWD” and takes over the Commonwealth after someone hears a commotion from the recent outburst that resulted in Sebastian’s death. How amazing would it be if Daryl and the Commonwealth were so caught up in their own squabble only for the CRM to blindside them both and turn everything topsy-turvey?Maybe the CRM come in and kidnap a bunch of people, including Maggie’s son, Hershel, and Negan’s wife, Annie, setting up their spin-off, “TWD: Dead City,” premiering next spring. Maybe this is how Daryl mysteriously gets to his spin-off that will send him to France.

Maybe someone smart knows they need to get Daryl out of the way. Everyone keeps wondering how Daryl is going to wind up in France. Personally, I think the CRM should send him on his way.

Jace Downs/AMCHonestly, it’s beyond me how AMC has three main “TWD” shows (don’t forget “Fear: TWD”) and there haven’t been crossovers to the main show in years. If there isn’t a CRM connection to “The Walking Dead” by the show’s end, it will have made “World Beyond” and the many nuggets about that group over the years on “Fear” look pointless. “World Beyond” star Nico Tortorella previously teased to Insider that the show was meant to lead into Rick’s “TWD” movie.

What better way to tie the shows together and help tease Rick’s return in an eventual spin-off by bringing everything back into the fold?Do you want to see the CRM make an appearance on “TWD” before it ends? Do you have a prediction for how the show will end? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @KirstenAcuna or email me at kacuna@insider. com.  You can follow along with our “TWD” coverage here.

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