Over the course of ten years, numerous storylines, and countless changes, The Walking Dead probably
couldn't help but leave behind a bunch of loose ends.
Here's a look at some of the major burning questions that the series has yet to answer.
We last see a critically wounded Rick in season 9, injuring himself in a heroic attempt to
save his friends and loved ones from a massive herd of Walkers.
What the other survivors don't know is that Rick just barely survives his act of self-sacrifice,
and is rescued by the mysterious Anne.
Anne's allies gather the pair into a helicopter to fly off to parts unknown, after which the
show jumps forward years later — with no sign of Rick in the interim as far as the
other protagonists are concerned.
In season 10, Michonne discovers evidence on a grounded military boat that Rick may
have survived the ordeal — among a host of scavenged goods, she finds his boots and
cell phone, along with a log entry that suggests he may be alive and is potentially in New
Jersey.
She sets off to find him.
Now, we know a few things about the mysterious group who took Rick — the helicopter he
left in belongs to the Civic Republic Military.
That group is advanced, militaristic, and a part of the Alliance of the Three, the group
of fortified partner cities which we've learned more about in the Walking Dead's spinoffs.
So while we have a general idea of where Rick's journey has taken him, the details of what
his life has been like since his departure are still very vague, and we have no idea
what the intervening years have done for Rick's circumstances or his character.
It seems we'll find out in the Rick-centric movies that continue his story.
In the years since Rick's disappearance and murky season 9 fate, fan favorite Michonne
has become the leader of the Alexandria Safe Zone as well as the adoptive mother of Judith
Grimes.
We last see her in the episode "What We Become" as she sets off north upon her discovery that
Rick may be alive, determined to discover the fate of the man she still loves.
"What We Become" has been confirmed as being the last appearance of the character on The
Walking Dead, so we are unlikely to discover the answer to Michonne's fate within the show
as it wraps up its final story arcs.
This is obviously an unhappy end for fans of the series, as Michonne is a pivotal and
well-loved character.
So... what will become of her?
Despite the character's absence from the rest of the series, Michonne would be a natural
fit to return in the Rick-centric films, so fans can probably expect a resolution to her
story whenever those start rolling out.
Another mystery concerns the fate of Eugene's group, who are last seen captured by a cadre
of mysterious armed soldiers at the end of season 10, episode 16.
The show hasn't revealed who these soldiers are yet, but the scene is a note-perfect recreation
of a sequence in the comic books that marks the debut of the massive community known as
the Commonwealth.
In the comics, the Commonwealth are a large, well-organized network of communities that
attempt to "restart civilization" following the devastation of the zombie plague.
It seems safe to assume that the attack is our first introduction to the group, but the
show has deviated from the books that inspire it before — until The Walking Dead tells
us outright who these people are, there's no way of knowing for sure.
“Charleston, West Virginia.
Southern railyards, about a mile south of the Kanawha River.
One week, can you be there?”
When Eugene sets out to meet the mysterious Stephanie, he approaches his meeting from
a hopeful place.
After a long history of unrequited feelings for Rosita, Eugene is understandably happy
at the idea of a potential romance with this mysterious woman he sets out to meet for the
first time.
When he instead encounters an unexpected trap at the intended meeting, he has to be suspicious.
Is Stephanie intentionally setting Eugene up for a trap?
Or is it a well-intentioned meetup that's intercepted in ways she can't control?
From Eugene's perspective, there could be any number of explanations.
The comic books do show that Stephanie has a connection to the Commonwealth, the group
whose white-armored soldiers trap and capture Eugene and company, yet eventually she and
Eugene do start a relationship despite this frightening experience.
The show's take on this relationship could go in an entirely different direction.
Either way, Eugene's plans for romance have hit at least a pretty major snag.
Two major series events — Rick's season 9 departure and Eugene's season 10 capture
— set us up for two major new civilizations in the world of The Walking Dead in the Commonwealth
and the Civic Republic.
What does the existence of these groups mean for the future of the show, and what is their
relationship to each other?
The Civic Republic is an advanced authoritarian society and part of the Alliance of the Three,
an allied network of fortified cities including Omaha, Nebraska; Portland, Oregon; and the
Civic Republic itself, which is geographically around Pennsylvania.
It boasts 200,000 citizens and stands as the largest civilization in the show world to
date.
The Commonwealth is an Ohio-based network of communities with around 50,000 citizens
and its own well-organized standing army.
It's a central civilization in the comics, and as such there's much more available information
on it.
It's a thoroughly hierarchical class system, running in practice like a feudal monarchy
where people are locked into the jobs they had before the apocalypse.
While the two organizations are distinct and should have strong roles in the future of
the show, we don't know what their relationships to each other are.
As two of the largest civilizations we've seen so far, each with large, technologically
advanced militaries, they're all but certain to at least know about each other.
At the same time, the Commonwealth of the comics isn't a member of the Alliance of the
Three, since the latter group isn't a part of the comic book storyline.
How are these two organizations connected, if they are at all?
The future of the show and its world may lie in the relationships between these societies
— we just don't know yet what they are yet.
Late in season 10, we see the introduction of a mysterious masked warrior alongside Maggie.
Wielding dual curved blades, he's first seen during a rescue of Gabriel, who's barricaded
in a hospital that's being besieged by a group of Whisperers.
The Whisperers barge in and easily overtake Gabriel.
It seems as though all is lost before the masked warrior enters and effortlessly slaughters
the attacking Whisperers, the last of which is taken out by Maggie.
The only clue we have to his identity is her cryptic line of introduction, which isn't
very specific.
"It's okay.
He's with me."
We know a few things from this brief encounter: the masked survivor is a he, a skilled warrior,
and Maggie clearly trusts him.
Other than those sparse details, we have yet to learn much of anything about who's under
the mask, what his relation to Maggie is, or... anything else about him, really.
Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of him — and getting more answers — in future
episodes.
Virgil, first introduced in season 10, is still a very mysterious character.
We first encounter him as a researcher in the capture of Oceanside, one who promises
Michonne a weapon that will help against the Whisperers.
Virgil accompanies Michonne on the excursion that marks her major discovery of Rick's apparent
survival, leading to her own subsequent departure from the show.
He betrays her, trapping and drugging her and causing her to have a series of disturbing
hallucinations.
That betrayal serves as a prelude to the discovery that Virgil has also been keeping his coworkers
captive for quite some time.
She overpowers him, and when Michonne discovers Rick may be alive, she lets Virgil live and
sets off on her journey.
When Michonne leaves Virgil, she seems to see some good in him despite his treachery
and a history of having done some bad things.
Is he trustworthy?
If not, Connie is certainly in jeopardy.
Her fate, and the response of Daryl and others, remains mysterious.
Negan's free.
Our introduction to Negan comes when he's the vicious leader of the Saviors, a group
who describe themselves as bringing civilization and order back to the world — albeit at
a terribly steep cost.
“Whatever you do, no matter what, you don’t mess with the new world order.”
Every community they encounter is subjected to their rule, until a coalition of the Alexandria
Safe Zone, Hilltop Colony, the Kingdom, and Oceanside break their power.
Until that time, Negan demands absolute loyalty, often killing a member of a rebellious group
to reinforce his rule and subjugate those he conquers.
Early on, in an effort to break the will of Rick and his group, Negan brutally kills Abraham
and Glenn with his barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.
This leaves Maggie, Glenn's wife, tragically widowed.
Following the defeat of Negan's Saviors, Maggie is understandably angry at Rick's decision
to spare Negan's life.
Years later, Negan seems by all accounts to be a changed man, killing Alpha on Carol's
behalf and actively working to prove his loyalty to Daryl.
It seems at this juncture that Negan's years-long change of heart is real... and he's no longer
in prison.
What will Maggie do when she finds this brutal ex-ruler, the man who killed Glenn, is freely
out and about?
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