Monday, February 14, 2022

How The Walking Dead’s Fake Stephanie Could Have Massive CRM Implications

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Part 1 and potential spoilers for Part 2, which premieres Feb. 20 on AMC.

While the majority of The Walking Dead’s Season 11A focused on a mildly disappointing Reaper story arc, it also started to set up the Commonwealth as a major player going forward. Now, the trailer for Season 11B has indeed promised a lot more of the Stormtrooper-like soldiers and showed many characters traveling to the Commonwealth. With the new episodes right around the corner, fans have started to hypothesize what will happen when they arrive. However, there’s no need for too much speculation because the trailer offers a very important clue that could connect the series to the Civic Republic Military (CRM).

Ever since Eugene made contact with Stephanie in Season 10 of The Walking Dead, it was clear that the world was about to get much bigger for the survivors at the Virginia-based community. At the end of that season, it finally happened as Eugene, Ezekiel and Yumiko set out to find Stephanie and her community of overly cautious people.

RELATED: The Walking Dead: How Will Maggie and Negan's Rivalry End?

After some trouble being admitted to the Commonwealth, Eugene soon met the person who claimed to be Stephanie. They immediately hit it off, and Stephanie even offered to break some rules so that Eugene could contact his friends back at Hilltop. Unfortunately, though, they were caught in the act, thrown in jail and forced to pay for their actions by clearing walkers. Later, when Eugene assaulted Sebastian Milton, he had no choice but to give up the location of his friends back in Virginia.

That was how Season 11A ended, but that won’t be the end of Eugene’s troubles. Unlike Eugene, fans of the series know that “Stephanie” was not really Stephanie. From all appearances, the overly nice Lance Hornsby used “Stephanie” to get close to Eugene. So, when she got him in trouble, it was all part of a plot to make him give up the location of his friends in Virginia. While Hornsby’s subterfuge was annoying, the 11B trailer might have dropped a clue that Hornsby's motives are worse than fans thought.

After Eugene got out of jail (for the second time) he soon found out that Stephanie was missing, so he started to investigate. The clue in the trailer, though, was when Eugene appeared to confront Hornsby. He yelled, “I’m going to make certain everybody knows exactly who and what you are.” Thus, it seems like Hornsby will be personally responsible for making "Stephanie" disappear. Many fans have begun to speculate that much of Eugene’s time this season will be spent exposing Lance Hornsby for fostering a secret relationship with the CRM and trading Stephanie for something, similar to how Jadis traded Rick in Season 9.

RELATED: The Walking Dead Season 11B Trailer Reveals the Return of Carol's Cookies

It's actually a perfectly legitimate theory that Hornsby is up to something awful because, as conniving as it was to use a fake Stephanie, it was weirder that she totally disappeared. Obviously, Eugene would notice that she was gone; it wasn’t like Hornsby was hiding anything. So, the soon-to-be villain must have had a self-preserving, ulterior motive in getting rid of her.

It seems like the fake Stephanie had accomplished her purpose, so Hornsby probably sent her far, far away to ensure that she and Eugene couldn't expose his plots. Thus, although there isn’t any direct proof at this time, Hornsby's motive is almost definitely related to giving Stephanie to the CRM. If she wasn't really gone, Eugene would have found her, and and he wouldn’t have been so mad at Hornsby in the trailer. Besides, at this point on The Walking Dead, all roads lead to the CRM. The series has to find a way to connect to the Rick Grimes movies, and Lance Hornsby’s actions with fake Stephanie could (and should) lead Eugene to discovering the CRM.

The Walking Dead Season 11B premieres Feb. 20 on AMC and is available to stream a week early on AMC+.

KEEP READING: The Walking Dead Is Desperately Trying to Be the New MCU


Source: Trendz OH

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