The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live hints toward a problem bigger than the zombie outbreak, but the spinoff already mentioned a solution in episode 1.

Warning: spoilers ahead for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode 4.

Zombies are, surprisingly, not the biggest problem in The Walking Dead‘s universe, according to The Ones Who Live, but a solution that could finally end the apocalypse has already been mentioned via a throwaway line of dialogue. Rick and Michonne’s spinoff represents a giant leap forward for The Walking Dead. Thanks to the widespread reach of the Civic Republic Military and its fleet of helicopters, AMC’s zombie franchise is now a far bigger sandpit, and whatever Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes does next could very well impact the future of the entire globe.

Now that The Walking Dead is tackling its zombie apocalypse from a worldwide angle, the franchise’s endgame is coming into view. The Ones Who Live has already revealed the CRM’s 500-year plan to rebuild The Walking Dead‘s world, and the prospect of restoring civilization on a large scale is now very real. The days of Rick leading a handful of survivors from one disaster to the next are truly over. Nevertheless, the remnants of humanity face a bigger problem than the undead, and a throwaway line from The Ones Who Live episode 1 may reveal how to end the apocalypse permanently.

The Ones Who Live Confirms Starvation Is A Bigger Problem Than Zombies

The biggest problem for survivors in The Walking Dead‘s current timeline is not being eaten, but eating, and this is highlighted by the fallen community Rick and Michonne stumble across in The Ones Who Live episode 4. A settlement once filled with innovative and brilliant minds, the community had electricity, security, and even roombas to keep the floors sparkling clean. The one crucial thing it lacked was a regular source of food, as Rick and Michonne deduce from the skeletal corpses of inhabitants that died from starvation.

This very point is underlined by the CRM’s own struggles. As confirmed in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Civic Republic modeling predicted that its Omaha and Portland allies would soon begin to drain resources, meaning there wouldn’t be enough supplies to go around between all three groups. No matter how well-defended and advanced a settlement may be, therefore, the biggest obstacle to rebuilding civilization in The Walking Dead is having the infrastructure to feed hundreds of thousands of hungry mouths.

The Ones Who Live Episode 1 Teased A Solution To The Food Problem

Can millet save The Walking Dead’s world?

Intriguingly, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live began setting up a potential solve for this issue as early as episode 1. When Rick Grimes first visited Okafor to accept his invitation to join the CRM, the Lt. Col. was tending to a small garden patch inside a greenhouse. Okafor explained this patch was millet, elaborating, “Isn’t exactly millet country, but if I could find the right one… It could change things.” Millet is a type of grain – a food source, essentially – of which there are many species, and it has provided the backbone for various civilizations across thousands of years.

At face value, it seems strange that The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live would waste precious screen time by introducing Okafor’s farming project, then in episode 4 make a point of explicitly confirming that the fallen Greenwood community died of starvation. These seemingly throwaway details point toward Okafor’s millet being the farming solution that no large-scale community in The Walking Dead aside from Terminus has cracked yet – sustainable, long-term food production. If that isn’t where The Ones Who Live is heading, then both the millet line from episode 1 and the starvation observation from episode 4 have no point whatsoever.

Rick Grimes Can Honor Okafor’s Legacy By Finishing His Work

Rick Grimes can finish what Okafor started with the millet

A running theme of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live has been Rick Grimes wanting to honor the legacy of Okafor – a friend that he respected greatly. Rick believes he can do that by inheriting Okafor’s mission to rid the CRM of its ruthlessness and corruption, but the millet gives Andrew Lincoln’s character another way to commemorate the late soldier. Okafor clearly hadn’t found the right species of millet before he was unceremoniously killed by Nat – or if he had found it, he hadn’t yet made that discovery public.

Rick Grimes could honor Okafor’s memory by continuing the millet research, finding a species of grain that could solve the Civic Republic’s food problem permanently. In doing so, Rick would be mapping out a brighter future for the entire world, ensuring that communities like Greenwood wouldn’t need to wither away, and the CRM wouldn’t have to commit genocide against its allies just to conserve supplies. Rick, and by extension Okafor, would have saved the world – a fitting legacy for both The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live characters to leave behind.