The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode 3 sets up a story where the rest of the main show’s surviving characters re-enter the picture.

Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode 3

A development in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live lays the groundwork for the rest of The Walking Dead’s main characters to make at least one more appearance in the franchise. Whereas Carol, Daryl, Negan, Maggie, Rick, and Michonne are all still very much a part of The Walking Dead franchise, questions remain about the people who never left the Commonwealth, the Hilltop, and Alexandria. Since The Walking Dead ended, it’s been unclear if they’d ever get an opportunity to return alongside their friends.

The Walking Dead characters who didn’t find new shows to headline, such as Eugene, Ezekiel, and Aaron, have uncertain futures in the franchise. For some, it may be that their endings in the season finale really were their final chapters in their respective stories. But if a reveal in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode 3 is any indication, it may not be long before they become relevant again.

Jadis’ Threat Puts The Main Walking Dead Group In Danger

A conversation between Rick Grimes and Jadis raised the possibility of harm coming to his former allies. To shelve any further concerns of Rick potentially killing her and escaping the Civic Republic Military with Michonne, Jadis threatened to ensure Alexandria’s downfall. Apparently, she arranged for a file to be found that would detail everything she knows about Rick and his community were she to die. Jadis claimed that a CRM reclamation team would seek out Alexandria and wipe them out since Rick possibly returning there would pose a risk to the security of the CRM.

Jadis’ threat succeeds in that it scares Rick into not leaving, and it’s not hard to see why. Jadis betrayed Rick and his people to the Saviors before, and there’s currently no reason to doubt her. Plus, what’s known about the CRM gives credence to her threats. The many horrible acts committed by the CRM in the franchise’s past go to show that there’s nothing they won’t do for the sake of secrecy. To maintain the CRM’s security, it’s not hard to imagine them launching an attack on Alexandria if they thought Rick might head there.

Rick & Michonne’s Spinoff Proves Alexandria Is Still Relevant

By having Jadis drop those comments in the episode, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live effectively proved that despite their current absence from the spinoffs, Alexandria and its allies are still relevant to the bigger picture. That’s evidenced by the potential consequences of Rick’s conflict with the CRM; thanks to Jadis, it’s now understood that The Ones Who Live can’t simply end with the two lead characters escaping the CRM, or at least, not without inviting trouble for Eugene, Judith, Ezekiel, Aaron, and all the others back home.

 

 

A new CRM-related reveal from The Ones Who Live episode 3 means that AMC’s The Walking Dead can potentially go on indefinitely, should it choose to.

Clearly, the struggle with the CRM and Jadis goes beyond Rick and Michonne in The Walking Dead’s world. Jadis has made the CRM a threat to Alexandria as well, thus opening the door for them to return. And interestingly enough, there’s more than one pathway for them to appear. If Jadis dies in whatever battles are ahead, her threats could come to fruition and the CRM could pay a visit to Alexandria. Alternatively, Rick and Michonne could leave with Jadis still alive, and that would likely result in the latter chasing them to Alexandria.

Jadis May Have Set Up A Walking Dead Crossover (Or The Ones Who Live Season 2)

Unless the CRM is miraculously beaten or Jadis is killed and her evidence is destroyed within the next three episodes, the foundation for Alexandria’s return should remain intact. As for how appearances from Eugene and company could be facilitated, it’s possible that the plan is for Alexandria to find itself in the CRM’s crosshairs in The Walking Dead crossover, a project that’s been the subject of multiple fan theories for years. A miniseries could reunite all the characters from the main show who are still alive in The Walking Dead timeline for a final battle with the CRM.

Another route it could take would call for the show to take a page from Daryl’s spinoff. After one season, Daryl Dixon is changing its formula to make the series about both Norman Reedus’ character and Carol, hence the new title, Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol. The Walking Dead: The One Who Live could head in a similar direction by adding multiple Walking Dead protagonists to its cast, which would help season 2 feel inherently different from the previous chapter.