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While the Commonwealth could be The Walking Dead’s final villain, it’s more likely that the series will connect to the CRM and Rick Grimes.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Part 1 and potential spoilers for Part 2, beginning Feb. 20 on AMC.
With only 16 episodes to go, many fans of The Walking Dead have started to wonder how the series will wrap up. Season 11A — which felt like an unnecessary side trip — primarily focused on Daryl, Leah and the Reapers. The new Season 11B trailer seemed to position Pamela Milton’s Commonwealth community as the final villains for the series, but that doesn’t add up for a number of reasons.
The final story arc in Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead comics involved the Commonwealth, so it makes sense that fans might expect the series to wrap up like its source material. Over the years, though, The Walking Dead has only loosely aligned with Kirkman’s comics and it feels like that’s about to happen again. As Screen Rant pointed out, The Walking Dead is setting up a twist for Season 11.
In Kirkman’s comics, Rick Grimes leads some of his Virginia-based survivors to the Commonwealth and they help to reinvent the community’s leadership structure. From there, the characters essentially ride off into the sunset with sunshine and roses. Okay, it’s not that simple, but the fact remains that The Walking Dead’s source material ends without a major battle or confrontation. Rick’s group assimilates with the Commonwealth, and that’s that.
An ending like that would never fly in AMC’s television series. Fans would be outraged if there wasn’t a major fight to end everything or lead into the next adventure. While it’s possible that Maggie, Daryl and company could have a major war with the Commonwealth and end the series in that way, it’s not likely. Just like Kirkman’s comics, the series has portrayed the Commonwealth as nefarious but not overtly evil. It seems like something else is in the works, and it just so happens that AMC has conveniently positioned a massive, villainous organization in its ever-expanding universe — the CRM (Civic Republic Military).
Make no mistake, The Walking Dead needs its own definitive ending, but focusing on the Commonwealth without connecting the series to the universe’s overarching plot would be a major storytelling foul. A CRM connection would also explain comments made by Jeffrey Dean Morgan about the final season. He confirmed that Season 11 was expanded from 16 installments to 24 after AMC decided to end the series. It’s probable that Season 11C was an afterthought or a way to wrap things up in a hurry by connecting the series to something larger.
All of the CRM speculation is accentuated by the fact that Rick Grimes has been somehow involved with the mysterious organization since his “death” in Season 9. Ending The Walking Dead — a series that Rick carried for so many years — with its protagonist still missing would be a disservice to the series and its fans. AMC’s Rick Grimes movies will continue his story, but leaving all the other characters in the dark would feel incomplete.
Rick Grimes has to make a reappearance before The Walking Dead is all said and done. He doesn’t have to come back in the flesh, but he needs to be mentioned or his group of survivors needs to somehow find out that he’s alive. The most logical way for that to happen would be for the Commonwealth story arc to be all but finished by the end of Season 11B, leaving the CRM as the focus for 11C.
The Walking Dead Season 11B premieres February 20th on AMC and is available to stream a week early on AMC+.
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