The Walking Dead: 5 Crazy Theories (That Could Be True)

With just one episode to go before The Walking Dead takes off until October, there's a lot of speculation going on as to just what might happen, what twists might pop up and who might die next week. So far, there are a few clues here and there, but nothing really solid. And there are some really credible, really cool theories out there. So we're going to ignore those and go with fun, insane ones instead...

Joe planted the rabbit and killed Len to cover it up Disqus user @iamfakenick suggested this in the comments thread for another story, saying, "Joe planted that rabbit on Daryl to get him to trust him. Just saying. Transparent as hell. Len was a meat head, didn't plan a set up with Daryl. They were put at odds intentionally." That actually makes a lot of sense; Len had proven himself to be squirrely about their "code" in the past, willing to skirt the edges of the rules to claim things like a bed somebody was already sleeping on, or a rabbit Daryl had cornered, not technically violating the rules but absolutely flaunting their intent. That said, the guilty way Len looks around when accused of planting evidence like a dirty cop tends to tell me the answer is no.

Mary is actually Brenda St. John In the Telltale Games series, Brenda St. John and her family are seemingly kind people who take in strangers, offer to tend to their wounded and feed them. Ultimately, they turn out to be cannibals, and the wounded survivors they take in to "help" are the first and easiest prey. While the inhabitants of the St. John Dairy Farm aren't nearly as dangerous as The Hunters from the comics, it doesn't seem impossible that the two groups have been merged in Terminus, creating a crafty and outwardly-aggressive group of cannibals that uses cleverness and bait traps with your heart's desires. This would also allow them to cover some of the same ground as the popular Telltale Games series without violating Robert Kirkman's recent comments that they had no plans to introduce characters or settings from the game into the show anytime soon, even though Terminus is in Macon, which is a setting in the games.

Did we meet Lizzie's mother this week? On another comments thread, somebody suggested that Mary could be Lizzie's mother, hence the confusion among fans that the paintings in "Claimed," which now seem to represent Mary and Terminus, were believed by some fans to be Lizzie. That's a sentiment that's also circulating on Reddit, and so it's not just one guy in our comments talking about it. I don't think that's the case; it seems equally likely that the "soccer mom zombie," with the note that said "Let Momma be" on the windshield, is a more likely case to be her mom. The blonde walker may have had the two toe-headed daughters who (I could have sworn) saw their mother turn, the root of Lizzie's problems understanding the difference between walkers and people. It's doubtful this was meant to actually be Lizzie's mom, but certainly it's playing on the same theme (one we also saw early this season with Clara), and serving as a kind of bridge to bring their lost loved ones into the episode. You know what else might be real, but is probably metaphor?

Joe is Daryl's father While it sounds insane at first blush, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to back it up. He shows a keen interest in the lad, chews tobacco in the scene where Daryl is "missing" from the marauders' camp, drinks moonshine after Len's body is seen, and says thing like, "Isn't that what we've always done?" and "You belong with us." Daryl's father was abusive and then apparently left them. In The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, his name is Will and he has a bit more backstory, but that hasn't been mentioned in the TV series, and he's not explicitly been referred to as dead that I can recall. Assuming he's still alive, a punch in the mouth and a failure to acknowledge the relationship might not be entirely out of line from the son you used to hit and then left. Whether he planted the rabbit or not, I don't believe for a second that he personally saw Len do so. That suggests that he's showing favoritism toward Daryl (or, as mentioned above, possibly just a dislike for Len). Here's the thing: actually MAKING him Daryl's literal father would be ... well, terrible writing. SO contrived, and wildly unlikely considering how few people are still alive in Georgia. It might happen, but I hope not. More likely is that they're setting him up as a surrogate father so that Daryl can ultimately reject that version of family and that version of himself and choose the good guys when he realizes that Joe wants to kill Rick. If that's the case, though, they're laying it on a little thick.

Rick dies it's extremely unlikely, in my opinion, that Rick will die at this point in the series; when Michonne is cradling Carl in one promo and Carl is looking scared and upset, I think it's actually Rick who has scared and upset him by showing his animal side, as he did with The Marauders in the comics. That said, anything is possible and if it turns out that Rick really does die (or prove to be terminal, anyway) in Wednesday's issue of the comic, they might see killing him on the show as a way to tie the two together for marketing purposes. And, yes, he has a very dangerous group after him in a bad way. More likely than that would be to tease killing him in one or both, but not do it. Or at least not do it in both. And if I had to guess, the comics over the show would be where we see him go out. All that said, he sure is looking a lot like Hershel lately.