Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 9 follow.
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Achieving quite an impressive feat, The Walking Dead managed to squeeze two cliffhangers into one midseason premiere. The Rock in the Road episode not only ended with a major question of “Who has Rick surrounded?” but started with an equally major mystery: Where did Father Gabriel go?
Also surrounding the latter mystery are a couple of other questions…
Why did he clear out the pantry and armory before heading out?
And, more importantly, just who the heck is in his car?
On the following slides, we explore the possible candidates for who is riding shotgun with Father G.
A Savior
The Saviors have been wreaking havoc on Alexandria left and right, so it’s unlikely that one would take the initiative of forcing Gabriel to hand over the last of the community’s food supply.ย
However, a rogue Savior is certainly a possibility. Fans of The Walking Dead comics know one particularly high ranking Savior who decides to betray his menacing leader in favor of Alexandria, the Kingdom, and the Hilltop’s good fortune.
This would certainly be the worst case scenario for Gabriel, though.
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A Garbage Pail Kid
The new group which cornered Rick to conclude the episode but they may have been introduced earlier.
It appeared they were expecting Rick by how easily they were able to surround him. If Father Gabriel gave them some sort of tip on where and when to expect him, this would explain how they were so organized in their ambush.
Perhaps Gabriel was standing in the background, prompting Rick’s smile which concludedย the episode.
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The Spy
If the Alexandria spy which was introduced in the midseason 7 finale a couple of months ago was the one who forced Gabriel to clear out the pantry and hit the road, it’s possible they are also either a Savior or Garbage Pail Kid.
Of course, the possibility of the spy being a member of another group or simply a lone survivor looking out for their best interest remains, as well.
We will likely find out where Father Gabriel was as Andrew Lincoln tells ComicBook.com that finding him is Rick’s number one priority at the moment.
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