'The Walking Dead' Helicopter Mystery Plot Thickens

The Walking Dead brought back its biggest lingering mystery on Sunday night: the helicopter.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9x02 follow. Major spoilers!

After Anne and Father Gabriel decided to become an item on the AMC zombie series, the former was on watch duty when she saw the helicopter she is somehow connected to flying in the distance. There was no sign of communication between Anne (formerly known as Jadis) and the pilots of the chopper but she didn't exactly seem as startled to see the helicopter as one might expect a survivor to be.

The helicopter appeared in two episodes of Season Seven. First, it flew over Rick Grimes as he hustled to the trash heap where Anne was residing at the time. In an unstable state of mind, Rick didn't follow up the lead because he and others may have thought he was hallucinating (after all, he has seen things that weren't actually there in the past).

Later, the helicopter returned when Anne, as Jadis, had Negan held prisoner. She did not seem to have any interest in killing the leader of the Saviors but she tried to form some line of communication with the chopper. When Negan blew her chances of connecting with the pilots via flare gun, Anne was left behind, ultimately freeing Negan and joining Rick's group.

For now, the helicopter's involvement in Season Nine remains a mystery, but Anne's connections to it continue to become more evident. In shots revealed from the Season Nine trailer which have not yet aired in episodes, Anne was seen communicating with the chopper via walkie talkie as it flew by.

With Rick and Maggie both set to exit the series in the coming episodes, is it possible Anne's mysterious people are going to fly them out of town? Or is it more likely that Georgie, the mysterious and well-off character who appeared in a single episode of Season Eight is flying in from the Commonwealth (a community known well by fans of The Walking Dead comics) and will be paying another visit to the survivors?

Share your thoughts on Anne's connection to the helicopter and the identity of its pilot in the comment section!

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The Walking Dead returns for its ninth season on Oct. 7, 2018. For more updates and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter!