Fear the Walking Dead Director Suspected a Connection Between Virginia’s Pioneers and Rick Grimes’ Abductors

Sydney Freeland, director on Fear the Walking Dead 514, "Today and Tomorrow," expected there to be a revelation tying Virginia (Colby Minifie) and the Pioneers to soldier Isabelle (Sydney Lemmon) and the CRM organization, the mysterious helicopter group responsible for Rick Grimes' (Andrew Lincoln) disappearance from The Walking Dead.

"I was convinced the helicopter pilot was going to tie in to my episode at some point, or that Colby... I thought that they were somehow tied together with the helicopter pilot," Freeland admitted to Insider. "So I was like, 'I know it's all going to come together. It's all going to come together.' And it didn't. So that kind of left me going... I think it sort of opened up a bigger, broader world in a good way."

Althea (Maggie Grace) shared those suspicions, asking ringleader Virginia if her well-off pack of cowboys were in possession of a helicopter. When Virginia claimed not to have ties to CRM, it was disappointing for Al, who infiltrated a Pioneer compound with Morgan (Lennie James) in the hopes of reuniting with Isabelle.

"Yeah, that's her, that's that little grain that she latches onto initially to motivate her to go break into this complex, which is a crazy thing to do, but that's the grain, and then obviously we find out later on that they're not like them at all, and then I thought, Maggie Grace gave this great performance," Freeland said. "She sort of realized like, 'Oh sh--, this is... I brought Morgan in here and put him in very, very serious danger. What I thought this was, isn't that at all.'"

ComicBook.com speculated Virginia could be connected to The Walking Dead's Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) as both Virginia and Georgie's organizations are working to recruit survivors as part of an effort to build a future.

It remains to be seen if Isabelle — last seen flying away in a helicopter, bound to uphold her duties as part of CRM's undefined efforts to rebuild the world — ever returns to Fear the Walking Dead. Rick returns in the first Walking Dead movies, set sometime after his rescue by Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) and CRM in The Walking Dead Season 9. ComicBook.com believes Rick may have been relocated to Philadelphia, where he's very likely being held against his will by CRM.

Fear the Walking Dead airs its Season 5 finale Sunday, Sep. 29 on AMC ahead of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sunday, Oct. 6. For TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.