The Walking Dead: Who Are the Migrants in Michonne’s Last Episode?

The Walking Dead introduces another large group of survivors in Sunday’s 1013, “What We Become,” the exit episode for Danai Gurira‘s Michonne. After sailing to Bloodsworth Island to retrieve weapons Virgil (Kevin Carroll) said could turn the tide in the Whisperer War, an empty-handed Michonne searched a washed up boat where — spoilers — she found items belonging to Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), including his boots and a cell phone marked “rick” with a carving of Michonne and daughter Judith (Cailey Fleming). Journeying to the coast with three prisoners (Olivia Stambouliah, Eve Gordon and Taylor Nichols) she freed from the naval base on Bloodsworth Island, Michonne then headed north in search of the missing Rick.

“What We Become” ended with Michonne, back on land and traveling alone, encountering a pair of stragglers (Breeda Wool and Andrew Bachelor) in danger of being left behind by the thousands of survivors moving together as a caravan. Wherever they’re migrating, the woman says they “won’t wait for us.”

Deciding to help them, Michonne joins the two survivors trailing the migrants, who are shown moving in organized formation.

The western wear of the travelers could be a sign the migrants have a connection to the Pioneers, the sprawling group headed by Virgina (Colby Minifie), a.k.a. Ginny, in Fear the Walking Dead. Season 5 of the spinoff revealed Ginny’s far-reaching and future-focused organization is comprised of multiple settlements spread throughout the west, with the horse-riding cowboys based primarily in Texas.

The group, already well resourced, could have expanded further in the more than six years separating Fear Season 5 and The Walking Dead Season 10.

Whether or not the Pioneers have ties to elusive Hilltop benefactor Georgie (Jayne Atkinson), who is leading a community someplace far from Virginia with Hilltop leader Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan), Ginny’s group is not an extension of the Civil Republic Military, or CRM, the shadowy organization who abducted Rick aboard one of their helicopters in Season 9 of The Walking Dead.

The CRM are heavily involved in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, set to expand the mythologies in TWD Universe, which soon grows with the addition of the Commonwealth in Season 10 of The Walking Dead.

Commonwealth, CRM, Georgie’s group, the Pioneers and now these migrants are several of the multiple mythologies connecting the wider Walking Dead Universe.

“However big that [CRM] story is, we don’t want that to be the story of The Walking Dead. I think that stuff is going to be super cool and people are going to dig it, but The Walking Dead is The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead is Fear the Walking Dead,” chief content officer Scott Gimple previously told EW.

“It’s not like they might not touch upon it again, but it’s super important that they have their own stories,” Gimple added. “We are developing other mythologies like the CRM mythology within this universe, and this is sort of the first mythology, but there’s going to be more.”

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.