The Walking Dead Easter Egg Reveals Clues About Missing Character’s Mysterious Past

Before Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) go their separate ways in “Diverged,” he hands her a pocketknife with a clue about Leah’s (Lynn Collins) life before The Walking Dead. Season 10 Episode 18, “Find Me,” flashed back to the six years Daryl spent searching for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), revealing Daryl and Leah’s romantic relationship. When Leah opens up about her late son, Matthew, she tells Daryl they found a family in her “squad.” Leah fought side-by-side with them for years — before and after the zombie apocalypse — until she was separated from her family when they were attacked by the dead.

In “Find Me,” set years before present-day Season 10, Leah uses the knife to free Daryl after tying him up inside her cabin. After Daryl gives Carol the knife in “Diverged,” where Carol uses its blade to help with chores inside Alexandria, she tries to return it and is surprised when Daryl tells her to “keep it.”

A closer look at Leah’s knife on Talking Dead reveals a “clue to her mysterious past.” Initials engraved on the knife stand for “Fortitudo Salutis,” according to a tidbit revealed on Talking Dead, a Latin phrase that also appears on Leah’s arm tattoo. “Fortitudo Salutis” appears to be taken from Psalms 140 in the King James Bible, which is roughly translated to mean support in times of war.

“Find Me” writer Nicole Mirante-Matthews previously said on Talking Dead that the tattoo, which you can partially see in the photo above, teases Leah’s military past.

Interestingly, Daryl scrounges up a handful of MREs from zombified soldiers in “Diverged.” Earlier this season, in “Home Sweet Home,” Daryl and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) are nearly killed by an attacker dressed in military camouflage.

The unnamed attacker (Mike S. Whinnet), who is part of a group Maggie’s people call the Reapers, says nothing but three words just before blowing himself up with a grenade: “Pope marked you.” Are the military and religious references suggesting a connection between Leah and the Reapers?

After Walking Dead producers confirmed the Reapers would return, Reedus told EW that the Daryl-Leah relationship is “not really what it seems to be” and that Leah’s story “will go other places.” Collins has also teased her return to The Walking Dead after Leah went missing in “Find Me.”

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. New episodes of The Walking Dead premiere Sundays on AMC.