The Walking Dead Showrunner Explains Leah and Lance Alliance

April 3, 2022, 11:45pm

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Trust” episode of The Walking Dead. “My name is Lance Hornsby, and I’m here to offer you a job.” When Commonwealth Deputy Governor Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) hires a feral Leah (Lynn Collins) as an assassin, it’s with a common goal: kill Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan). Some six months after Maggie mercilessly finished off the Reapers at Meridian and Daryl (Norman Reedus) let his former flame escape with her life, Leah returned when it was revealed she stole missing weapons and killed a convoy of Commonwealth soldiers, leading to a tense standoff within the Hilltop’s walls in “Trust.”

Videos by ComicBook.com

After the cliffhanger teasing two enemies gunning for Maggie in the mid-season finale, showrunner Angela Kang explained the lethal Leah and Lance alliance on Sunday’s Talking Dead:

“Hornsby is kind of like a fixer type, so he’s used to negotiating with people. It’s like, ‘Well, I’m not happy that you took my guns and killed my people, but if this is where we’re at, I might as well use your to help clean up my situation,’” Kang said. “Anything he can do to make his own life a little simpler, I think he’s gonna go for. And so if she’s already out after some of our folks and she hates them and wants to see them dead because of the history, then he’s definitely going to make use of that.”

Maggie rejected a power-grabbing Hornsby’s rebuild offer and sided with Riverbend in the firefight that killed Toby Carlson (Jason Butler Harner) and his battallion of Commonwealth commandos, but for Leah, it’s extra personal: Maggie tried to kill Leah six months earlier when avenging the slain Wardens at Meridian.

“Revenge is what’s driving Leah at this point. She’s going to keep going until her last breath,” Collins said. “She wants to take everybody down, that’s what she’s gonna do. You see her transformation, even physically, from Reaper Leah to feral on-her-own Leah. It’s such a huge change.”

“Acts of God” is now streaming on AMC+ and airs Sunday, April 10, at 9/8c on AMC.

Daryl Drops Uncensored F-Bomb on The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead Revisits “Six Months Later” Time Jump

Follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter and @NewsOfTheDead for TWD Universe coverage all season long.