The Walking Dead’s “Six Months Later” Time Jump Explained

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Trust” episode of The Walking Dead. When The Walking Dead suddenly skipped six months into the future to start Part 2 of the Final Season, it looked like Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) were at odds. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” Maggie warned Daryl, dressed in white trooper armor as he marched on the Hilltop gates with the might of the Commonwealth military. “Yeah,” Trooper Dixon told Leader Rhee with orders to open up. “Yeah, it does.” War was brewing — not between old friends Daryl and Maggie, but Hilltop versus Commonwealth. 

Six episodes and six time jumps later, the action catches up to the flash-forward when Commonwealth Deputy Governor Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) arrives at Hilltop searching for the tenants of the Riverbend apartment complex. Hornsby believes the Riverbenders hijacked a shipment of Commonwealth weapons, using the stolen guns in the firefight that killed Toby Carlson (Jason Butler Harner) and his Commonwealth commandos at Riverbend. 

Suspecting Hilltop is harboring fugitives, Hornsby’s hunt for the thieving killers brings a squad of troopers to Maggie’s gate. When Maggie refuses to let the armored soldiers inside her walls, Daryl convinces Hornsby to let him talk to Maggie so there’s no bloodshed: “We go in, nobody gets hurt.”

Telling her the troopers won’t leave until Hornsby looks around, Daryl promises a quick search. “You expect me to trust him?” Maggie asks. Daryl answers, “I ain’t asking you to trust him. I’m asking you to trust me.”

By the end of the episode, Hornsby learns who attacked the convoy and stole the weapons: Leah (Lynn Collins), out for revenge against Maggie after the deaths of the Reapers at Meridian.  

In the mid-season finale, “Acts of God,” Hornsby and Leah are gunning for Maggie and the Hilltoppers as Maggie sets out to finish her fight to the death with the Reapers. “Acts of God” premieres Sunday, April 10 on AMC.  

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