The Walking Dead Teased the Civic Republic Years Before It Was Revealed in World Beyond

A past episode of The Walking Dead referenced the Civic Republic years before audiences caught a glimpse of the secret civilization in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, where we’re learning more about the helicopter group who abducted Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). The new spinoff reveals that the Civic Republic, the home base of the authoritarian Civic Republic Military and high-ranking Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond), shelters a population of 200,000 survivors living in a classified location believed to be somewhere in the Southwestern United States.

Its citizens have access to comforts and facilities made scarce by the zombie apocalypse, including energy, manufacturing, currency, and an economy — making them the “last hope” and the “last light of the world.”

The Civic Republic is the far-away place that Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh), formerly Jadis of the Scavengers, mentions to Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) in The Walking Dead season 9 episode “Warning Signs.” In the episode, which first aired in October 2018, Anne makes radio contact with a helicopter pilot who tells her “no pickups” before asking, “Do you have an A or a B?”

When she attempts to negotiate transport for herself, she’s told it will take “an A.” After she’s caught by Gabriel, she confesses to trading people in exchange for supplies.

“There’s another place. It’s far from here, but if we go together, we can get there. It can be different for us,” she tells him. “If you can trust me and help me with one small part of the deal, we can have a life like you can’t imagine.”

But Gabriel says he’s going to alert Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who was once captured by the Scavengers and labeled an “A,” so Anne attacks him and tells him, “All this time, I thought you were a B.” Gabriel is labeled an “A” when Anne attempts to have him be bitten by a walker. This same tactic was used on a captured Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), also deemed an “A,” before he escaped unscathed.

Referring to the Civic Republic, Anne tells Gabriel, “There’s only one place left for me to go. And you’re the price of admission.”

She ultimately spares Gabriel but gets her helicopter ride when she rescues Rick Grimes after he nearly dies in a bridge explosion. After falsely claiming she had an “A” ready for pickup, she tells the pilot, “I have a B! Not an A. I never had an A.” She then urges the helicopter to descend and help Rick, who is “hurt” but “strong.”

Rick and Anne are picked up by the helicopter and flown away to an unknown location. A teaser trailer for the Walking Dead feature film — which sees the return of the two passengers — revealed Rick was transported to Philadelphia sometime during the six-plus years he’s been away from The Walking Dead.

More about the “A and B” classification system will come to light in a post-credits scene ending “The Wrong End of a Telescope,” the next episode of World Beyond premiering October 25.

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. New episodes of The Walking Dead: World Beyond premiere Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.