The Walking Dead Theory: Huck’s backstory is A LIE

What if one of The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s heroes’ histories…WAS A LIE?

I’m saddened and disappointed to report that Jennifer Mallick, a.k.a. “Huck”, is, in fact, a spy for the Civic Republic Military. Worse still, she’s a spy for the nefarious Lieutenant Colonel Kublek, who just so happens to be…her mother.

It is a terrible betrayal, and one that may go down in the annals of the Walking Dead universe alongside Nicholas trying to abandon Glenn and Noah in season five of The Walking Dead, Spencer trying to sell out Rick to Negan, Simon trying to usurp Negan, or Dante being a double agent for Alpha. She is lying to her friends, people who depend on her, all for people who wiped out the community that took her in, a community whose downfall she might have known about all along.

But, what if I were to tell you that there may have been an even bigger betrayal, one that was right in the faces of the people who were betrayed, and they weren’t even aware of it. What if the people who were betrayed the most…was US.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond Theory: What if Huck’s backstory…WAS A LIE?

I know, I know: That’s crazy. We all saw what happened to Huck at the beginning of the outbreak. Her story was both harrowing and heroic: Having to kill her brothers in arms in order to protect innocent civilians from “Sunset Protocol”. We all saw it.

But…did we?

Think about it. Everything we know about Huck’s history comes from one source: Huck. No one else really knows about her history before arriving in Omaha, and even that is shrouded in mystery. We never actually hear anything from her about her time in Omaha, in fact, she pretty much dodges talking about it with Hope in the first episode.

When it comes to the matter of her time before arriving in Omaha, something mentioned both in discussions with Hope and Felix, Huck largely avoids the subject, treating it either as something too dark/traumatic to talk about, or something simply best left in the past.

On top of that, despite putting up a good front about bringing the kids back to Campus Colony, Huck also does a subtle (Yet good) job of not being committed enough to make sure it actually happens. Think about how many times she insists Felix rest in episode two, this ensures that, by the time they catch up with the kids, they’re already at the Blaze Of Gory, something everyone deems is too dangerous to try going back through, thus, forcing them to keep going, making return to Omaha that much more difficult. Then, as they approach the Mississippi River, she suggests to Felix that he take the boys back to Omaha, while she carries on with the girls. In hindsight, that would have been a very bad plan to have gone through, wouldn’t you agree?

The reason I point this out twofold: 1) Considering what we now know about Huck, it’s entirely possible that there may be people at Omaha who would be able to contradict her, blowing her cover. And 2) Considering what the CRM did to Campus Colony, there’s just as much of a possibility that the same fate may have befallen Omaha. In that case, it would be good for Huck to be as far away from there as she could be when that was discovered.

But, I’m getting off track. What we’re here to focus on is the veracity of the backstory we saw in episode seven, “Truth Or Dare”. Once again, I have to point out that the only source of this backstory that we have is Huck herself; Conveniently, there’s no one else left alive in her squad to confirm if any of the events she “remembers” ever even happened at all!

Now you may be wondering: “If it was all a lie…why did we see it? Why would we be shown events that NEVER happened?”

Because she was trying to convince herself of her backstory.

I believe it was George Costanza who once said: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.“

Huck has been in deep cover infiltrating Campus Colony for a long time. I think that, as time has worn on, she’s had to add layers of depth to her cover story, fine details and events to help make that story more believable to the people she’s been assigned to infiltrate. What we may have been seeing is Huck “getting into character”, attempting to attach emotions to events that either didn’t happen, or are simply meant to parallel ones that did, the more she did this, the more authentic her “character” would be.

The reason we see it might be because she might be trying to, within the realms of her persona, convince herself of what happened, which, in turn, convinces us.

Within the realm of her “character”, if she believes what happened, then, technically…it isn’t a lie.

But, what do you think? Do you think the events we saw in Huck’s backstory actually happened, or were they merely part of an elaborate cover that she created for herself? Do you think her whole story is concocted, or just her time in Nebraska? Let me know! And, if you want to hear my theories on how to survive a zombie apocalypse in the real world, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also find it at Amazon here, and on iTunes here!