The Walking Dead Theory: Leah Was KIDNAPPED, Part II

The Walking Dead – Leah’s return

Leah has returned to The Reapers, but did she go WILLINGLY? I don’t think so, and I’ll explain why in my latest The Walking Dead Theory!

Several months ago, after being introduced to Leah in the third part of season ten of The Walking Dead and seeing her disappearance at the end of that episode, I posited a theory that Leah had been kidnapped.

Now, I based this on the fact that, in the flashbacks to Daryl’s time with Leah at her cabin, it seemed undamaged, yet, in the present time, we found her cabin walls had several bullet holes in them, suggesting that something unpleasant happened.

Now, having seen Leah with the Reapers in this week’s episode, one might think that it’s put paid to my theory, but…I’m not inclined to agree.

The Walking Dead Theory: Leah WANTED To Get Away From Pope.

I think it’s fairly evident from what we saw of Leah and Pope’s interactions on this week’s episode of The Walking Dead that there’s more to their relationship than we know. I don’t mean anything romantic or something like that, but rather, there’s a weird father-daughter dynamic going on that we’ve only scratched the surface of so far.

Part of that seems to be Leah being the cool head. If you want to stick to my father-daughter analogy, Leah seems like a child who tries to reign in a short-tempered or belligerent parent, like when she tried to stop Pope from getting on Bossie’s case about his wounds (Which would eventually prompt him to murder Bossie).

So, having seen this, I’m starting to believe that this is not new and was probably how the relationship between Pope and Leah was even back in their days in the military. Leah trying to stay Pope’s hand if he got angry either at surrendering enemies, civilians, or even their own teammates and stop him from doing something he’d regret.

On the flip side, I think that Pope sometimes — Not always, but sometimes — would lash out or punish Leah because she attempts to reign him in and be more level-headed. Let’s just say that I don’t think him nearly having her burnt alive was the first time he’s put her in a needlessly dangerous situation like that.

Considering that Leah’s own family wasn’t that great, it’s possible that this sort of behavior was familiar to her (Maybe be even a little better than her life before the military), and so, took such instances in stride, maybe even seeing them as signals that she had overstepped, compelling her to be more compliant, if only temporarily.

And, while she may have taken such behavior in stride for a while, I think Pope may have done something that convinced Leah that she needed to get away and that maybe, her relationship with her CO was toxic and devolving from what things had been like for them before the outbreak.

This brings me back to where we started. Right now, I think that, while Daryl was away, the Reapers, after a lengthy search, found Leah and convinced her to come back with them. I don’t think any threats were involved, but I think they were the ones who shot up her house. I think Leah, upon realizing that her “family” had been able to track her down even in the middle of nowhere, decided that it was pointless to keep running and returned to the fold, resigning herself to whatever fate the Reapers led her to.

As I said last time, and especially with the knowledge that the showrunners always intended to reintroduce Leah this season, I don’t think the bullet holes in Leah’s house were incidental. With all this time this season has afforded, I think we will discover that her return to the Reapers wasn’t a completely voluntary one. I think it was something that wasn’t necessarily something she wanted to do while she did agree to.

But, what do you think? Do you think Leah wanted to get away from The Reapers? Do you think something happened between her and Pope? Do you think she was forced to return to the fold? I’m curious to hear! If you enjoyed this and want to learn how to stay alive in a zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!