The Walking Dead theory: It’s All About Politics And Power

In this week’s The Walking Dead theory, I think I’ve figured out what the CRM is up to and what it means for The Walking Dead universe.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s most recent episode shed some light on all the shady business that the CRM’s Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek has been up to over the last season, as it was casually tossed out there.

As Huck sat at a coffee shop, she read a Civic Republic newspaper, which had a headline that meant a lot in the CR. At first glance, it didn’t seem like it would mean much to the broader Walking Dead universe: “Major General Beale Requests Emergency Delay In Civilian Oversight.”

It sounds like a bland description of the bureaucratic procedures of the Civic Republic. Still, in reality, it is the very linchpin of why the CRM slaughtered Campus Colony and Omaha, over 100,000 people in all.

The Walking Dead theory

The CRM Destroyed Omaha And Campus Colony To Avoid Oversight From The Civic Republic Government.

Honestly, I feel like this is pretty straightforward. We hear Dennis and Huck discussing the shift in oversight for the CRM. It was written into the “Founding Compact” of the Civic Republic that, after ten years, the CRM would fall under the oversight of the Civic Republic civilian government, yada yada yada. This seems pretty standard.

It also doesn’t seem that surprising that the leader of the CRM wouldn’t want this change in oversight to occur (The previews of next week’s episode pretty much explained why). When you’ve been operating for ten years with no oversight whatsoever, you’re not going to want to give that up, would you? Of course not.

I think that Major General Beale decided that he needed to prevent this from happening. He couldn’t just ask for the CR’s government to not have oversight over the military. He might as well have screamed that he was doing shady things, so instead, he decided to create an incident that would allow him to ask for the oversight to be delayed. He would have it look like such a request was entirely necessary. Enter Lieutenant Colonel Kublek.

Kublek, being the liaison for Omaha and Campus Colony (Conveniently located hundreds of miles both from the Civic Republic and Portland, ensuring their actions wouldn’t be seen by anyone else), had found the perfect solution. Once Dr. Bennett and Hope were out of Campus Colony, she would stage it being “overrun,” kill everyone left, and BOOM! General Beale’s got his incident. Sure enough, the “revelation” of Omaha’s fate prompts Beale to ask for a delay. Funny how that works.

While there are shadier things afoot with the CRM, as far as the destruction of Omaha and Campus Colony are concerned, it wasn’t out of some aggressive paranoia that people might know their location. It seems like it wasn’t even necessarily about their aforementioned shady business, but simply to ensure that they wouldn’t have to answer to their civilian government.

If the Omaha and Campus Colony’s destruction were because the Civic Republic were ultra-paranoid about security or simply to get test subjects, as bad as those would be, they would at least be for a purpose. But, from where I’m standing, it just looks like this was a cynical political move, just a massive false flag play to hang on to power and avoid having to answer to someone else. Beale or Kublek could have picked any community they came into contact with to do this; they just happened to pick Omaha. Even if Kublek was bothered by the mass carnage she caused, it doesn’t change that that carnage seems to have been just another move in a massive game of political chess that the Civic Republic Military is playing with its civilian government. The former tried desperately to keep playing by its own rules and decided that a hundred thousand people were “acceptable losses” in the quest to win that game and maintain power.

This leaves me with a question, though: What does this mean for the rest of the Walking Dead universe? We know that the Civic Republic will become an increasingly significant presence in the other shows, and it stands to reason that our groups in The Walking Dead and Fear TWD will not get along with the CR. If the CRM can callously wipe out one of its allies — With a total population of over one hundred thousand people — what would they do to Morgan’s group, or Alexandria, or Rick himself, should any of them be deemed an impediment to the CRM’s ambitions? Would they even have to do something to warrant such a response? Or, would Major General Beale, regardless of what he thinks of them, wipe all of our protagonists and their groups out just because he can use it to maintain his political position?

I’m afraid to find out.

But, what do you think? Do you think the Civic Republic Military destroyed Omaha and Campus Colony to avoid oversight from their government? Do you think we’ll eventually see them try to do something like this to any other community? Do you think they did this just for more test subjects? I’m curious to hear! And, 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!