The Walking Dead: Lance Hornsby’s final coin flip explanation

The Walking Dead’s final mid-season finale ranks up there with the top 3 MSF of the series. This is how you end a segment of episodes to ready fans for what is coming next. Season 11C will premiere in the fall of 2022, most likely at the beginning of October, so fans have a bit of a wait before the final eight episodes of the series air.

This article contains significant spoilers for The Walking Dead episode “Acts of God.” 

At the end of the previous episode, we saw Leah return. This was no real surprise as viewers knew this would happen sooner or later. But, to know that it would be Hornsby who partnered with her was a bit of a shock. Considering they have a common enemy, maybe it shouldn’t have been. In true form, Leah goes rogue and does things her own way, which doesn’t end well for her. After a huge knock-down-drag-out fight with Maggie, Daryl ends up killing Leah and shot Hornsby in the cheek.

Aaron, Daryl and Gabriel are on a mission with Commonwealth troopers. They are still searching for the surviving Riverbend residents, who Maggie and company have hidden away in an underground bunker. The trio knows they need to break away from the Commonwealth as the true nature of Hornsby has been revealed. This results in a very awesome fight as they time things just right and take out all of the troops. I am sure Hornsby was shaken to hear Daryl’s voice over the radio instead of the trooper he was expecting. He had witnessed how well Aaron, Daryl and Gabriel can handle themselves, making for more enemies he is now up against.

The Walking Dead – The Commonwealth takes over

At the end of the episode, we see Commonwealth flags draped at Alexandria, Hilltop and Oceanside. Like everyone suspected, Hornsby has wanted these communities for himself, knowing that Governor Milton would have to assign someone to oversee them. He thought it would be easy to offer up aid to these communities who have been struggling and they would willingly accept. He didn’t count on the fact that Maggie and others have lived outside the protection of a community like the Commonwealth and have met men like him before and would oppose him.

In the very last scene, the residents are cuffed and contained at Oceanside while Hornsby does his coin toss. What was that about?

Showrunner Angela Kang explained this ending to Entertainment Weekly:

"He’s flipping the coin to decide whether they’re going to live or die."

Oceanside has minded their own business, but they did side with Maggie about the aid Hornsby offered to Hilltop and Oceanside. Is Hornsby going to kill them to punish Maggie?

The final episodes of The Walking Dead are going to be exciting!

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