The Walking Dead Theory: P.A.D.R.E. and the CRM

P.A.D.R.E. was finally confirmed to exist in the season finale of Fear The Walking Dead, but could someone other than the government be behind it? The revelation at the end of this latest season of Fear The Walking Dead that P.A.D.R.E. is operational has left me fascinated. After years of seeing nothing from the U.S. government following the collapse of society during the zombie outbreak, we finally get something which points to it still being operational and trying to re-establish itself in a post-apocalypse America.

I mean, that is what it means, right? P.A.D.R.E. was a secret government protocol intended to be implemented in the event the Cold War got hot, or some similar mega-disaster befell the world and was known only to high-ranking and elected federal government officials and their immediate staff. The latter was only read in when the outbreak hit; everyone else knew nothing about it. So, this must mean that the U.S. government is still active. That’s certainly what I thought last week. Who else could be attempting to carry out P.A.D.R.E.’s directive?

Whoever they would be, they would need a lot of resources, which means they’re likely a very large group who would probably need access to government supplies and equipment (They are using Coast Guard ships, at the very least, to cart themselves around the Louisiana coast, after all). Most importantly, they would need knowledge of the government’s secret emergency protocols, as only high-ranking officials knew about P.A.D.R.E. before the outbreak. I mean, what other groups have there been in The Walking Dead universe who might have all those things? Wait a minute.

The Walking Dead Theory: P.A.D.R.E. is being run by the Civic Republic MIitary

Almost immediately after finishing my theory last week about the government still being active through P.A.D.R.E., I was struck by this theory. You see, the more I thought about what P.A.D.R.E. is doing, the more out of character it seems for the government.

Now, I’m not naive; the government can be extremely sketchy if it wants to. The idea of a government that is, ostensibly, the same one that existed when the outbreak hit — Which, one would think, would want to pick things back up where they left off once the dead were under control — would, after kidnapping God only knows how many children across who knows how much of the U.S., attempt to get the remaining citizens to accept them as their government again is far-fetched.

You know what isn’t, though (Considering what we already know about them): The Civic Republic Military running a kidnapping ring along the gulf coast, stealing people’s children, and absorbing them into their ranks.

As we learned from Madison, part of the logic behind P.A.D.R.E.’s kidnapping ring is the idea of raising the children with “no attachments.” This feels right up the CRM’s alley. We saw throughout both seasons of The Walking Dead World Beyond members of the CRM have no compunctions about betraying the Civic Republic’s allies, betraying friends, killing friends, and using friends and fellow CRM members for scientific experiments. This is before getting into the fact that the CRM is operating outside of the Civic Republic’s authority, meaning they’re not that “attached” to their own government. With all of that in mind, the idea of them kidnapping an army’s worth of children that they could educate from an early age to be loyal to the CRM itself (as opposed to the Civic Republic as a whole), to not be attached to their families, humanity at-large, or even each other, suddenly makes a lot of sense.

But, you may be wondering: How would the Civic Republic Military have come across P.A.D.R.E. if only high-ranking government officials and politicians knew about it? I think I have an answer for that, too. Think about Lieutenant Colonel Kublek for a minute. Before the outbreak, she served as a military attache between the U.S. and British governments; That’s a pretty important position. Yet, she answers to Major General Beale, the leader of the CRM.

While it’s possible that General Beale’s military position could have only begun as the outbreak spread across the country, I doubt it. Why would a legitimate soldier of the Royal Army take orders from a person whose rank was, effectively, made up? Why would she answer to the made-up leader of a self-appointed military, little better than the leader of a wannabe militia? She wouldn’t.

I believe that Major General Beale carried his rank over from the U.S. Army. In fact, I’m inclined to think that a great many people in the upper echelon of the Civic Republic and the Civic Republic Military were high-ranking members of the U.S. government and perhaps those of major governments who were cut off from their homeland by the outbreak, and chose to throw in with their American counterparts to build the nucleus of the Civic Republic. If this is true, it means that some people and almost certainly Major General Beale knew about P.A.D.R.E. and commandeered the program to suit their ends.

What might those ends be? Well, if the nefarious actions of the CRM in the last season of World Beyond are anything to go by, usurp the civilian government, and use the kidnapped children to, eventually, rebuild civilization in North America the way they see fit: Devoid of loyalty to anything but the CRM, knowing nothing but their direction, guidance, and leadership.

Especially with the intent over the last couple of years to make the Civic Republic Military the all-encompassing villains of the Walking Dead universe, the idea that they’ve taken over and tainted P.A.D.R.E., serving a catalyst to make them the villains of season eight of Fear TWD, makes a lot of sense to me.

But, what do you think? Do you think P.A.D.R.E. is actually an extension of the Civic Republic Military? Do you think they’ll become the primary villains of Fear The Walking Dead? Or, do you think that P.A.D.R.E. is simply the U.S. government now playing its own nefarious game? Let me know! I’m curious! 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!