The latest episode of Season 11 of AMC’s The Walking Dead revealed a secret that many fans had already guessed: Leah (Lynn Collins) was a member of the Reapers.
As a result of this, Episode 4 saw Leah questioning Daryl and then being locked in the room with him as the building was set on fire. Daryl managed to help her escape and this resulted in him being made a new member of the Reapers.
While Leah’s involvement may have been predicted ahead of time, there are still a few unanswered questions regarding her and the group she belongs to.
Most notably, many viewers were left wondering if Leah knew ahead of time that the building that she and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) were in would be set on fire.
In addition to this, many people are also questioning whether Leah should be considered a true Reaper or if Daryl can somehow save her from this group.
But first, let’s get to the question of the fire.
Leah had no idea Pope would light up the room
Many viewers — myself included — suspected that Leah did know ahead of time that Pope (Ritchie Coster) would instruct his followers to light the room on fire to prove whether Daryl was worthy of joining or not.
However, according to an interview that The Walking Dead’s showrunner did with Entertainment Weekly, this simply wasn’t the case.
“She’s completely in the dark,” Angela Kang said before revealing that this subject will be broached in upcoming episodes of The Walking Dead.
“She’s just totally blindsided by that, which is one of the things that comes up in future episodes as well. She thinks she’s in with this guy Pope and he still was like, “I’m putting you in a room and setting you on fire.” So yeah, both of them were caught off guard.”
While Leah may not have known ahead of time, that still doesn’t mean she is a pushover or that she isn’t truly one of the bad guys either.
Leah is definitely a villain
Whether or not Leah is a true villain remains to be seen, but according to Kang, she had planned for her to be the bad guy even right from when Leah first appeared as Daryl’s love interest in Season 10 of The Walking Dead.
The bonus content episodes for Season 10 were often criticized by viewers, with many falling flat. The one involving Daryl and Leah tended to be a fairly hit-or-miss episode as well.
“There are fans that have very mixed feelings about that, and others who thought the story was really interesting and loved it,” Kang explained.
Then, the showrunner went on to explain that the network and writers were okay with that because Leah was never supposed to be the good guy.
“But we’d always known she was a Reaper. And so in some ways I was like, ‘Well, if people don’t like her, that’s okay, because she is actually a villain and there’s a toxic element to that relationship.'”
As to whether or not Daryl can help her see the error in her way remains to be seen and viewers will have to tune into future episodes to find out more.
However, those expecting to find out in the upcoming episode of The Walking Dead will likely be disappointed as there is no indication so far that this storyline will be touched upon in Episode 5.
Season 11 of The Walking Dead is currently airing every Sunday night at 9/8c on AMC.