Episode 6 of AMC’s The Walking Dead featured a strange group of people that had pretty much resorted to a feral version of themselves. The episode provided plenty of terror and jump scares but not much by way of backstory for these mysterious creatures, unfortunately.
So, here’s everything you need to know about the feral humans that Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Virgil (Kevin Carroll) encountered on Sunday night.
The Walking Dead features a house of horrors
AMC dropped a hint in the synopsis for Episode 6 of The Walking Dead and described how Connie and Virgil would encounter some “mysterious creatures.”
Very little else was revealed about these creatures, since dubbed the Ferals, prior to their appearance in Episode 6 of The Walking Dead, beyond an image of one perched on a crate. This led to plenty of speculation but nothing concrete regarding who they were.
Then, when the episode aired, fans got a closer look at them when Connie and Virgil took shelter in a house after being pursued by someone — or something — unknown. It was later revealed in the episode that Connie feared they were being followed and then that they believed these feral creatures had herded them to the house.
I referred to it in my recap as the house of horrors, and it certainly was that, with its secret walls and hidden corridors. Connie and Virgil did not understand the danger at first but Connie certainly suspected it and went looking for evidence.
Along the way, she came across some portraits hung on the walls that had all the eyes scratched out.
This was pretty much it regarding finding out anything else about the Ferals as far as the episode went as, by the close, all of them had been eaten by walkers. However, the series showrunner has further explained their backstory to Entertainment Weekly.
The Ferals’ backstory explained
Initially, the series showrunner Angela Kang wanted a returning story for Connie that was epic. This led to some brainstorming about placing her and Virgil into a setting that very much had a horror movie feel to it.
“How do we give her just a really cool reentry story?” Kang explained. “Let’s put her and Virgil into some kind of a fun horror movie for an episode.”
They then decided to develop a new sort of threat involving humans.
“‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to see people that have been out there so long that they’ve just gone feral?'” Kang said. “So that’s how we came up with this crazy idea, and we started developing it from there.”
According to Comic Book, Kang also explained these people further on The Walking Dead: Episode Insider. This time, she delved deeper into the portraits with the scratched-out eyes.
“In the backstory of it, we actually do think that those are pictures of relatives or even some of the people who became feral and are living in that house,” Kang said. “And as they sort of descended into a much more feral state, they just started destroying the vestiges of their humanity. So we totally had a story reason why we did that, but at the same time, we just thought it looked super weird and creepy.”
Season 11 of The Walking Dead is currently airing every Sunday night at 9/8c on AMC.