Episode 5 of The Walking Dead Season 11 saw Stephanie (Chelle Ramos) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) finally catching up in person at the Commonwealth. However, fans were immediately suspect of Stephanie after she was quick to break Commonwealth protocol and assist Eugene with contacting Alexandria.
Now, for those who don’t like spoilers, I advise you to check out some of Monsters & Critics’ other Walking Dead articles rather than read any further. However, for everyone else, let’s press on.
Stephanie was quick to help Eugene
If there’s one thing we have learned about the Commonwealth since Eugene has been in touch with Stephanie via the radio, it is that they are secretive and not quick to help others.
So, when Stephanie quickly jumped on board to help Eugene in Episode 5 of The Walking Dead, some alarm bells went off. Sure, she has known Eugene for some time now but, over their past contacts, she has remained firm on the Commonwealth’s stance, making her change of heart here confusing.
To then sneak into the radio room with Eugene so that he could radio out to Alexandria about the Commonwealth seems even more incriminating — unless Stephanie is actually testing him.
This leads to the next theory that has been pretty much confirmed.
There are actually two Stephanies
As Screen Rant points out, there is a moment when Eugene and Stephanie are ordering ice cream when another woman turns up. It is here that Eugene makes a reference to rocky road ice cream to this woman who doesn’t answer his query but simply walks away after giving Stephanie a sidelong glance.
Stephanie then makes a comment about black raspberry ice cream, harking back to a conversation they had had about this particular ice cream.
This may seem all a bit strange for starters. However, there is more.
The actor who plays Stephanie is not the one announced originally by AMC. In the press images released by AMC, Stephanie is played by Chelle Ramos.
Previously, it had been announced that this character would be played by Margot Bingham.
This is strange, because, Margot Bingham is the actor who played the silent woman ordering ice cream.
And, as Insider points out, images released on the AMC press site for Episode 5 originally had Chelle Ramos’ character named as “Decoy Stephanie.” In the same set of images, the one showing Margot Bingham named her character as Stephanie.
However, since news of that broke ahead of the episode, AMC has since changed the names to read Ramos as portraying Stephanie and Bingham as a character called Max, which pretty much confirms that AMC made an error with the first release and quickly covered it up in the metadata.
If Ramos really is playing a decoy Stephanie, it would mean that the Commonwealth likely planned the ruse all along. As for when Eugene works this out remains to be seen, though, and viewers will just have to tune into next week’s episode of The Walking Dead in order to find out more.
Season 11 of The Walking Dead is currently airing every Sunday night at 9/8c on AMC.