Two weeks ago, in the season’s second episode of The Walking Dead, Rick stumbled upon a baby named Grace inside of a Savior compound. Last week, Rick handed the baby over to Aaron — who had just lost his boyfriend, Eric — and Aaron took the baby back to The Hilltop. Though the baby has had only two scenes this season, she has inspired a lot of speculation and numerous theories.
Here’s a brief rundown of the leading theories.
The Straightforward Theory
Maybe the baby only existed to serve the plot. The theme all season long as been “Us or Them,” and characters like Daryl and Morgan have completely bought into it: All Saviors must die. At the other end of the spectrum is Jesus, who ultimately believes that a peace must be brokered between the two sides once Negan is killed. Rick may have been leaning toward the Daryl side of things, but baby Grace helped push him over to the other side of the line: He sees why men like Morales might think of Rick’s camp as “monsters,” or as no better than Negan and the Saviors. The Saviors are human, too; they are just trying to survive and bring children into the world. This might explain why Rick utters, “May my mercy prevail over my wrath” in the pilot episode.
The Bunny Theory — My personal favorite, the Bunny theory posits that the little girl interacting with Rick in the flash-forward in the season premiere is not, in fact, his Rick’s daughter Judith, but baby Grace. There’s some evidence to back the theory, too: 1) Rick never refers to the girl by name in the flash forward, and 2) the little girl in the flash forward is carrying the same brown bunny found in Grace’s crib.
Negan’s Baby Theory — I like the idea of this theory, which posits that Grace is actually Negan’s daughter. Negan has multiple wives, after all, and assuming that Negan is capable of fathering children, it is strange that he hasn’t fathered a child yet. If Grace is his baby, the child could be used as leverage later in the war. It’s possible that Negan might be more amenable to surrendering if his daughter is involved.
This theory, however, doesn’t track. The baby is almost certainly the daughter of the man that Rick killed before he came upon Grace.
There Is Hope for the Future Theory — There’s been a theory that’s been circulating for years that suggests that babies born after the zombie apocalypse are not infected. That is to say, if they die, they won’t turn into zombies (unless they are bitten by a zombie). We haven’t seen this theory play out, however, because the only person born after the infection is Judith, and unless she dies, the theory will never be put to the test unless another baby dies. Perhaps, Grace is killed in a Savior attack on The Hilltop, and when she doesn’t turn, we learn that the zombie infection does not pass on to new generations. In that case, Grace’s death would be bittersweet: An emotional loss that gives everyone hope for the future.
