New ‘The Walking Dead’ Evidence Sheds Light On The Identity Of The Boot-Wearing Spy

The last 15 episodes or so of The Walking Dead have introduced viewers to a number of new communities on the show: The Hilltop, The Savior’s Camp, The Kingdom, and even the all-female Oceanside Community visited by Tara in the fifth episode of the season. Scott Gimple and Co. are clearly establishing new colonies so that the Alexandrian community will have additional allies when they are pitted against Negan and the Saviors in the upcoming war. Viewers should not expect them all to survive.

The back half of season seven is expected to be about building those alliances and rallying them ahead of that war with Negan. However, there’s yet another community that’s likely to play a role in the back half of the season. Last month, EW offered our first glimpse of that new community:

We don’t have a name for the new community yet, nor any understanding of the role it’s likely to play this season. It does appear to be set in a junkyard, however, which might provide some much needed supplies in that upcoming war. The new teaser released over the weekend also gave us a glimpse of a new bad-ass walker hanging out in the junkyard community.

That walker looks like something out of Pan’s Labyrinth. If Rick could marshal an army of those guys and direct them toward Negan’s compound, the war would be over in half an episode.

At any rate, if readers look closely at the photo provided by EW above, the unknown woman in the center holding the red pipe seems to be wearing boots similar to the ones worn by the unidentified spy at in the seventh season midseason finale:

The boots could also belong to the woman with the dirty blonde hair standing in front of Rick. In either respect, if it is someone from the junkyard gang, the timing seems to work out, as TV Guide says the scene above takes place in the second episode of season 7B. Gimple even used a word seldom used in recent seasons to describe the new characters: “Fun.”

“I’m just going to say that Rick is going to meet this person and/or persons pretty quickly. The answers are just around the heap. I cannot wait for people to meet this character and to see this actor. There is some formidable fun coming up.”

Of course, knowing who is wearing the boots doesn’t explain at all why she has been spying on Rick, Aaron, and Alexandria, although perhaps they are seeking their own allies in the war against Negan. It also seems to rule out an earlier fan theory that it is Dwight who is spying on Rick.

We’ll find out what’s happening soon enough. The Walking Dead returns this Sunday night on AMC.