Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 1, episode 3.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond shows the Civic Republic community for the first time, revealing more about this mysterious group that took Rick. They’ve been hinted at across both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, but there is still a lot unknown about the Civic Republic. As it turns out, that’s entirely by design, with the Civic Republic – and especially the Civic Republic Military or CRM – using their secrecy to intimidate other communities.
Prior to World Beyond, the CRM’s most notable moment has been their rescue via helicopter of Rick Grimes. Having been severely injured following the bridge explosion in The Walking Dead season 9, Jadis discovers Rick and radios for the CRM’s helicopter to airlift him somewhere he can receive treatment. That was the last anyone has seen of Rick, but with the CRM’s role in World Beyond and the upcoming Walking Dead movies featuring Rick Grimes, any new detail about the Civic Republic could be a clue about what happened to Rick.
In The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 1, episode 3, “The Tyger and the Lamb”, viewers are taken directly to the Civic Republic and inside Elizabeth Kublek’s apartment. There, it becomes immediately clear the Civic Republic is unlike any community featured in Walking Dead before, with incomparable resources secured through potentially unsavory means. Here’s everything World Beyond just revealed about the Civic Republic, the CRM, and how it may connect to Rick Grimes.
The Civic Republic Is A HUGE Settlement
It’s been known for some time that the Civic Republic is a large community, much larger than any of those featured before in The Walking Dead universe. This most recent episode of World Beyond, however, puts a number on just how big the Civic Republic is and it is huge. According to Elizabeth, the Civic Republic is home to 200,000 people! That’s roughly the population of Salt Lake City, Utah. Obviously, the Civic Republic isn’t just a large settlement, it’s absolutely massive by the standards of Walking Dead‘s post-outbreak world.
While it may be shocking to learn the actual population of the Civic Republic, it does make sense for a community as well-supplied as this one to basically be a city unto itself. In this World Beyond episode, Elizabeth makes a point of demonstrating all they have – “energy, water, medicine, transport, the council, the courts, the schools, culture, currency, economy, agriculture, manufacturing, law.” By all accounts, the Civic Republic has recreated civilization as it was prior to the outbreak. And yet, at what cost?
The CRM Is Ruthless Towards Possible Threats
The final scenes of The Walking Dead: World Beyond premiere, “Brave”, shows the Campus Colony littered with dead bodies, human and walkers, as Civic Republic Military soldiers kill the few walkers who remain. It’s still unknown exactly what went down, but whatever it was, it resulted in the entire Campus Colony being wiped out. While it’s still possible the community was the victim of a walker attack and the CRM arrived too late to save anyone, World Beyond is now suggesting it was something more sinister with a CRM soldier raising concerns over their actions at Campus Colony that day.
His obvious discomfort suggests the actions they took were brutal, and Elizabeth’s insistence that Campus Colony would have become a threat implies wiping them out was the goal. With this, it seems safe to assume the CRM are responsible for the deaths at Campus Colony, however they happened. Now, exactly why the colony could have become a threat is still unclear, but what is clear is that the CRM is ruthless in its handling of possible threats. These tactics are likely what has enabled them to amass so many resources and power, but it also makes them incredibly dangerous. And more so than just about any threat seen before in The Walking Dead‘s universe.
Rick’s “A” Personality Could Land Him In A Reeducation Camp
The final piece of interesting new information we learn about the Civic Republic, and the CRM in particular, is the existence of a Health & Welfare Complex. By the name, such a facility sounds harmless, but the soldier’s reaction upon learning he is to be sent there until he’s deemed fit to serve implies it is anything but. In fact, it’s possible this complex is something akin to a reeducation camp where the CRM sends anyone who’s not falling in line. In this case, the soldier is questioning the CRM’s actions and as such, is being sent to the Complex until he stops questioning. When he tells Elizabeth he doesn’t believe he’ll ever be fit to serve again, she replies, “Then you won’t be leaving the complex.”
This Health & Welfare Complex certainly sounds ominous, and is likely a place the CRM sends anyone they wish to teach a lesson. And though we still don’t know what happened to Rick after he was taken away in the helicopter, he is definitely a character who could come in conflict with the CRM and find himself sent to the Complex. It’s still unclear what the “A” and “B” labeling Jadis used when communicating with the CRM actually means, but if it refers to someone being either non-cooperative (A) or cooperative (B), then it’s easy to see how anyone labeled “A” could wind up in the Health & Welfare Complex. Originally, Jadis gives Rick an “A” label, though when she organizes his rescue, she refers to him as a “B”. This may mean Jadis knows what happens to any “A’s” and lied to spare Rick from being sent to the Health & Welfare Complex – an ironic twist given that what Rick needs most in that moment is care for his health and welfare.
It’s been years now since Rick was taken, and while clues on The Walking Dead hint Rick was near New York at some point, it’s impossible to know what he’s been doing. Perhaps he’s been able use that “B” label as a cover to join the Civic Republic, biding his time until the right moment to escape. Either that, or Rick’s clear “A” personality has already landed him in the Health & Welfare Complex because if there’s anyone who won’t follow orders he doesn’t agree with, it’s Rick Grimes.
