WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 12, "The Lucky Ones," which aired Sunday, March 13 on AMC.
Ironed white slacks, a plaid suit vest and a pair of polka dot socks aren't the usual apocalypse attire, but The Walking Dead's Lance Hornsby is here to represent the best for the Commonwealth. Yet under all that fancy attire, is Lance just another damaged survivor who can unleash chaos at any moment?
In The Walking Dead comics, Lance has a much smaller role to play for Alexandria's group, but he's still a vital asset in the Commonwealth storyline. As in the show, Lance introduces Eugene and his group to the Commonwealth and Stephanie, and is extremely prideful in his community. This pride is what characterizes him as extremely vain to Rick and his people, which translates well to the screen. The television show aims to see Lance in a more nuanced light -- according to showrunner Angela Kang in an Entertainment Weekly interview -- thanks to actor Josh Hamilton's charismatic and energetic take on the character.
The show has done an exceedingly excellent job at setting up Lance as a future threat... but who will he threaten? Is it Daryl, Maggie and the rest of Alexandria and Hilltop, or Pamela Milton herself? It seems to be more of the former, but it also appears that Lance is beginning to form a grudge against Pamela that he'll hold onto for a while. Lance may have been introduced in a welcome video for the Commonwealth with a pristine look and attitude, but "New Haunts" shows a much more sympathetic and unsettling side to the character.
The first sign of trouble for Lance was his craving for popularity amongst the people of the Commonwealth -- which is taken away from him and given to possible resistance leader Mercer. During the red carpet event for the annual Halloween ball, Mercer takes all the attention away from Lance, who looks like a sad puppy when realizing he's not the people's favorite man. Lance's job also comes with a lot of high expectations that make him seek approval from Pamela, who seems less than impressed.
To be Lance's advocate, he does seem to do more than what the job asks for, but isn't being recognized for his efforts. He goes above and beyond to bring Pamela a whole plate of new communities to expand the Commonwealth towards, but Pamela points out that Lance doesn't do it for the growth of the city. Lance does a good job of hiding that his push towards Alexandria, Hilltop and Oceanside isn't for his personal gain, but his increasing jealousy and failures are eating at him behind closed doors.
After failing to convince Maggie to sign an agreement with the Commonwealth in "The Lucky Ones," and losing both Hilltop and Oceanside, Lance finally begins to break. To release a little anger, he travels into the woods and attracts walkers he can take out, which is eerily similar to Sasha's self-destructive ventures after losing her brother and boyfriend. When caught by Aaron, who is concerned for his well-being, Lance just turns and smiles sinisterly while insisting, "We are going to remake the world." Lance is clearly working overtime to impress Pamela and make the Commonwealth bigger and better, but the strain in his eyes suggests he might go rogue as a new villain if things don't go his way soon. He already has similarities to several major villains.
After his expected deal with Hilltop and Oceanside going downhill, and being caught by Eugene as the mastermind behind the fake Stephanie plan, it's hard to tell where Lance stands at this point. Because of his love for the Commonwealth he seems to be on Pamela's side, but she treats him just as badly as she does the lower-class citizens of the city. He's even more dangerous than Pamela, however, because Lance is an incredibly reckless and intelligent manipulator while no one's expecting him to be. With the feud between Hilltop and Commonwealth (and Maggie and Daryl) underway, Lance may become more unhinged by the minute, severing his and the Commonwealth's perfect image in the process.
To see Lance begin his path down mischief, watch The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 12 on AMC+. New episodes of The Walking Dead air every Sunday at 9pm ET on AMC, and are available to stream a week early on AMC+.