WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 15, "Trust," which aired Sunday, April 3 on AMC.
Let's face it, the best part of The Walking Dead has always been the villains. Rick, Daryl and the whole list of survivors might be the protagonists, but the series lives and dies (no pun intended) by the quality of the currant antagonist. Granted some have been better than others, but it's clear that when The Walking Dead has a quality villain, like the Governor or Alpha, fans know that they are in for a treat.
Although many fans thought that it was a wasted story arc, the Reapers were the primary villains for the first part of Season 11. Pope and his former-military, religious zealots had it out for Maggie, and it was clear that nothing would be over until one side's group was dead. Of course, Maggie came out on top, and she and her friends killed all of the Reapers, save one -- and that might come back to bite her in the form of a bounty hunter.
After the Reapers, everything seemed to be on the up and up. Eugene returned with help from the Commonwealth, and they all worked together to rebuild Alexandria. A lot of people even went to live in the Commonwealth while the work was being done. However, something wasn't right. The series introduced one of the Commonwealth's top officials -- Lance Hornsby. At first, he was just too nice; then he was a bit conniving, and now he's crossed the line into villainous wild-card territory.
Maggie was the first to realize that the Commonwealth was trouble, and she had no problem expressing her thoughts or refusing aid. So, while many of her friends made nice with the large society of newcomers, she stayed at Hilltop and stood in solidarity. That, unfortunately, didn't sit well with Hornsby. Animosity only grew worse when a bunch of his soldiers turned up dead with their weapons missing. In "Trust," Hornsby all but forced his way into Hilltop to look for the missing weapons and for signs of Maggie's involvement with the murders at Riverbend. All he found, though, was hostility, especially when he tried to trick Herschel into giving up his mother.
After Hornsby left Hilltop, he made camp, and it wasn't long before he found what he was really looking for. It turned out that the Riverbenders hadn't killed the Commonwealth soldiers or stolen their weapons. Leah -- the sole survivor from the Reaper camp, who happened to be Daryl's love interest for part of the season -- was behind everything. It would have been better for everyone involved if Leah had killed Hornsby and his men then and there, but she chose to hear the villain out.
He proceeded to offer her a job as a bounty hunter. The question is: who was Hornsby sending her after? It could be Daryl, after he threatened Hornsby at Hilltop. It could also be Maggie -- simply because Hornsby thinks that she's too stuck-up to see what's good for her. The thing is, if Hornsby really wanted Maggie dead, he could easily raze Hilltop. So, it's possible, as this Reddit thread suggests, that Hornsby is playing the long game. Namely, he could be hiring Leah to infiltrate the Commonwealth and kill Pamela Milton.
While it would be interesting to see Hornsby plotting to kill Pamela, that's probably not the case. Leah's personal involvement with Maggie and Daryl point toward her character going after one of them. Either way, it should be thrilling to see Leah hunting her target -- whoever it is -- when The Walking Dead debuts its first bounty hunter since Emile on Fear the Walking Dead.
To see Leah as Hornsby's bounty hunter, tune into The Walking Dead's Season 11B Finale. The episode premieres Sunday, April 10, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, on AMC and will be available to stream early on AMC+.