Things continue to be intense on The Walking Dead as the series hurtles toward its final. In fact, the last episodes will be airing starting in October. But as the series comes to a conclusion, there are a few characters that fans are really wondering about. We previously talked about what happened to Maggie’s friend Georgie. But what about Heath? It’s been a long time since we saw him. As it turns out, his fate has been revealed, but many fans don’t know about it.
Heath was a survivor who often did supply runs for Alexandria. We last saw him in the Season 7 episode “Swear,” when he disappeared while on a supply run mission with Tara. During one of their runs, Tara pulled on a bag that was stuck in the sand and ended up displacing a lot of sand that had been holding back zombies buried beneath. Heath was standing on a Humvee trying to rescue Tara when she fell off the bridge into the water. When she eventually founder her way back, Heath was gone. All that was left was a pair of his glasses and a card with “PPP” on it. We haven’t seen Heath alive since.
So what happened to him?
There will be spoilers for World Beyond in this article.
Heath Was Abducted by Jadis & Given to the CRM
Well, if you blinked you missed it. Back in November 2018, showrunner Angela Kang confirmed what happened to Heath. In an interview with Insider, she shared that Heath was taken by the same group that had taken Rick.
“That was kind of the intention that we had in the back of our heads this whole time,” she revealed. “Even back in that season where you know we had to write the wonderful Corey Hawkins out because he had huge opportunities in the feature film world… those seeds were already set there.”
Later, Heath’s RV was spotted in Jadis’ junkyard, providing further evidence to that theory. You can see photos of Heath’s RV in the tweet below.
https://twitter.com/julianexcalibur/status/1054187912810643456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1054187912810643456%7Ctwgr%5Ee5bb7587ffe09d774892ebfa9e3e9b85735b62c0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insider.com%2Fwalking-dead-what-happened-to-heath-2018-11
Robert Kirkman later said that he thought Heath might come back to The Walking Dead universe at some point.
“We are hoping to get him back and tell his story,” Kirkman said during a Comic Con event. “There are definitely plans in place there. It’s just a matter of making sure that everything can line up because it is somewhat complicated.”
Since then, more details emerged about Heath, thanks to The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Since we know that Jadis took Heath, the things she said about Rick in World Beyond and her work with CRM certainly hold merit.
Jadis was featured in World Beyond’s last season, showing she’d been climbing the ladder at CRM since turning Rick over to them six years earlier. (She turned Rick over as a “B,” and we learned that the “A” designates were experimented on.) This gained her entry into the Civic Republic. She didn’t name Rick by name, but her mention of this happening six years ago and the details around it all point to Rick.
She said, “I had an opportunity, and I created a ticket to get into the Civic Republic. I gave the CRM something very valuable and I got a new life.”
We also learned in World Beyond that “Project Votus” was a project aimed at trying to stop reanimation, but it required using live subjects to experiment on. Anyone abducted by the CRM and labeled with an “A” became part of this experiment. Rick, as a B, was not experimented on.
All evidence points to CRM labeling enemies and threats as “A’s.” But the question is whether Jadis labeled Heath as an A or a B. A lot of fans think Jadis traded him as a “B” and he’s now dead. I hope that’s not the case, but since we haven’t seen him, there’s not a good reason to believe otherwise.
Heath Was Referenced in the Season 11 Premiere
In Season 11 Episode 1 (called Acheron: Part 1), Eugene’s group discovers the Wall of the Lost, which is full of photos of family or friends of people who were part of the community. Yumiko saw her own photo there, left by her brother. But there was also a note on the wall that referenced someone named Heath. It’s not clear that this is the Heath, but it’s hard to imagine it’s not.
Hold on…see the name Heath in the corner?
Is it just a coincidence that his name is on the Wall of the Lost? Or is he possibly at the Commonwealth?
We know he was taken by the CRM years ago, but anything could have happened in the years since we last saw him.#TheWalkingDead pic.twitter.com/AdtiN7VPv0
— The Walking Dead World (@TWalkingDWorld) August 23, 2021
As for the actor, Corey Hawkins, he’s been doing well. He left the show to be in a movie and then later to be part of the “24” series revival. According to IMDb, he’s starring in 2023 in “The Color Purple” and “Last Voyage of Demeter.” This past year, he starred in “Survive,” along with a number of other productions.
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Hey, at least we know more about him than we do his comic counterpart, who Kirkman literally *forgot* about when working on the final issue! LOL