Talking Dead solved the Junkyard Crew mystery sooner than expected — just a few minutes after the Feb. 12 episode began. As confirmed by the actor who plays her, Jadis' group is the Scavengers on The Walking Dead, adding another group from the comics to the AMC series.
The after show also revealed that their gladiator zombie is named Winslow, but that's just fun. So, who is Jadis? She is an imposing, fascinating, quiet minimalist leader. In conversation with Chris Hardwick on Talking Dead, actor Pollyanna McIntosh said that the role was cast gender-blind, which is fantastic, and points to her being an original character.
In an interview with TVLine, McIntosh explained some of Jadis' actions in the episode and said:
“You can see from the smile on her face that she’s pretty pleased with how things have gone down... But there’s also that lovely moment with the handshake and her not wanting to touch his bloody hand. She makes sure that he knows who’s still on top.”
Jadis definitely took a liking to Rick, which isn't surprising. But it is a little surprising that she's leading the Scavengers, as this new crew doesn't seem to have much in common with the comics' version of the group besides the name. In the comics, this is a small gang living outside of Washington D.C. who attacked the Safe-Zone before the Saviors got involved. They are lead by a character named Derek, and basically served the purpose that the Wolves did on the AMC series.
It seems like the television series took the name and ran with it in a different direction. I'm glad they did, because Jadis and her group were almost like aliens to Rick Grimes and his party of, well, scavengers. They have a uniformity to them that you don't often see on this show, an interesting "terrain" by way of the trash heaps, and almost their own language. Between this new group and the Kingdom, it's fun to see our survivors interact with others in this world who are very weird, but not entirely evil. Jadis and the Scavengers are definitely a great example of that.
