Maggie's quiet exit on The Walking Dead proves that so much has happened in the six year time gap since Rick Grimes left via helicopter, a lot of which is still a mystery. However, part of Maggie's whereabouts are known, and not all that surprising — she's supposedly with Georgie on The Walking Dead? Sunday's episode explained that Maggie left with this woman and took little Hershel with her — but we've actually met Georgie before.
The "new world" that Rick started and Maggie, Michonne, and Carol have continued owes way more to Georgie than Carl Grimes and his visions of fall festivals and Weird Al singalongs. She's the one who, in Season 8, was flanked by identical twin guards gave Maggie the book full of old-timey handwritten plans. "Windmills, watermills, silos, hand-drawn schematics, guides for refining grain, creating lumber, aqueducts," she said in her singular episode. "A book of medieval human achievement so we may have a future from our past."
Georgie told Maggie that her leaving Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom with these plans was a trade — not a gift. She wanted them to build their community up so that they'd have resources (cheese and pickles, specifically) to give to them when they came back. Georgie did not specify when she would return, but the audience can assume that it happened at least once in the past six years. Jesus seems to be familiar with this woman, and he wasn't in the initial meeting.
It's interesting, because only the Hilltop seems to be truly thriving right now. Alexandria is OK, but the Kingdom is in trouble. We don't know what is happening with the Sanctuary. What if Hilltop is doing so well because of their continued involvement with Georgie and her group. Could Georgie have been behind the conflict that ultimately estranged Michonne and Maggie so much that the former did not know the latter had left the Hilltop?
In March 2018, when Georgie first appeared on The Walking Dead, it seemed possible that she came from the Commonwealth, a location that makes an appearance later in the comics. Knowing what we know now about Rick's departure and the upcoming Walking Dead Cinematic Universe, it kind of seems like the Commonwealth is where that helicopter was off to — does this mean that Maggie join him in the films, or are she and Georgie off on their own adventure.
We also still don't know whether Georgie was a representative of a larger community, or just forever on the road, going from place to place and trading knowledge for what she and her twin companions need to survive. Could this also carry over into Fear The Walking Dead? At the end of the latest season, the survivors on the spin-off devoted themselves to a similar "search and assist" humanitarian effort. They also have beer.
Fingers crossed that some kind of flashback, or something, will reveal what happened when Georgie returned to collect and why Maggie picked up her little family and left. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again... how is Maggie sending Jesus and Enid letters? Who's delivering the mail, carrier pigeons?
