Will 'The Walking Dead' season 7, episode 6 introduce the Whisperers?

If you thought The Walking Dead was finally done touching base with all the members of Rick's group five episodes into season seven, it turns out we're still missing a couple of characters. Remember Heath and Tara? 

Honestly, we barely do, but it appears the sixth episode of season seven, "Swear," will remind viewers what the heck they've been up to since season six. Based on the sneak peek for next week, Heath and Tara were tasked with heading out of Alexandria to get supplies. According to the duo, it's been two weeks since they've been home. 

What this means is that they have no clue what's happened to Glenn and Abraham, or about the fact that Alexandria now has to give up half of their supplies to Negan and the Saviors. To give an idea of how far behind they are: Tara has no idea that Denise is dead, and Heath is still reconciling with the group's decision to kill members of the Saviors at one of their outposts in season six (though he does have a point). 

But episode six may prove to be more than a check-in for Heath and Tara: It could introduce the show's newest group of villains. 

The current, and ever so vague, synopsis for the new episode has a pretty simple revelation: "A new community is discovered." But The Walking Dead has already been through all of the communities that deal with the Saviors and are part of the comic book's "All Out War" storyline, which the show is clearly emulating. 

Who could this new community be, then? Our money's on the Whisperers. 

While AMC hasn't explicitly stated whether or not we'd be introduced to the Whisperers, they had a pretty telling Instagram post in October ahead of the season premiere. As io9 reported, the network's Instagram references a creepy moment from the comics in which the Whisperers leave the heads of some Alexandrians on a spike to mark their territory. Frankly, there's no other way to interpret this image, especially for viewers who are familiar with the comics. 

We're not sure why, exactly, the show would introduce the Whisperers this early. In the comics, they aren't introduced until the Saviors and Negan are defeated (the comic even does a time jump!). However, it wouldn't be the first time the show has deviated from its source material. 

Plus, the Whisperers have a pretty terrifying conceit: They wear the skin of the zombies so they can blend in unharmed, and, you guessed it, they whisper to one another to communicate. Not only would that make for some entertaining television, but we also see Tara running away from what looks like a zombie — except it's running around like a damn human being. 

We'll have to wait and see who Tara and Heath encounter next week, but considering how poor of a job AMC has done with Negan and his monologues on-screen, we'd welcome a new, terrifying villain sooner rather than later.