'The Walking Dead' Season 7 Theories: Will Tara bring Rick to the Oceanside community?

The good news for Rick and the rest of Alexandria: They found a new community that will help them fight the Saviors, and they're probably badass considering they had a gladiator zombie covered in spikes. The bad news: They want a lot of guns. 

It's not an absurd request considering they're basically going to war, but Alexandria has had all their guns confiscated by the Saviors, so they'll have to find a new cache of weapons to give over to this new community. Unfortunately, in order to keep their end of the bargain, it almost certainly means Tara — one of the few remaining characters in the series with a strong moral center — will have to break a promise she made earlier in the season. 

Going back to the first half of season seven, Tara encounters the Oceanside community: An all-female group that used to work under Negan and the Saviors. However, Negan ordered the Saviors to kill the community's men over the age of 10 after they had a skirmish — which is pretty fucked up. So they relocated and remained hidden. 

Oceanside wants to keep it that way, so much so that they planned to kill Tara once she tried to return to Alexandria. It was only through Cindy, a member of the community who befriended Tara, that she was able to make it out alive. However, Tara's rescue came with a promise: Don't tell your group about Oceanside. 

Thus far, Tara has remained mum on Oceanside's existence — even after finding out that her love interest Denise was unceremoniously killed by the Saviors. But they do have a massive cache of weapons, and Rick already said he'd heed Tara's advice on where to find new guns because she's ventured farther from Alexandria than anyone else. Put these things together, and an Oceanside reunion seems inevitable. And, for what it's worth, The Walking Dead's showrunner Scott Gimple has echoed these sentiments. 

"There's definitely unfinished business there," Gimple told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. "And the information that Oceanside — and what it possesses — would be a very big deal to Rick."

It looks like it's a matter of when, not if, The Walking Dead revisits Oceanside. With the way the community treated Tara's intrusion earlier this season (mostly, shooting at her), we can't imagine it'll be a cordial visit. To quote Attack of the Clones — and yes, I'm sorry, it's a terrible film — Rick might have to deal with "aggressive negotiations." 

The Walking Dead returns Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern on AMC. Check out a teaser for the new episode below: 

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