The War Heats Up In Promo For Next Week’s Walking Dead

Tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead, titled “Dead or Alive Or,” took a break from Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes – after a particularly tough couple of weeks for the guy – to focus on a few other corners of the story. Most notably, we caught up with Daryl and Rosita, followed Father Gabriel as his health worsened and checked in on Maggie at the Hilltop. Meanwhile, Negan and Eugene came up with a dangerous new scheme to cover their weapons in walker guts.

Overall, this was another solid outing that progressed the story in some interesting ways that we look forward to seeing explored in future weeks. Speaking of which, we now have our first glimpse at next Sunday’s episode in the form of the short promo up above, along with a clip down below.

Episode 8×12 is set to be titled “The Key” and the previously-released synopsis describes it as so: “Hilltop’s leadership faces a difficult dilemma after the arrival of unexpected visitors; Rick comes face to face with an adversary.”

This sounds like it could be an important one for Maggie, who’s been the de facto leader of the Hilltop community all season. It’s been fascinating to see the character grow into this role, too, though recent episodes have shown how she’s internally struggled to make some tough decisions. It sounds like she’s set to be faced with another one in “The Key,” as well.

Of course, Maggie might not have too many more difficult decisions left to make as she may not have long left on the show. Actress Lauren Cohan is currently in the midst of a lengthy pay dispute with the network that could result in her leaving The Walking Dead in season 9. Members of the cast have vocally supported her, though, so hopefully something will be worked out.

Be sure to catch The Walking Dead “The Key” next Sunday, March 18th, on AMC.