The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Easter Egg Might Solve "PPP" Mystery
What is "PPP" on The Walking Dead? An Easter egg might finally reveal the answer.
It's a burning question that fans have been asking since a 2016 episode of The Walking Dead: What is "PPP?" Ever since the season 7 episode "Swear" ended with Tara (Alanna Masterson) and Heath (Corey Hawkins) getting separated during a two-week supply run, there has been just one clue about what happened to Heath: a keycard with the letters "PPP." It was a mystery that then-showrunner Scott M. Gimple set up and left unresolved on The Walking Dead, with successor showrunner Angela Kang eventually confirming that Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) took Heath and then traded him to the CRM in exchange for supplies.
A similar "PPP" card appeared on the "Davon" episode of Tales of the Walking Dead in 2022, also without explanation, but the letters "PPP" haven't popped up anywhere since. That will change in episode 6 of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
The trailer for the final episode of the Rick and Michonne spinoff shows a peek inside the Civic Republic Military's Cascadia Forward Operating Base in the Cascades, where Major General Beale (Terry O'Quinn), Command Sergeant Major Pearl Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt), and other top CRM commanders have convened for a summit about the mysterious Echelon Briefing. A quick glimpse at a whiteboard shows the words "PPP Exception" written just below the word "Reclamation," referring to the CRM reclamation teams that are tasked with covering up all traces of the army's existence.
Closer examination of the board also shows the words "Portland," "echelon exceptions," "refinery," and the phrase "engage, assess, execute." PPP could indicate a CRM Priority Placement Program, which typically affect military personnel who have been subject to reductions-in-force, realignments, consolidations, base closures, transfers, and position classification decisions, according to similar verbiage in the U.S. military and federal agencies.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond revealed that the CRM was targeting Portland, one of the three surviving cities on the continent, which has a population of 87,000. That series also revealed that Jadis carried out the "tactical military operations" that destroyed Omaha (population: 97,407) and Nebraska's Campus Colony (population: 9,671) under Beale's orders, using a combination of green liquid chlorine gas and zombie hordes. It was part of the CRM Plan to eliminate drains on the Civic Republic's resources and sever the city's ties to the Alliance of the Three, which was an alliance between Portland, Omaha, and the Civic Republic of Philadelphia.
"It's like with the CRM — there's a huge mythology to it," Gimple recently told ComicBook of the "PPP" keycard. "But the thing is, and I do want to [tell it], but if things change and you haven't released that much, you can pivot. But I will say we have... it's just sitting on a shelf right now, this really great mythology that might apply to something very, very soon."
"But I'd say it's sat on a shelf for two years now, that mythology," Gimple added, "and ideas around it and stories and characters and things. But we will sell no wine before its time."
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live finale airs Sunday, March 31, on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow on Facebook for more TWD Universe coverage.