The Walking Dead recap: Lance's new ally is bad news for Maggie

It looks like Lance Hornsby is getting a powerful new ally, one who has a vendetta against Maggie.

It was revealed in last week's The Walking Dead episode, "The Rotten Core," that it wasn't the group living out of a militarized apartment building that stole Lance's gun shipment. It was Leah. In this week's "Trust." Lance finally catches up to her and with her making easy work of his security guard, he has a proposition for her.

Lance already smells bulls--- on the Alexandrians. He shows up to the apartment building and finds everyone dead, except for Gabriel and Aaron. They feed him a story about how Carlson botched the mission and the group they were trying to welcome to the Commonwealth overwhelmed their forces and absconded. He doesn't believe it for a second, but is willing to play along if it'll help him retrieve his stash.

Lance sets his sights now on Hilltop, which is where the timeline of the show catches up to the flash-forward scene viewers saw at the tail end of "No Other Way." Lance stands outside Hilltop with Commonwealth soldiers, including Daryl, and he wants to search the premises for any evidence of his supplies. Maggie, having witnessed the villainy of Carlson, turns them away. But Daryl, wanting to protect his own, persuades Maggie to let them in.

There are a couple moments when Lance thinks he's about to get the intel he needs, including when he finds Herschel and tries to pressure information out of him. (Bad move, Lance.) But there's nothing to find.

Daryl learns that Lance won't let the troupe return to Commonwealth until he finds what he's looking for. Fortunately, he does find them. One of his soldiers tracks down Leah's camp, and Lance slinks off into the night with a small group of guards. Leah, however, is prepared for them. She picks off most of the soldiers one by one, but shoots to injure, not kill. When it's clear he's completely outmatched, Lance calls out to her, hoping to talk. She emerges and he reveals he wants to hire her. For what? It's unclear. The episode cuts to the end credits before we get any further details, but whatever it is can't be good.

When last we saw more than a few seconds of Leah, Maggie was executing the remainder of her men and she had managed to escape with her life, albeit with some injuries. Now, Leah's path is crossing with Maggie's yet again. We're expecting a lot more bloodshed.

Elsewhere in the episode, the Alexandrians are gaining new allies. Mercer's now in a full-blown relationship with Princess, and he confides in her that he's tormented by killing two corrupt Commonwealth soldiers and covering it up — as well as the deaths of about 30 Commonwealth citizens — for Sebastian Milton. Meanwhile, after consulting with Rosita, Connie, and Kelly about the same situation, Eugene goes to Max in attempt to get someone on the inside of the Commonwealth to steal incriminating files for them. It takes a bit, but Max realizes from seeing her brother trying to bury his emotions that there's no going back from this.

There's only one episode left before the next break in the show's schedule, and it happens to be The Walking Dead's last mid-season finale ever. Expect big things and at least one dangling cliffhanger.

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