Is Tales of the Walking Dead already setting up a major new antagonist? Deviating from the serialized storytelling of The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead and Walking Dead: World Beyond, Tales of the Walking Dead adopts an anthology format, cherry-picking stories from across the apocalypse's timeline. First up is Joe (played by Terry Crews), a "prepper" who finally departs his bunker and encounters the free-spirited Evie (Olivia Munn). They ride a motorcycle of dreams to Michigan, where Joe is searching for pre-outbreak chatroom girlfriend "USHLDBSCRD." That username proves rather more appropriate than Joe expected, as his sweetheart is actually a serial killer IRL.
Joe & Evie's Tales of the Walking Dead story is a self-contained narrative, but one mystery from their road trip remains unsolved. While making camp one night, Joe & Evie are beset by a small gaggle of undead. Both capable fighters, the two traveling companions make light work of the zombies, but Tales of the Walking Dead lingers on one particular zombie's torso, showing the heart has been ripped clean out. Joe notices too, looking puzzled by this gaping hole in the zombie's chest. He later points out this oddity to Evie ("someone took its heart out!") but the mystery isn't elaborated upon whatsoever.
Maybe the heartless zombie was merely included for a little extra gore during an otherwise typical Walking Dead fight scene, but Joe drawing attention to the missing heart and director Ron Underwood placing unusual emphasis on the zombie's chest cavity suggest a deeper importance behind this detail. Some twisted Walking Dead villain has evidently been removing hearts from either living victims, or zombies after they've already turned. Tales of the Walking Dead episode 1 never reveals who's responsible, and there's no obvious answer elsewhere in The Walking Dead lore. USHLDBSCRD lives too far away, and while she's keen on swiping victims' watches, there's no suggestion of her scooping out hearts. The culprit is still out there, ready and waiting for The Walking Dead to pick up their story.
Where Could Tales Of The Walking Dead's Zombie Heart Villain Appear?
If Tales of the Walking Dead episode 1's heartless zombie is intended as setup for a future storyline, there are plenty of opportunities for that mystery to be resolved. Although AMC's latest spinoff is an anthology, future episodes may occur during the same time period around the Ohio/Michigan border. Joe's unexplained zombie sighting may serve as the prelude for another Tales of the Walking Dead adventure yet to come.
With so many Walking Dead projects in the pipeline, Joe & Evie's heartless zombie could factor into another spinoff. Fear The Walking Dead season 8 will be set around Louisiana, Daryl Dixon's spinoff is heading to Europe, and Maggie Rhee will accompany Negan to Manhattan, ruling out those three projects. However, a Rick and Michonne spinoff has also been confirmed for AMC, borne out of initial plans for a Rick Grimes movie, which was rumored to take place in Philadelphia. Maybe this is where The Walking Dead can explain Tales episode 1's zombie with the missing heart.
Crucially, Tales of the Walking Dead episode 1 takes place approximately 18 months after the outbreak. Rick and Michonne's spinoff will be set in The Walking Dead's present day, around 9 years later. If the heart remover does appear in the modern timeline, they'll be a far more experienced, established villain. Perhaps stealing organs was just the beginning for this mysterious sadist...
Tales of the Walking Dead continues Sunday on AMC.