One of the biggest mysteries in the history of The Walking Dead is what the heck happened to Heath? The survivor, played by Corey Hawkins, disappeared way back in season 7 episode “Swear,” which as of this weekend, is officially four years old – it originally aired on November 27th, 2016. And in all that time, we’ve yet to get any answers to this particular mystery.
In “Swear,” Tara and Heath become separated after an altercation with a horde of walkers. Tara ends up knocked off a bridge and washed ashore by Oceanside, which leads her to a whole heap of fresh trouble as the secluded community’s leaders want her killed so as to keep their secret. Thankfully, she’s freed and makes her way back to where she last saw Heath on the bridge, but he’s nowhere to be found.
In his place, she spots the tire tracks of their now-gone RV, Heath’s broken glasses and a mysterious discarded key card marked “PPP.” With all that we’ve found out since, it’s easy to assume that Heath is one of those unlucky folks to be kidnapped by the Civic Republic Military, just like Rick was a couple of seasons later (“PPP” must be part of their “A/B” classification system). But while we know to expect the next chapter of Grimes’ story in Andrew Lincoln’s upcoming movies, there’s still no word on when we’ll see Heath again.
Hawkins left TWD to explore other acting opportunities, but then-showrunner Scott Gimple promised at the time that he would definitely return. Over the years, we’ve also had additional teases that this plot thread isn’t abandoned but is just on the back-burner.
There are just 30 episodes left of the parent series, though, so time is closing in on the potential for Heath to appear again. That being said, at this point, it’s probably more likely that he’ll feature in the Rick films or else an episode of anthology spinoff Tales of the Walking Dead will explain where he got to.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC for six new outings on February 28th, 2021.
