I thought it was a hallucination.

 

Same helicopter from season 1?!? Or ghostly helicopter containing Welles, Sean, and Franklin?

 

Oh wow, it didn’t even occur to me that it could be a hallucination. Rick hallucinated when he lost Lori - and they just lost a lot of people including the entire Kingdom so maybe that’s possible. It’s also possible there is still someone out there with a helicopter. I hope we find out soon.

 

I'm worried it's from a Savior outpost and they're going to clear out the walkers.

I know they're gonna be cleared, but for some reason I keep feeling anxious about it happening like it'll stop it from happening somehow.

I was like no stop the guns, no mess up the explosions and take out the walkers, oh no the helicopter is gonna save them.

 

Did I miss something else, too? What helicopter? What Gabriel bite? Did I watch the same episode as all of you?

 

You picked the wrong week to take up crack!

 

Turns out my illegal pirating streams have been cutting out the last 5 minutes without me knowing. Fortunately, in searching for the full episode, I learned AMC puts them up the night of instead of the day after now so I no longer have to pirate them.

 

Yeah. I'm thinking Rick will see that helicopter a few more times this season, but it'll be revealed it was only a bird.

 

There is a lot of military in the area. The air force has a station very close to alexandria. There are some small bases (md national guard?) around baltimore. a little farther north and there is APG. Also a huge air force base in Dover, even though that one is probably close to 100 miles away and not very relevant. It's possible that there is still some kind of organized military in the area, or at least military trained survivors, who can maybe maintain and fly helicopters.

 

There was a helicopter in the Governor's arc. That was US National Guard, IIRC. This time, it should be different. Or else, it will too much of a repeat.
I think Rick was on his way to the Garbage people. And, he saw the helicopter flying in that same direction? Maybe it is related to them? Perhaps not.

 

I was wondering if they are connected to Negan but then thought that military personnel would probably have their own leader and not want to follow Negan. I have no idea really who it could be. I hope they dont go hallucination route again.

 

Yeah, that threw me off because I was like "We already did the Woodbury and Governor arc, what is this?"

 

It will be revealed next episode when Negan tells his people : at dawn look to the east. so they can be rescued at helms deep.. err I mean the factory.

 

Easter egg for future bad guys?

 

Yeah, I'm doubting hallucination too. My guess is it will be something that plays into the future, but not for several episodes. I'm personally hoping its something completely unrelated to what we've seen so far, just because I like things complicated

But it also could be a helicopter from another Savior's outpost, on its way to asses the situation around the Sanctuary from above, and maybe give aid. Although if its a military helicopter then you'd have to question why they didn't use it in the attack on ASZ.

 

I can't think of anything more astonishing than a helicopter, so that was THRILLING!!! There are probably a few toddlers in the apocalypse who have never seen a machine move through the sky.

As a practical matter, does anyone know if helicopter fuel goes bad? I was interested to learn during the Las Vegas mass shooting where the guy tried to blow up that nearby fuel tank that airplane fuel won't explode that way. So there is at least that one big difference.