Some Fear The Walking Dead Fans Think Virginia's Sister Isn't What She Seems

Contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead season 6 episode 6

Season 6 of Fear the Walking Dead has heavily centered around how its main characters are struggling while living under the shadow of the corporate analyst from hell and dictator of a series of colonies, Virginia a.k.a Ginny (Colby Minifie, who established herself as a new fan favorite). Since she was introduced in season 5, viewers have only gotten glimpses into the personal life of the chipper and ruthless authoritarian. In season 6, we got even more clues about her background thanks to the introduction of her younger sister, Dakota (Zoe Colletti).

We met the younger sibling in the season's second episode, which sees Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Strand (Colman Domingo) forced to clear a sticky zombie horde out of a sugar factory. Dakota first appeared as an anonymous young girl who helped the pair avoid a harsh punishment from Virginia's rangers. Only later, after she attempted to join the two in escaping Virginia's colonies, did she reveal herself to be the leader's sister. The plan to escape didn't pan out, and Dakota went back to live under Virginia's very watchful eye.

Dakota has appeared throughout season 6, but mostly indirectly, and her true motivations have been a mystery. After this week's episodes, some fans are beginning to wonder if there's a dark side to her that we have yet to see.

In the episode "Bury Her Next to Jasper's Leg," an explosion at the colony's oil refinery leaves Virginia and June (Jenna Elfman) trapped in a building with a walker. Virginia gets bit on the hand, a potential death sentence. While pleading with June to help her by cutting off her hand to stop the infection from spreading, Virginia specifically mentions wanting to make sure that Dakota is taken care of and looked after.

While on the surface this plea sounds like basic sibling compassion, it struck some fans on Reddit as possibly having darker implications. In the episode discussion thread, user Aniensane pointed out, "The way Ginny talked about how she 'loves Dakota..' then 'loved her' followed by what it's like to 'help someone that (can't) be helped' makes it sound like Dakota is a child psycho."

The idea that Dakota might be malicious, and Virginia's overbearing efforts to protect her are actually her way of trying to protect others from Dakota isn't new to the Fear the Walking Dead subreddit. There have been a few threads on which users have shared their suspicions about Dakota since the start of season 6, including one entitled "Dakota" in which user ben_s16 said, "I've [drawn] the conclusion that there is a dark side to Dakota that we haven't seen yet."

While some fans still think she's nothing more than a rebellious teenager, others are on board with the "Dakota is evil" theory. In fact, some fans have even speculated that she might be behind one mysterious death from earlier in the season.

In the Chinatown-inspired fourth episode called "The Key," John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt) is trying to solve the mystery of who killed Cameron (Noah Khyle), one of Virginia's rangers. Ultimately, Janis (Holly Curran) takes the fall for the crime after the matching earring to one found at the crime scene is discovered in her bag. Janis denies any involvement, and by the end of the episode, John becomes convinced that Virginia framed Janis for the murder in order to protect the real killer. And some fans think the person she's covering for might be Dakota.

In the "Dakota" thread, user alnxng suggested, "She killed that dude in 6x04 and Ginny covered it up. Clearly there is a reason that Ginny is so protective of her."

This theory was also bandied about in the weekly episode discussion thread. User Ok-Koala-2090 noted, "The way Virginia was talking about Dakota felt strange. It made me feel like she was trying to protect Dakota, not so much from walkers and bad people, but from her doing bad things to others ... What if Dakota is the killer with the lost earing? [sic] Who else would Virginia want to cover for!?"

User davey_mann agreed with that comment, writing, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure Dakota killed Cameron. Ginny recognized it, gave it back to John, then planted the other earring in Janis' bag."

Proponents of this theory are still waiting for the smoking gun to be revealed, and after they got a look at the upcoming episode, they think it might be coming sooner rather than later.

The upcoming mid-season finale of Fear the Walking Dead will following the rest of the season in its anthology format, in which each episode focuses on one of the central characters and is inspired by a film. The film inspiration du jour for the finale: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (via Entertainment Weekly).

A few promotional photos have been released of the Alicia-centered episode, and one in particular caught the eye of "Dakota is evil" truthers. In it, the teen is seen standing with the new character Ed (Raphael Sbarge), who is presumed to be the Leatherface of this twisted homage. As ben_s16 pointed out in a thread discussing the promo images, "My suspicion of Dakota grows larger and larger. The fact that she's seen with this new character ... and Dakota doesn't look to be in any danger or distress. Makes me very suspicious of her ... "

Very suspicious indeed. Fans will have to wait until next week to see if they get a definitive answer to this intriguing theory.