The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020–21) was the first series of the Dead franchise to heavily focus on the Civic Republic Military, the highly organized group that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) finds himself trapped in at the start of The Ones Who Live. Here’s what Beyond taught us about the powerful force.
The Civic Republic once maintained an alliance of three colonies: Portland, Oregon; Omaha and the Civic Republic’s secret base in Philadelphia. When the Civic Republic Military decided the colonies couldn’t self-sustain and would eventually drain the republic’s resources, it moved to wipe them out. The military extracted Omaha residents they believed could be useful to their overall mission and then used deadly gas to kill the remaining thousands in the colony. They would have done the same to Portland, but the good guys on Beyond thwarted that plan.
Focused on wiping out the dead and ensuring humanity’s survival, the CRM team uses its extensive resources to study walkers. At a research facility in Ithaca, New York, Dr. Lyla Belshaw (Natalie Gold) employed walkers and the living as test subjects to study the virus. Her goals? To prevent humans from turning and wipe out already existing hordes of the dead.
The Civic Republic maintains many of life’s conveniences from before the apocalypse. Cities and facilities possess electricity, running water, and an abundance of food. And the military is stocked with guns, vehicles, helicopters, and chlorine gas. They have the highest quality of postapocalyptic life we’ve seen in the Walking Dead Universe by far.
In Beyond, we saw that the CRM’s reach extends to much of America, from New York to Oregon. We know they were in Virginia — and their helicopters even traveled as far as Texas in Season 5 of spinoff Fear the Walking Dead.
On Beyond, it was revealed that Rick’s former enemy Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) now works as a CRM warrant officer. She reports to the mysterious Major General Beale, who we’ll see for the first time in The Ones Who Live, played by Terry O’Quinn.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC
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The Celtics need not be in a hurry to get further under the NBA's luxury tax threshold, now that they've successfully navigated the dreaded second apron, unloading stars Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis in trades and letting the likes of Luke Kornet and, likely soon, Al Horford walk in free agency. Still, Boston is looking to create as much flexibility as possible this season, with star forward Jayson Tatum out for the year with an Achilles tendon tear and the roster generally depleted all around, as the Celtics begin paying the cost for the contracts team honcho Brad Stevens handed out as they were winning the 2024 NBA championship. That means the chief prize the Celtics got back in making the trade that sent Holiday to the Blazers--Anfernee Simons, the 26-year-old scorer who is in the final year of a four-year, $100 million contract--is still available on the trade market, according to league insider Jake Fischer. Celtics Salary Dumps Continue The Celtics did make one salary-dump trade this week, sending Georges Niang to Utah. Niang was owed $8.2 million for the 2025-26 season, and is now the Jazz's problem. He was sent to Boston in the Porzingis trade. Writes Fischer on The Stein Line substack on Sunday: "The Celtics discussed trading Niang with various teams around the league, sources say, in their continued salary-shaving campaign following the luxury-tax-slashing trades that shipped out Jrue Holiday and Porzingis. "The expectation persists, furthermore, that Boston will continue to invite trade discussion involving Anfernee Simons from now through next season's trade deadline on Feb. 5 at 3 PM ET." Simons averaged 19.3 points per game last season in Portland, and was down somewhat on his 3-point shooting, at 36.3%. Still, he should bounce back, as he is a 38.1% career 3-point shooter, and if he returns to form, his market value will only get that much stronger ahead of the NBA trade deadline.
The first week of the 2025 NFL preseason is officially in the books. Even though the games and results do not matter, there is still reason to pay attention to standout performances from around the league. Here are some of the best from this week's games. TreVeyon Henderson, RB, New England Patriots The Patriots need some game-changers on offense, and they may have found one in second-round pick TreVeyon Henderson. Henderson put on an immediate show in the Patriots' preseason opener, returning the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, rushing for 18 yards on his only carry and catching three passes. Skylar Thompson, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers Thompson is not likely to make the Steelers roster, but that doesn't mean he can't find a spot on another team. Especially if he puts together a strong preseason performance. He did exactly that on Saturday night against the Jacksonville Jaguars, completing 20-of-28 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns. With Aaron Rodgers unlikely to play in the preseason and Will Howard injured, Thompson should get plenty of reps to audition for other teams. Tanner McKee, QB, Philadelphia Eagles Following the offseason trade of Kenny Pickett, McKee is now pretty much cemented in as the Eagles' backup, and he had to give them a lot of confidence in his ability following his preseason performance against the Bengals. McKee torched the Bengals defense to the tune of 20-of-25 passing for 252 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. It is a nice continuation for McKee following his promising debut a year ago when he threw for 323 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions in his two appearances. Blake Corum, RB, Los Angeles Rams The Rams already have a starting running back in Kyren Williams, but there is nothing wrong with having a second productive player at the position. Corum didn't make the expected impact in his rookie season, but he had a promising preseason debut this year with two touchdowns in the first quarter against the Dallas Cowboys. Rookie quarterbacks Cleveland's Shedeur Sanders got the week off to a promising start by throwing two touchdowns against Carolina, taking a big step forward in his quest to win the team's starting quarterback job and to silence the critics following his slide in the draft. Jaxson Dart, one of the Giants' first-round picks, also had a strong showing by going 12-of-19 with 154 yards and a very impressive touchdown pass. Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, also had a strong debut by leading a touchdown drive and developing an instant connection with veteran wide receiver Calvin Ridley. Abdul Carter, DE, New York Giants Carter did not play a ton of snaps for the Giants, but he was a force when he did play. He recorded a quarterback pressure on all three of his pass-rush snaps and showed the type of quickness and speed that made him one of the best players in the 2025 NFL Draft class. Cam Little, K, Jacksonville Jaguars Look, when you kick a 70-yard field goal, you deserve to get some added recognition, whether it counts as an official league record or not. Little made all four field goal attempts, as well as an extra point, in the Jaguars' preseason debut.
The New York Yankees have lost three straight series, and their playoff positioning is getting weaker by the day. They're now just a half-game ahead of the Cleveland Guardians for the AL's third and final Wild Card spot after Sunday's 7-1 loss to the Houston Astros. The bright side is that generational superstar Aaron Judge returned on Tuesday after missing 10 games with an elbow injury. However, the 33-year-old has been in the designated hitter slot since then, as he's still not ready to play the outfield. That's caused fellow slugger and regular designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton to be partially phased out of the lineup, since he's almost solely an offensive player at this point in his career. He hadn't played the field since 2023 before starting in right field on Saturday. Additionally, New York has been inconsistent on both sides of the ball. For example, two-time All-Star relief pitcher Devin Williams is 0-2 with a blown save since Monday, and the offense has averaged just 2.83 runs per game in that period. Judge opened up to the media about the situation after Sunday's loss, via SNY. "It's tough, but there's no excuses. We're getting paid to go out there, perform at our best, and win baseball games," he said. "The fans are still packing out and showing support for us, and we gotta show up for them. We've got to go out there and do our job. " "That's what it comes down to...We're not doing our job, we're not doing the little things that put ourselves in position to win baseball games," he continued. "It's going to take all of us...I wouldn't say the confidence has really changed." Aaron Judge Health Update Provides Silver Lining for Yankees New York is having a brutal stretch, as its 201 runs allowed since July 1 is the third-most in MLB. While the team must improve its pitching and defense, it has a pathway to quickly improve its offense. Once Judge is ready to throw again, the Yankees can go back to starting him in right field with Stanton at designated hitter. If they both play to their full potential, then the team could shoot back up the standings. Stanton was the ALCS MVP last season, and Judge leads baseball with a .337 batting average and 1.137 OPS. Judge admitted on Sunday that he doesn't know when he'll be able to play the field again, but his throwing program is going well so far, via SNY. If the future Hall of Famer continues to avoid setbacks, it increases the chances that he'll return to the outfield before the playoffs.
Los Angeles Chargers offensive tackle Rashawn Slater was carted off the practice field on Thursday afternoon with what turned out to be a significant injury. According to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, the two-time Pro Bowler suffered a season-ending knee injury. It's a massive blow to the team's offensive line and offense as a whole. It also serves as a harsh reminder as to why players will always — and should always — act on the side of caution when it comes to participating in training camp when they are seeking a new contract. In Slater's case, he's a lucky one because he just agreed to a new four-year, $114 million contract extension with $92 million in guarantees days before the injury happened. That contract was signed after he did not participate in some of the team's early training-camp practice sessions. If Slater had participated early on and had this injury happen before he was able to get his new deal signed, it would have been a devastating blow in his quest to get that pay day. Not only would the Chargers have had no incentive to pay him this season, but there is no guarantee he would have ever received that sort of contract in the future. Fans might not like the idea of a hold-out or hold-in, but you have to look at it from the perspective of the player. They have a very limited time to earn top dollar in the NFL, and there are never any guarantees. The hold-out/hold-in approach is not only a way to put pressure on the team to pay them, but it's also a matter of self-preservation. Football is a violent game. It's a physical game. It's a collision game. Injuries are always going to be a part of that. But injuries happen with much greater frequency early in the season, and especially in training camp, due to the fact that players are still working their way back into game shape and going through more intense and physical practices than they do at any point during the season. It's a dangerous time for them in terms of injuries, and that should not be overlooked when it comes to contract talks. Players have short careers and even less time to set themselves up financially. They should not be willing to take unnecessary risks when it comes to their earning power. The Slater situation shows just how delicate all of it is.
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