Last week’s episode of The Walking Dead ended just as the group of Eugene, Ezekiel and Yumiko came upon Princess as they were making their way through Charleston on their way to meet Stephanie. This week’s episode, “The Tower” — the penultimate outing in the tenth season, and the final episode until the restrictions put in place by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are lifted and post-production can be finished on the season finale — continues that interaction. Each member of the trio responds differently to this new character, while Princess just seems thrilled to see real people after over a year on her own.

Yumiko reacts with suspicion, which Princess doesn’t take kindly too. She thought they needed help and was trying to be kind. Ezekiel is more open and attempts to smooth things over with her. He even throws in a complement for her zombie displays, which disarms Princess. Of course, then she starts questioning whether they’re really there or just hallucinations. At that point, it becomes clear Princess may not be the picture of mental health. Still, she offers to show them around and provide supplies. Eugene rejects the offer, however, because he wants to continue their journey so he doesn’t miss the meeting with Stephanie.

Princess, who doesn’t want the only living people she’s seen in a long time to leave, offers to help them through the city, but Yumiko says they’ll find their own way. So when a group of walkers come staggering down the street, Princess decides to show the group how helpful she can be by opening fire. While this takes care of the walkers, it also spooks Eugene and Yumiko’s horses, who run off with most of the groups’ supplies strapped to their backs. Oops.

A little later, Eugene, Yumiko and Ezekiel regroup as Princess waits at a safe distance. Eugene points out their time to get to the meet point is tight. Without the horses, they need to start walking as soon as possible. Ezekiel suggests they take Princess up on her offer to help. Yumiko doesn’t want to, but Eugene points out that even if Princess is a little off, it’s worth seeing if she knows the location of some transportation.

Princess feels badly about the horses and wants to make it up to them by taking them to a garage, which she claims has tons of transportation choices. Yumiko demands she give them her gun before they follow her, but Princess is reluctant. Eventually her desire to interact with people wins out, though, and she hands it over.

Princess takes them through tough terrain and then into a fenced-off area. She instructs them to be careful and then deliberately moves forward, counting her steps as she goes. Ezekiel, Yumiko and Eugene are wondering if following her was a smart move, when Princess finds the head of one of their horses. Yumiko wonders if the walkers ate it, but Princess casually counters that it probably just stepped on a land mine. It’s then the others realize Princess has taken them into a minefield. The trio are astonished and freaked out. Even worse, after stopping to examine the horse, Princess has lost count of her steps and isn’t completely sure how to get them out.

As they watch Princess attempt to figure out how to get them through safely, Eugene observes they’re running out of time — walkers are coming through the fence. Ezekiel finally approaches Princess to move things along. Princess knows she’s messing things up with them so, in order to gets on with it, she does eenie meenie miney moe and heads the way it directs her. Thankfully she doesn’t blow up. And once she gets her bearings, she successfully leads them out of the minefield.

On the other side, Eugene notices they’ve reached a street they’d already passed. Princess could have taken them straight there but instead she decided to take the scenic route to elongate the amount of time she could spend with them. At the news, Yumiko pulls her weapon on Princess. Princess confesses she was hoping that they’d bond along the way and then the trio would stay and be friends, but she realizes she didn’t go about it the right way.

She confesses that at one point in her life, someone told her she was hard to love, so all day she’d been trying to prove that person wrong by winning the group over. She apologizes, but at this point even Yumiko feels sorry for her. Eugene sympathizes — he knows what it’s like to be afraid of being left alone. Then he asks her to take them to the transportation she promised.

Princess wasn’t lying about that. The garage she’s led them to does contain plenty of wheels, except those wheels are on bicycles, not the cars the trio expected. Eugene, at least, is pleased with the development. Bikes will get them to the meeting with Stephanie a lot quicker than walking will. Meanwhile, Ezekiel points out to Yumiko that Princess came through in the end.

Yumiko approaches Princess. Before Yumiko can say anything, Princess admits she blew it with them. She knows it’s hard to trust people in this world and she wishes she had done things differently. To her surprise, Yumiko responds by asking if Princess would like to join them as they continue their mission. Princess is so ecstatic she hugs Yumiko. She asks if they have time to grab stuff from her stash. She has a lot of things that could be helpful, but what really draws Eugene’s attention is the promise of candy.

Princess may be quirky but she’s also a fun and refreshing addition to the show. And perhaps in the next episode, whenever that airs, we’ll finally meet the elusive Stephanie.

The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews.