How Unreal works through nodes

I’ve been having issues all over the place with things not working when I feel like they should. I feel like I’m missing some fundamental aspect about how Unreal works through nodes.

Here is an example. This is from a zombie animBP. It starts with a Event blueprint Update anim node, so it should be constantly refreshing.

In the zombie’s CharacterBP(above), the variable IsDead_BP can be triggered, and then triggers the EventDispatcher HeadtHit_Dispatcher. The Zombie’s AnimBP (below) then pics up those two, the branch then should send a TRUE condition, and then carry on. But on the first call of this, it fails.

It’s as if the IsDead_ABP variable in the animABP isn’t being set fast enough to open the branch. If I pull directly from the cast of the zombie’s CharacterBP which gets the IsDead_BP, it works, but I fail to see the difference in how one would work while the other wouldn’t.

Can you post these BPs to https://blueprintue.com? It will be easier to see what is going on. Without seeing the start of any of your execution wires I can’t say what your particular issue is.

This is the relevant part of the Zombie_BP

And the anim_bp