Written by Josh B. Taylor
Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead, ‘We Are the End of the World’ was essentially a filler episode, but it might just be one of my favorite filler episodes in a long time! We get a backstory to The Whisperers, Alpha and Beta, and the episode proves that the survivors should still worry what they’re getting ready to go up against in the upcoming Whisperer War.
The episode starts with a flashback of Alpha and Lydia walking in the city, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. They encounter a survivor that didn’t make it, and became a quick walker meal. Lydia was terrified of what she witnessed, so she starts to scream and panic which leads alpha to think quick and head into an abandoned building, where they meet/encounter Beta. He allows them to stay the night, and then head out wherever they’re heading to.
Throughout the flashback, we see how Beta is impressed with Alpha’s survival skills and the idea of acting like a walker (or In Alphas worlds becoming them, feeling nothing). At the end of the flashbacks, we see that Beta stuck around that building because that’s where his best friend passed on and turned into a walker. Alpha was trying to look for Lydia, who was trying to prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid of walkers, but encountered by Beta’s best friend walker took it down. Beta wasn’t too happy, but Alpha made a good impression on him for him to not kill her for taking down the walker that was his former best friend. He couldn’t leave him there, and it gives Alpha the clever idea to skin his face and wear it. It’s the same face that Beta wears to this day.
We were also introduced to a new character, Gamma (Thora Birch, Hocus Pocus, Ghost World), sister to the woman who gave up their baby last season. The sister can’t cope with the fact that she abandoned her baby and starts to drift into thoughts of the other camp, and becomes a risk to the whisperers. Beta isn’t too happy about thi and wants Alpha to take care of this situation. Alpha doesn’t kill her, which leads to another situation causing the death of three whisperers, and Gamma killer her sister to save Alpha and the whisperers. When Beta confronts Alpha about her recent decisions, he finds out that Lydia is still alive, and tells Alpha to not say a word to the whisperers about this, but Alpha informs Beta that Lydia is Dead to her, and when Beta also informs her about the smoke on their territory, that the survivors crossed it, Alpha suggests to pay them a visit at their borders.
This was a great episode, with terrific character studies/development for Alpha, Beta, Lydia, and newcomer Gamma. I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, to what maybe might lead up to the beginning of the whisperer war.
Rating: 8 out of 10
