Anna Daniels
Careful viewers have picked up on a few hints about this outcome that only make sense in hindsight. Two episodes back, one of the minion Whisperers appeared to recognize the dulcet tone of Beta’s voice. If Half Moon really was a famous country singer in his day, then it’s pretty believable that some random dude in Virginia might pick up on it just from hearing him speak. The Whisperer was rewarded for his I.D. with a violent death, so he must have been onto something.
The entire Walking Dead franchise is inspired by the recently concluded comic series of the same name, by creators Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. The flagship TV series has always played fast and loose with its source material, and the identity of Beta is yet another somewhat arbitrary change. In the comic, Beta outlives his welcome and his arc, surviving the climactic attack on Alexandria (still forthcoming on the TV series) that the Whisperers instigate. Instead of dying in some big battle sequence, the survivors dispatch him unceremoniously in a brief scene that takes place several issues after the conclusion of the Whisperers’ storyline.
Jesus and Aaron unmask Beta’s hulking corpse only to discover the face of a famous NBA basketball player. Why TV series maven Scott M. Gimple decided a country music star was a better fit than a basketball player is anybody’s guess, but the reveal does at least follow the comic story in kind.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9:00pm Eastern on AMC. Subscribers to AMC Premiere can catch episodes 48 hours early.
Written by: Looper
