Characters / The Walking Dead (2010): The Whisperers

The Walking Dead Main Character Index
Rick's Group | The Grimes Family (Rick Grimes) | Georgia (Morgan Jones, Gabriel Stokes) | Atlanta | Atlanta Survivor Camp (Daryl Dixon, Carol Peletier) | Greene Family & Friends (Maggie Greene) | Prison Newcomers (Michonne Hawthorne) | Woodbury (The Governor) | Tyreese's Group | The Chambler Family | Abraham's Group | Terminus | The Coalition & Other Allies | Alexandria Safe-Zone | The Hilltop Colony (Gregory) | The Kingdom | Oceanside | The Saviors (Negan Smith, Savior Outposts, Former Saviors) | Magna's Group | The Whisperers (Alpha) | The Commonwealth | The Reapers | Other Antagonists | Other Survivors

Due to the Anyone Can Die nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. If you have not seen the first ten seasons read at your own risk!

The Whisperers

In General

"There are only two kinds of people left in this world — the ones brave enough to walk with the dead, and everybody else."

We walk in darkness.

We are free.

We bathe in blood.

We are free.

We love nothing.

We are free.

We fear nothing.

We are free.

We embrace all death.

We are free.

This is the end of the world.

Now is the end of the world.

We are the end of the world.

— The Whisperer creed, originated by its' leaders Alpha and Beta.

A group of survivors introduced after the Time Skip following the war with the Saviors. They disguise themselves using walker skins as mask which hide their scent from the dead, and they communicate with each other even while traveling with walkers by whispering. Under Alpha's guiding creed, they seek to continuously expand their massive horde of walkers they are able to command and destroy any holdouts of civilization, believing all must return to living like animals and that humanity is dead. Their existence is unknown to the Coalition until they migrate to their territory. When the survivors cross into the territory claimed by Alpha, it begins a long, brutal cold war between survivors seeking to honor Rick Grimes's legacy and hope for a future and Alpha's horde of the dead.

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• Adaptation Expansion: Tales adds a new backstory for the Whisperers, showing they predated Alpha and were led by a woman named Hera.
• Arc Villain: They're the main antagonists from the mid-Season 9 finale to the sixteenth episode of Season 10.
• Badass Creed: As grim as it is, the Whisperer creed — specifically, "We are the end of the world" — does sound pretty badass.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Alpha makes it clear to Michonne at the border meeting that she has eyes and ears watching them at all times, even when they think they're alone. It's later revealed to be because she has Dante living in Alexandria as one of their own.
• Boring, but Practical: The Whisperers prefer to use knives or spears, which are quiet, easily concealable, and leave their victims intact enough to turn. It also allows them to strike from within the cover of a herd, without alerting the walkers to their actions (which a gun definitely would).
• Disc-One Final Boss: A weird example. They were intended to be the Final Boss of Season 10 when "A Certain Doom" was still supposed to be the finale. Thanks to Season 10 being extended in the wake of Season 11 being pushed back due to COVID-19, the Whisperers are instead eliminated with an additional six episodes left to go in the season.
• The Dreaded: Their hiding among the dead dramatically increases the threat level of walkers even after nearly a decade of the communities dealing with them. The sheer scale of their horde and the pike massacre quickly scares the Coalition into accepting the Whisperers as neighbors, knowing they are unable to defeat such a formidable foe with their current numbers and dwindling resources.
• Dwindling Party: Not just because of the community survivors, mind you. Alpha and Beta show no qualms about offing some of their own if they do not follow their rules. By the end of "A Certain Doom", Beta and everyone else are wiped out along with their horde, with Lydia being the only survivor thanks to her Heel–Face Turn. "Out of the Ashes", however, reveals a small group managed to survive the destruction of the horde and took shelter at the remains of Hilltop.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Implied but ultimately alerted. The Season 8 finale has AHK notice a huge horde of walkers traveling in the distance, as they pass by a row of pikes left in a field. This is ultimately just a Mythology Gag used to foreshadow the Whisperer arc that would be coming next season, as Alpha does not discover the Coalition until several years later.
• Evil Learns of Outside Context: The Whisperers are a nomadic group who wipe out any civilized community they come across, so they stumbled onto the Coalition in Season 9 by pure chance after migrating to the region. It takes several episodes for Alpha to assess the threat to her way of life and strike out against them.
• Fantastic Rank System: The members of the inner circle are given titles named after letters of the Greek alphabet: "Alpha", "Beta" and "Gamma".
• Genuine Human Hide: A given since their masks are made from the skins of walkers, who were once living, breathing people.
• Hated by All: The pike massacre results in the Coalition hating Alpha and the Whisperers through and through. Very few survivors are willing to treat Lydia like an equal due to her being Alpha's daughter. They potentially inspire more hatred than the Saviors ever did, since the Coalition isn't
• Hero Killer: The Whisperers are the villainous group responsible for the greatest number of named character deaths in the show. Hell, they make their introduction killing Jesus, one of the most capable survivors and probably the single most combat-proficient character on the show. Alpha then ups the ante by killing ten survivors from the various factions of the Coalition: Ozzy, Alek, DJ, Frankie, Tammy Rose, Rodney, Addy, Enid, Tara, and Henry. In "Open Your Eyes", Siddiq is killed by Dante; in "Stalker", Laura is killed by Beta; and in "Walk With Us", reformed Whisperer Gamma, a.k.a. Mary, is also murdered by Beta. Earl Sutton is also bitten by a member of their horde and commits suicide in the same episode (only to fail and be put down by Judith). Finally in "A Certain Doom", Beatrice is stabbed by a Whisperer who drags her into their horde to be devoured alongside her and Hilltop resident Oscar is killed by a Whisperer who threw a knife into his chest.
• Hope Crusher: You think Negan bashing Glenn and Abraham with a baseball bat was sickening? Try decapitating ten people with a machete and leaving their zombified heads on spikes for everyone to find, including the heads of three children and an old lady. They do more damage to the survivors’ group morale than Negan’s tyranny ever did, and with their stated goal to specifically end civilization, they poise a more dire threat than the Saviors. At least the Saviors wanted a society, albeit one enslaved to Negan. The Whisperers want to end any attempt at society, and with the monstrous horde at their command, they are more than within reach of their goal.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: They end Season 9 victorious but are finally dealt with once and for all by the sixteenth episode of Season 10.
• Karmic Death: Most of the Whisperers are devoured by their own horde, and Lydia, who Alpha had tried to prepare to take over the Whisperers for her one day, is the one to lead them to a cliff to fall to their doom.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Season 11 features the first time a major antagonistic group is pitted against another by proxy thanks to Maggie’s group learning how to command hordes, which they use when they go up against the Reapers. The horde’s sheer numbers work at first, but ultimately fall to the Reapers’ superior technology and weapons. Mines put the group hiding in the horde in immediate danger, and the hwacha packs sufficient ammunition to wipe out the rest of the horde, forcing the group to confront the Reapers personally. It’s unlikely the Reapers would’ve emerged victorious against Alpha’s signature horde due to their small numbers, but it certainly proves Michonne’s hope for large, heavy weaponry that could’ve vanquished the Whisperers was valid.
• Locked Out of the Loop: With the exception of Dante, most of the Whisperers (including second-in-command Beta) are fed the lie that Alpha killed Lydia, which she upholds to keep herself from being seen as weak.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Blending in amongst a horde of the undead is a major advantage, especially in a world overrun with them, but being surrounded by them means any falter in their disguise will have immediate consequences. A Whisperer making too much noise or getting wounded has been frequently shown to grab the attention of their current herd and immediately leads to that Whisperer’s demise. This is one of the biggest factors in their downfall during the final battle: the gang has adapted and can now pick out the Whisperers from the walkers, and they proceed to locate and wound the Whisperers, thinning the herd of walkers as they divert their attention to the screaming sacks of fresh meat and condemning the last remaining Whisperers to be devoured by their own army.
  • The horde is a truly formidable weapon but it is still a horde of walkers who can still be distracted with the right tools, and it’s so large that the Whisperers cannot steer it as easily as a smaller horde. The survivors are able to gain the upper hand once they use a sufficiently large sound system to blare music to lure the horde away from The Tower.
  • Since they refuse to live like civilized people and do not use standard housing units for living space, they are at the mercy of the elements. After officially claiming their territory in the Washington region, they are forced to migrate south for the winter when it proves to be a ferocious, stormy cold season. This cold also threatens their horde as we see numerous walkers frozen solid during the blizzard in “The Storm”, yet another reason they’re forced to flee south. The survivors are able to live several months of peace until the spring when the Whisperers return to their land.
  • Superior firearms and technology still remain viable weapons to combat such a large horde. The Reapers use mines to blow apart Maggie's horde little by little, and while they didn’t know there were people hiding among the horde at the time, it presented a grave threat to the group at the time for the above listed reasons. The hwacha was also as devastating as you’d expect, and had the survivors indeed come into possession of heavy weaponry Virgil had promised, they could’ve defeated the Whisperers much quicker.
• Malevolent Masked Men: And women.
• N.G.O. Superpower: The Whisperers are a nomadic tribe who doff any attempt at organized civilization beyond following Alpha and Beta’s commands, in contrast to the organized communities of the Coalition who have their own governments and society, partially based on the fallen governments from before the Fall. After the pike massacre Alpha is established as the dominant power of the Virginia region since the survivors cannot afford to cross her.
• No Name Given: Enforced by Alpha who, in keeping with the general animalistic nature of the Whisperers, doesn't allow any of them to be addressed by their actual names, unless they go by an official title like her and Beta. Of course, they do all have real names — see below for examples. The youngest Whisperer, a newborn named Adam, isn't given a proper name until he gets adopted by the Sutton family at Hilltop.
• Not Me This Time: In "Variant", Aaron's group encounters a walker herd led by a walker that manages to bypass their security, attempts to open a door, and nearly clubs Jerry to death with a rock, and they naturally conclude that it's a malicious Whisperer accompanied by some cohorts out for revenge. Aaron manages to tackle the walker to the ground and rip off its "mask", only to discover, to his horror, that it's not a Whisperer but the genuine article, a more evolved variant walker he'd only heard rumors about but never encountered in person.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: They call the zombies "guardians", because they use them as a shield and as camouflage.
• Nuke 'em: Michonne compares the monstrous horde at their command to a nuclear weapon the Coalition are in no condition to fight against.
• Pretend We're Dead: They like to dress themselves up in walker skins, as a disguise from both the living and the dead.
• Revision: It was originally implied that Alpha and Beta founded the Whisperers together. Alpha's episode of Tales reveals that it was already a small group formed by a woman named Hera, who Alpha later killed and replaced as leader.
• The Remnant: Besides Lydia, a small group of Whisperers survived the final battle with the Coalition and took refuge at Hilltop for some time before apparently leaving.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When faced with a ferocious, blizzard-happy winter during their first cold season in their new territory, the Whisperers have to flee further south.
• Team Killer: Alpha and Beta drop a combined total of six ^note Seven, if you count the reformed Mary of their own Whisperers on-screen. Dante also kills a fellow Whisperer to prevent him from potentially turning on Alpha. Tales also strongly implies that Alpha killed the original leader of the group, Hera.
• Villain Episode: "We Are the End of the World" is A Day in the Limelight for the Whisperers, specifically Alpha and Beta's backstory.
• Villainous Legacy:
  • They are defeated in “A Certain Doom”, but their actions leave lingering consequences for the survivors. Much of Season 10’s extended run is dedicated to the survivors repairing the damage the Whisperers wrought during the war, namely the destruction they left Alexandria as payback for having ghosted them. The horde's march also scared away all viable prey from the Coalition's hunting grounds, leaving food supplies critically low well into Season 11. This forces Maggie to lead a group into the Reaper War in Part 1 and later Alexandria to seek help from the Commonwealth in the second part of Season 11.
  • The Whisperer War also left lasting psychological damage on survivors like Carol (whose actions during the war caused a falling out with Daryl), Aaron (who is left with PTSD from not only the Whisperers but an encounter with Mays after the war), and Connie (who suffers from trauma from her ordeal in Alpha's cave). The damage left in Alexandria also leaves a gaping hole in the survivors' morale due to it being the only sustainable community left in the region besides the distant Oceanside (which cannot support the numbers). Everyone still HATES the Whisperers long after their defeat, as evidenced by Aaron beating up what he thinks is a surviving Whisperer in “Variant”.
  • After the Whisperers' defeat, Negan teaches Maggie, Gabriel, and Elijah how to make Whisperer masks and walk among the dead, showing that while Alpha may be gone, her survival tactics are not. They later use these techniques to effectively take on the Reapers, even ambushing Wells in a manner similar to how the Whisperers killed Jesus. If not for the Reapers' hwacha destroying most of their horde, Maggie and company would have likely been able to wipe out the Reapers without ever needing to show their faces.
  • During the endgame of the series, Aaron's group, which also consists of trained herder Lydia, uses a horde as camouflage while they travel covertly to the Commonwealth. They even whisper to each other to communicate, the tactic simply being that useful.
• We Have Reserves: They easily have a few hundred in their ranks. Lydia says that just half of them would be enough to overwhelm and destroy Hilltop, the most prosperous community in the Washington area. And that’s not even counting the colossal horde at their command. Alpha and Beta also have no qualms about killing their underlings since they’ll just join the horde. However, Carol’s actions in the cave and the Battle of Hilltop put just enough of a dent in their horde’s numbers that Alpha becomes intent on replenishing her horde’s ranks. That said, as the final episodes of Season 10 show, the remainder of the horde is still positively monstrous in size.
• Zerg Rush: The Whisperer horde is so massive that all Alpha would need to do is sic it on a community and it would fall immediately.

The Inner Circle

Alpha

See Dee.

Beta

"Beta"

"I am the end of the world."

^{Click to see Beta without his mask.} 

^{Click to see Beta as Half-Moon.} 

Portrayed By: Ryan Hurst

Voiced By: Rafael Azcárraga (Spanish dub), Marco Kröger (German dub), Emmanuel Gradi (French dub), Massimo De Ambrosis (Italian dub), Radek Valenta (Czech dub), Balázs Láng (Hungarian dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 9-10) | Fear the Walking Dead (Season 5 ^note  On an album cover ) | The Walking Dead: World Beyond (Season 2 ^note  On an album cover )

Debut: "Guardians"

"You and your people are nothing to me. Your world is already dead."

Alpha's second-in-command among the Whisperers. When Daryl, Henry, and Connie rescue Lydia from the Whisperers, Beta is sent to retrieve Alpha’s daughter, though he loses his ensuing fight with Daryl. Several months later, Beta begins to chafe, when his leader shows that even she had her own contradictions, confessing to failing to kill Lydia and showing forgiveness for those who crossed her.

Beta steadfastly refused to welcome Negan into their ranks, recognizing him as someone who couldn’t be trusted, but to his dismay Negan charmed Alpha and earned a place at her side. Beta was devastated when Negan assassinated Alpha, and took command of the Whisperers. With much of his remaining sanity deteriorating rapidly, Beta launched a final assault on the survivors with the intent to finish what Alpha started. Thanks to Daryl and Negan, however, Beta met his end at the hands of his own horde, but was at peace with it as he remembered his creed - and in his twisted mind, died free.

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• 0% Approval Rating: It’s implied a lot of the Whisperers aren’t particularly happy to have him in charge after Alpha’s death. Several outright submit to Negan as the new leader, and another tries to flee after realizing how far his sanity is slipping in “The Tower”. Negan observes in “Walk With Us” that Beta simply does not have the charisma that Alpha had meaning he would likely never be the revered leader she is.
• Adaptation Expansion: As a consequence of Adaptational Early Appearance, he gets more to do than in the comics by default; most prominently, he gets a major fight scene with Daryl. He also gets a much more detailed backstory than his comic counterpart, including his first meeting with Alpha.
• Adaptational Badass: Zig-zagged. On one hand, he kills far more people in the show than he does in the comic. On the other, he doesn't get his famous comic fight scene with Negan where Lucille is destroyed when Negan smashes her repeatedly across Beta's back.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Beta debuts a bit earlier than his comic counterpart, as he first appears in the comics a while after the events of the fair, which the show did not depict until a few episodes after his debut.
• Adaptational Job Change: In the comics, he was a famous basketball player before the Zombie Apocalypse. His brief cameo on the cover of a vinyl album in Fear shows that in the TV show's universe he was instead a musician.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • For Daryl, who stands in the way of him retrieving Lydia for Alpha. Daryl is stunned to realize he didn't actually kill Beta after their initial fight, and makes up for it a season later by finishing him off for good.
  • Also for Negan, who upstages Beta in Alpha's hierarchy and then kills Alpha herself.
• Asshole Victim: As the leader of a cult of crazed psychopaths, seeing him stabbed in both of his eyes by Daryl before being devoured by his own horde is one hell of a sight to behold.
• Avenging the Villain: He decides to launch a full-scale attack on the community residents after Alpha is killed.
• Bad Boss: He can be just as brutal to his underlings as Alpha if they fail him or even if they just happen to be in the way. When he decides he wants to get rid of Negan, he kills a Whisperer traveling with them not only so that the horde will lose focus and turn on and devour Negan, but because said Whisperer had earlier offered Negan some dinner after Beta specifically told Negan he hadn't earned the right to eat yet.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears a black leather trench coat with red lining. It flows magnificently during his fight with Daryl.
• Beard of Evil: He has a massive beard that prevents him from wearing a full Whisperer mask.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don’t challenge Alpha or her rules or you risk getting an arm broken off at best.
  • In a flashback, he snaps at Alpha when she tries to remove his mask, after previously having been rather accommodating towards her. He also slashes the throat of a Whisperer who recognizes his voice from his days as a country singer.
  • He doesn't take kindly to being called the "new alpha" either. The first Whisperer to make this mistake is fed to Alpha's reanimated head while the second is nearly gutted by Beta himself.
• The Brute: He's large and is the powerhouse of the Whisperers.
• The Cameo: Not in person, but an image of "Half Moon" is shown in a handful of blink-and-you'll-miss-it shots in all three Walking Dead series.
  • Lucille is wearing a Half Moon T-shirt in "Here's Negan".
  • He can be seen on an album cover in the "Today and Tomorrow" episode of Fear.
  • He can again be seen on an album cover in the World Beyond episode "Family is a Four Letter Word".
• Celebrity Survivor: Before the apocalypse he was a legendary country singer who performed under the stage name Half Moon. There are a few hints to his identity prior to the reveal: part of his face appears on one of Daniel Salazar's album covers in Fear the Walking Dead and his voice can be heard on the record Magna is listening to at the start of "What It Always Is".^note It's actually Ryan Hurst covering a song that was originally performed by fellow Walking Dead alumni Emily Kinney.
• Character Death: Meets his end in "A Certain Doom", stabbed in both eyes by Daryl and eaten by his walker horde.
• Combat Pragmatist: Beta proves to be quite wily as he figures out the ambush set for him and keeps Daryl on his toes during their entire fight.
• The Comically Serious: His interactions with Negan lead to some hilarious moments as the latter quickly gets under the regularly stone-faced Beta's skin.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ryan Hurst filled in some of Beta's backstory on Talking Dead, specifically the reason the character always wears a mask. Early in the apocalypse, Beta killed a home intruder in self-defense. He was deeply shaken when he learned that the man he killed was wearing his band's T-shirt. Beta understood how beloved Half Moon was but also knew he was going to have to kill if he was to survive. From that point on he decided to cloak his identity to preserve Half Moon's image for anyone who may have known him before which also allowed him to remain anonymous while he did the dark things necessary to keep himself alive.
• Death by Adaptation: His comic counterpart narrowly survives the Whisperer War but returns awhile later to menace Aaron and Jesus before being shot dead. Here, he is definitively killed by Negan and Daryl during the final battle.
• Deathly Unmasking: His mask fully comes off as he's being devoured. Negan is shocked after recognizing him, while Daryl doesn't care.
• Devoured by the Horde: His final fate. Unlike most examples, he happily welcomes it, smiling as he slowly vanishes beneath a sea of his undead minions.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: His comic counterpart is gunned down by Aaron after the end of the Whisperer War. Here Daryl catches him by surprise by stabbing Beta in both eyes and watching Beta get devoured by his own minions.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: He never gets blinded in the comics, which happens in the show after Daryl drives a pair of knives into his eyes. It's a very short-lived example, however, as Beta is eaten by the walker horde almost immediately afterwards.
• Disney Villain Death: Daryl ends up shoving him down an elevator shaft during their fight. It's subverted once it turns out that Beta survived the fall.
• Dissonant Serenity: He is disturbingly at peace, even ecstatic, when being eaten by walkers in his last moments. Ryan Hurst likened his character's demise to that of Thich Quang Duc, the Vietnamese monk who famously lit himself on fire in protest of the Vietnam War and yet did not scream or panic as he slowly burned to death.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": He is not the new Alpha, and any Whisperer who refers to him as such may as well have signed their own death warrant.
• The Dragon: Alpha's top enforcer. Unlike other examples, he's fiercely loyal and would never betray his leader and it just makes him all the more dangerous.
• Dragon Ascendant: Takes over as The Leader of the Whisperers after Alpha's death. Though he refuses to be called anything other than Beta
• The Dreaded: The other Whisperers are shown to cower before him, and he’s thus become Alpha's greatest weapon. Lydia is also terrified when Daryl plans to try to kill him, clearly believing it to be impossible.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Compared to the unstoppable killing machine from episodes like "Chokepoint" and "Stalker", he is rather quickly and unceremoniously taken out by Daryl in "A Certain Doom". Justified in three ways: one, he was so hell-bent on killing Negan that he let his guard down and gave Daryl the opportunity to sneak up on him; two, he was such a formidable opponent that getting the drop on him likely would have been the only way to kill him (something Daryl probably took to heart after his last, more direct, fight with Beta); and three, they were in the middle of the horde and an all-out brawl probably wouldn't have been possible without the interference of walkers, thus warranting a quick demise.
• Dual Wielding: Carries two knives that he puts to use in combat or on missions, such as when he fights Daryl or when he infiltrates Alexandria to retrieve Mary.
• Eaten Alive: The walkers move in for the feast after Daryl stabs him. Beta doesn't mind, though.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Beta had a genuine friendship with a fellow resident of the asylum he was living in when Alpha and Lydia first met him. He gets violently angry when Alpha stabs his (now) undead friend in the head, and later takes the man's face to use as a mask as well as wears his friend's T-shirt to honor his memory.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He looks noticeably appalled when Alpha claims that she killed Lydia.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He was once known as Half Moon, but in the present he insists on being called Beta, and his true name is never revealed.
• Evil Is Bigger: Stands 6'4" and is one of the most dangerous foes the group has ever faced.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He has a deep, menacing voice which sounds even scarier due to his whispering.
• Expy: A tall Implacable Man who goes on killing sprees and doesn't like being seen without his mask? He definitely brings to mind Michael Myers.
• Eye Scream: Daryl stabs Beta in his eyes to keep him from killing Negan.
• Face Death with Dignity: Having fully embraced the Whisperer creed, Beta is totally at peace in his final moments and completely welcomes his gruesome death with a big smile on his face.
• The Faceless: Flashbacks in "We Are the End of the World" show that he was already wearing a ski mask during his and Alpha's first meeting. When he finally permits Alpha to remove his mask near the end of the episode, we still don't see his face. We get to see half of his face in “Walk With Us” after Mary tears open his mask, as well as on the promo material for his old country music career in “Look at the Flowers.”
• Face Stealer: Repairs his damaged mask by stitching half of Alpha's face into the missing portion of it.
• Final Boss: The main antagonist going into the final showdown with the Whisperers.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Inverted. Beta was somebody before the apocalypse, but over the course of a decade became a remorseless killer who refuses to acknowledge his old identity and embraces the darker side of the new world, losing most of his humanity in the process.
• Genius Bruiser: Beta has the brains to prove why he’s The Dragon to Alpha. He points out that Henry being held prisoner is a liability since Hilltop will likely attack them to rescue him, realizes Lydia likely has an attachment to Henry, and is able to pick apart Daryl and Connie’s ambush as he goes.
• Gentle Giant: At least around Alpha and Whisperers he seems to genuinely care about. The rest of the time, he’s a nightmarishly powerful brute. Totally loses the gentle part as Season 10 progresses.
• Hearing Voices: He becomes convinced that Alpha's reanimated head and the walkers in the horde are guiding him to finish what Alpha started.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Wears a badass leather longcoat.
• Hero Killer: Murders Laura and Mary in "Stalker" and "Walk With Us", respectively.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Before the apocalypse he was a famous musician who was beloved by many. Now he's a psychopathic murderer who wears his dead friend's face, chooses to live in the woods like an animal, and eventually dies a monster at the hands of his own herd.
  Negan: Holy shit! Do you know who that asshole was?
  Daryl: Yeah. Nobody.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: A platonic example, with Alpha. He's much taller and broader than she is.
• Iconic Outfit: His Badass Longcoat and white Smiley Face T-shirt.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Through the eyes, courtesy of Daryl.
• It's Personal: When Negan challenges him, Beta drops everything and charges him, seeking revenge for Alpha’s death. He even growls, "For Alpha" as he raises a knife to stab Negan.
• Jerkass: To everyone except his beloved Alpha. Negan isn't wrong when he refers to him as "fee fi fo asshole".
• Karmic Death: Dies when Daryl sneaks up on him while he's distracted, similar to how Beta killed Mary in "Walk With Us". His death also evokes the image of a celebrity being mobbed by a horde of their adoring fans, a fitting end for a country music legend like Beta.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Under cover of darkness he breaks into Alexandria and kills several unsuspecting citizens without much trouble; but when he later meets Gabriel (and the rest of his well-armed defensive group), he doesn't hesitate to run away and immediately loses them in the forest.
  • He also bolts when faced with Alden's long-range bow and arrows.
• Large and in Charge: Towers over the rest of the Whisperers and is Alpha's right-hand man to boot.
• Lightning Bruiser: He has the speed to match the sheer brute strength he packs.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Despite his close relationship with Alpha he is initially not aware that she spared Lydia's life.
• Made of Iron: Let's just say the word "pain" seems to mean very little to Beta.
  • Barely reacts to being stabbed in the chest with a shiv by Daryl. He simply yanks it out like it's a tiny thorn.
  • Survives falling several stories down an elevator shaft. Aside from a minor head wound, he's completely unfazed and uninjured.
  • He is slashed across the chest by Rosita and only momentarily slowed down and then is still able to overpower her.
  • Finally, he is not at all affected by being stabbed in the freaking eyes by Daryl, though his deteriorated mental state and willingness to Face Death with Dignity likely numbed the pain a little.
• Madness Mantra: "I am the end of the world..."
• Meaningful Name: He's the Number Two of his group. ”Half Moon” also correlates pretty well to how he lost half of his mask to Mary, and then is “reborn” after replacing it with skin from Alpha’s severed head.
  • The name "Beta" also correlates to his relationship with Alpha. To put it simply, he is completely subvervient to her, but this is not something Alpha necessarily wants. Besides occasional flirting on her part, she is on several points seen trying to incite him to be more assertive than her, outright suggesting he replace her as the Alpha after a disagreement. However, Beta rejects even thinking about it. It's no surprise that after this, Alpha's romantic feelings shift to Negan, who challenges her from the beginning and is naturally assertive.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His stage name “Half Moon” was partially inspired by Garth Brooks.
• No Name Given: We only ever learn his stage name from his days as a country singer. Otherwise, he's exclusively referred to as "Beta".
• No-One Could Have Survived That: Clearly Daryl's assumption when he doesn't check to see if Beta is still alive after throwing him down an elevator shaft. Big mistake.
• Number Two: As his title would suggest, he's this to Alpha.
• One-Man Army: Best exemplified in "Stalker", when he infiltrates Alexandria and slaughters at least a dozen people single-handedly.
  Lydia: [Alpha] won’t send an army: she’ll send Beta.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He's shown gently reassuring a dying Whisperer that he'll always be one of them and summons his wife to be with her husband while he dies. The first half ends up downplayed as it turns out Beta means it quite literally — the Whisperer is later added to the horde upon reanimation.
  • When Alpha and Lydia first arrived in the asylum where he was living alone, he permitted them to stay the night and allowed them to clean up and look for food.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Inverted. His comic counterpart was pretty clearly in love with Alpha but never had his feelings requited. This incarnation of Beta, while still devoted to Alpha and often acting like a devoted mate, never shows any indication that his feelings for her are romantic.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 10.
• The Rival: He's clearly annoyed when Negan becomes Alpha's new "favorite". Alpha actually calls him out on this, questioning if his distrust is because he fears Negan is a threat to his position in her hierarchy. When Beta fails to retrieve Gamma from the Alexandrians, Negan takes his place at Alpha's side during their march to Hilltop while Beta travels at the back of the pack, fuming the entire way.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Negan murders Alpha, Beta personally leads the horde in a search for the Coalition residents to wipe them out.
• Sanity Slippage: Not that he was a beacon of mental health to begin with, but after Alpha's death he grows steadily more unhinged, to the point of Hearing Voices (see above). By the time of his own death, he doesn't even mind that he's being Eaten Alive and dies smiling as he's presumably torn to pieces by the horde.
• Smarter Than You Look: One might get the impression he's just a Dumb Muscle, but he's actually quite savvy. His insanity starts to override his common sense after Alpha dies, however.
• The Stoic: Not much fazes this guy. Becomes significantly less stoic when he takes over leadership of the Whisperers, belting out an Evil Laugh as he becomes convinced the walkers in the horde are communicating with him.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: He's about to kill Negan when Daryl sneaks up behind him, slashes him across the arm, and drives his two knives into Beta's eyes the second he turns around. After that Beta simply accepts his demise and makes no last attempt to fight back before the walkers swarm him.
• That Man Is Dead: He refuses to acknowledge his pre-apocalypse identity as a famous musician, angrily tears down a poster advertising one of his old concerts, and doesn't take it well when a random Whisperer recognizes his voice, or even when Alpha (in a flashback) begins humming a simple tune to herself.
• Tragic Keepsake: The Smiley Face T-shirt he wears used to belong to his friend from the asylum.
• Undying Loyalty: To Alpha. While he will occasionally question her decisions he also makes it clear that he would never dare challenge her for leadership of the pack. His loyalty is so strong that he refuses to be called the new Alpha after her death, and kills any Whisperer who addresses him as such.
• The Unfettered: He'll kill anyone that stands in his way.
• Unseen No More: We finally get a good look at his face when his mask is torn off by walkers as they eat him.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Beta points out to Daryl that if Lydia had been surrendered to the Whisperers, they wouldn’t have killed anymore of their people. Given how Alpha appears legitimately offended by the Coalition’s way of life, however, the Whisperers almost assuredly would’ve eventually gone to war with them anyway.
  • He’s able to keep good tabs on the goings-on of the Whisperers better than his leader. He realizes some Whisperers envy the peaceful, normal life Hilltop enjoys and knows it could spell disaster for the group; he recognizes that Alpha is being too merciful when she shouldn’t be, and sure enough, she nearly gets killed by Frances for it; and he spells it out that Lydia is not coming back to her.
  • He’s quick to realize that Negan should not be trusted; the audience already knows that Negan can be a completely unpredictable force of nature when he wants to be, but Alpha decides to accept him into their ranks regardless. Sure enough, Negan turns out to be The Mole who kills Alpha when he gets her alone.
• Villainous Gold Tooth: He has a few gold teeth and is a Dragon Ascendant after Alpha's death and a Hero Killer on multiple occasions.
• The Worf Effect: He near-effortlessly manhandles Daryl in a fight, with the implication that he's actually holding back because he still needs Daryl alive to tell him where Lydia is. Sure enough, Daryl is only able to beat him by way of a well-timed sneak attack. He later effortlessly takes down Negan, who was completely expecting a fight.
• Would Hurt a Child: He throws around Henry like a rag-doll and is fully prepared to break his arm off if Alpha orders him to. He also goes along with Alpha's bluff to kill Lydia if she doesn't kill Henry when asked.

Lydia

Lydia

"'Getting by' is what I've been forced to do my whole life."

^{Click to see Lydia in her Whisperer mask.} 

Portrayed By: Cassady McClincy, Scarlett Blum ("Omega" and Tales), Havana Blum ("We Are the End of the World")

Voiced By: Isabel Fernández Avanthay, Tania Ugía ["Omega"] (Spanish dub), Hodaka Mieno (Japanese dub), Andrea Cleven, Noa Sarah Hadad ["Omega"], Naomi Hadad ["We Are the End of the World"] (German dub), Lisa Caruso (French dub), Sara Labidi (Italian dub), Andrea Laudon [Season 9], Adrienn Pekár [Season 10-present] (Hungarian dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 9-11) | Tales of the Walking Dead

Debut: "Adaptation"

"My mother was right. She said you people put on these polite faces, but it's just a mask 'cause when things get bad... when you get scared... you pick a target, aim, and shoot."

A teenage Whisperer captured by Hilltop, Lydia is revealed to be Alpha's daughter who has suffered years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of her mother. Daryl and Henry manage to bond with her until Alpha demands Hilltop surrender her. Lydia returns to the Whisperer camp but is then rescued by Henry, Daryl, and Connie. She forms a close, romantic bond with Henry and is allowed to join the Coalition by the assembled leaders at the fair. However, Alpha infiltrates the fair and murders Henry and nine others, and attempts to take her daughter back, but Lydia rebuffs her. Lydia suffers from suicidal tendencies for months, blaming herself for Henry and the others’s deaths until Carol helps her heal during the winter storm.

After taking up residence at Alexandria with Daryl, Lydia finds herself the target of bullying and distrust due to being Alpha’s daughter. She even briefly runs away when she realizes Carol was using her to try to destabilize Alpha’s regime, but is convinced to return after being unable to kill her wounded mother during an encounter in the woods. Lydia is deeply conflicted over how to feel after the assassination of Alpha until she plays a critical part in the destruction of the horde, finally earning a place with the survivors.

---

• Abusive Parents: Alpha beats Lydia and has left her with extensive bruises and scars. Alpha has also lied to and manipulated her daughter into thinking it was her father who was abusive during her childhood and into thinking he was killed by a walker when it was really Alpha who murdered him for trying to take Lydia from her.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: She mercifully doesn't have Rape as Backstory like her comic counterpart or many other women in the comics.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Blonde in the comics, brunette in the show.
• Adaptational Modesty: In the comics Lydia was more lustful towards Carl and ultimately convinced him to have sex with her, and even as adults when they've found different partners, she flirts with Carl enough to make him uncomfortable. None of this is present in the show's version of Lydia.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her parents call her "bug."
• The Aloner: She isolates herself after the pike massacre, partly as a result of feeling guilty about it, partly for her own safety since many people blame her for it.
• An Arm and a Leg: She loses an arm in "Family" after a walker bites her on the wrist and Jerry is forced to amputate her limb to stop the infection.
• Artificial Limb: Much like Aaron, she receives a prosthetic arm to replace her severed limb.
• The Atoner: She insists on going to help the residents of the Riverbend community, seeing as how they're the kind of small community her mother used to subjugate.
• Battle Couple: While Henry died before Lydia could become truly combat-proficient, she ends up as this with Elijah after they officially get together in "Variant".
• Because You Were Nice to Me: She mellows toward Henry and Daryl after the former treats her kindly. She also forms a bond with Negan, feeling he's the only other person who understands her. In "Stalker", Lydia chooses to help Daryl over Alpha because he actually treated her like a human being rather than as a possession.
• Broken Bird: She's had a really unhappy life.
• Broken Pedestal: She's initially onboard with accepting help from the Commonwealth and was just on her way to go live there at the start of "Warlords". After witnessing how they've subjugated the Riverbend community, however, her opinion of them sours, and she outright says they're no different from the Whisperers, just with different masks.
• Brutal Honesty: One of Lydia's defining traits is her tendency to shoot straight and not sugarcoat things.
  • In "Morning Star", when Carol asks if Lydia hates her, Lydia replies that it's difficult, because Carol seems to already hate herself so much.
  • In "The Tower", Negan tries to get her to open up and talk about her mother's death. Lydia responds by telling him that a lot of people wish that he had died too.
  • In "Warlords", she finally asks Maggie the million dollar question and wonders why she won't accept help from the Commonwealth. She also calls out Maggie for trying to decide things for other people instead of asking them what it is they want.
• Bully Magnet: As the only (ex)-Whisperer in the vicinity, she becomes a prime target for bullying after the pike massacre, especially from Gage and two Jerkass members of the Highwaymen. Even the normally Nice Guy Alden throws some shade her way due to the grief he's still feeling from Enid's death.
• But Now I Must Go: She decides to leave Hilltop for the Commonwealth in "Warlords", only being stopped by the arrival of the mortally wounded Jesse on horseback.
• Butt-Monkey: Played for Drama. In just three seasons on the show she's experienced more trauma and deceit than many of the characters we've been following for years. First, she spends the better part of a decade growing up in the apocalypse with the abusive, sociopathic Alpha for a mother, who killed her father when things started to get bad. Then, when she finally meets someone who's willing to take a chance on her he dies a few days into their relationship, at the hands of her mother, no less. A few months later, she's accosted by bullies blaming her for the pike massacre despite having nothing to do with it. She's nearly used by Carol, who initially lent a helping hand to her, to create chaos among the Whisperers. Finally, she meets a genuinely kindred spirit in Negan, only for him to knock her out and tie her up while he lures Alpha to her death. And even then, she's still distrusted by Oceanside for her association with the Whisperers despite having never done anything wrong to them. While things start looking up for her in Season 11 due to forming a new romance with Elijah, she's then permanently disabled when a walker bites her on the wrist and the group is forced to amputate to stop the infection.
• Character Signature Song: "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady". Her father used to sing it to her to keep her calm. She later sings it to herself to block out the sound of her mother shooting Brooke.
• Character Tic: She tends to cross her arms whenever she's feeling anxious or uncomfortable. Most notable in "The Calm Before" when Henry shows her around unfamiliar territory (the civilized Kingdom), and in "Silence the Whisperers", when Lydia waves to Siddiq only for him to freak out due to experiencing a PTSD episode.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: In what is also a Funny Background Event (in a Black Comedy kind of way) Lydia appears completely unfazed as she watches Helen and Sean challenge Alpha's authority, suggesting she's used to this kind of thing happening and knowing damn well what the outcome will be.
• Covered in Scars: Her arms are covered in bruises and scars from years of her mother's abuse. Daryl is quick to point out how at odds this is with her initial claims that her mother is a "good person."
• Cry into Chest: She gets pissed when Negan, in an effort to make her grieve, tells her that he "liked" Alpha and regrets having to kill her. Lydia says that Negan has no right to make Lydia mourn when she spent so much of her life hating her mother, and tearfully breaks down in his arms shortly after.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She watched her mother murder two people in the early days of the outbreak — one of whom was Lydia's own father). It presumably only got worse from there.
• Death Seeker:
  • Feeling responsible for the pike massacre, she wanders off alone during a trek to Hilltop and nearly allows a walker to bite her before being interrupted by Carol. She later tries convincing Carol to do the job herself by bringing up Henry's death. Carol refuses and instead invites Lydia back to Alexandria with them.
  • She continues to display some of these tendencies in "A Certain Doom", when she offers to lure the horde over a cliff, even after it's pointed out to be a Suicide Mission. It's implied to be because she realizes Negan is right about the two of them always being outsiders and wants to do one last thing to prove her loyalty even if they will never accept her. Ultimately, she chooses life, and in the process, helps Carol overcome her own suicidal tendencies by pulling her away from the edge of the cliff when she tries to take her place.
• Decomposite Character: Takes Connie's place as the member of the group who gets bitten and has to amputate their arm in the final arc of the series.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Her comic counterpart never lost an arm.
• Disappeared Dad: Her father Frank was murdered by Alpha early on in the outbreak. Lydia admits that despite her mother's manipulation she does have fond memories of him and misses him greatly.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Thanks to her resilience and willingness to sacrifice herself by leading the horde over the cliff, she finally earns acceptance in Alexandria and is shown helping rebuild the community after the Whisperers have been defeated. She also finds new love with Elijah during the Commonwealth arc, and the two are still together after the time jump in the series finale.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Lydia feels betrayed when she learns that Negan knocked her out and tied her up while he lured Alpha to her death.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With most of the Coalition once they start accepting her, but especially with Daryl, who becomes a father figure of sorts to her, and Aaron, who initially hates the Whisperers and does little to stop Lydia's bullying but eventually grows to care about her when she saves his life in "No Other Way". When Lydia is about to lose an arm in "Family", Aaron reminds her how he managed to pull through when he had to lose his own limb and assures her that she is "so loved."
• Foil:
  • To Hershel Rhee. Both had one of their parents killed by Negan, but in Lydia's case her mother was a monster who had it coming and she ultimately doesn't harbor any ill will towards Negan for it while in Hershel's case, his father was a Nice Guy and Disappeared Dad who didn't deserve to be murdered by Negan.
  • To Juanita Sanchez, a.k.a. "Princess". Both are outsiders with a history of parental abuse struggling to integrate into society, but while Princess is loud and outgoing, Lydia is quiet and withdrawn. Princess spent a year living in a city by herself, Lydia spent a decade in the company of her mother and her psychopathic followers.
• Friend to All Living Things: She's seen playing with both a stray cat and Dog.
• Hated by All: About the only people to try to make her feel at home in Alexandria after the pike massacre are Daryl and Negan. Even some of the more compassionate residents like Aaron and Gabriel are indifferent to the bullying directed at her by Gage and his friends.
• Heel–Face Turn: Downplayed. The most she was ever guilty of was nearly double-crossing Henry and threatening Hilltop by spouting out some of the fatalistic nonsense her mother had instilled in her over the years. Nevertheless, she eventually sides with the united communities over the Whisperers, and has earned their true acceptance by "A Certain Doom".
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In "Bounty", she offers to return to her people in exchange for Luke and Alden's safe return, and to prevent a potential conflict from happening at Hilltop.
  • In "A Certain Doom", she volunteers to be the one to lead the walker horde over the cliff after their original plan is derailed thanks to the Whisperers. She almost goes through with it too, until Carol appears and decides to take her place. And then Lydia stops her from going over the cliff at the last second, thus ensuring that neither of them die.
• I Choose to Stay: In "A Certain Doom", Negan theorizes that the two of them will always be outsiders given their association with enemy groups and offers Lydia an out by handing her Alpha's mask and advising her to sneak out of the Tower and through the horde without looking back. Instead, Lydia uses the mask to navigate through the horde and help as best she can: first, by claiming a bag of equipment from the dead Beatrice and delivering it to Luke to be used to put the radio together; then, when the radio is destroyed and the group is forced to come up with an alternate plan, by taking it upon herself to lure the horde to the edge of a cliff, where it is finally vanquished for good.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Implied to be at least part of the reason she doesn't acquiesce to Alpha's rambling and finish her off in "Stalker".
• I Just Want to Be Normal: The crux of Lydia's arc. All she longs for is the normal childhood her mother never let her have due to the apocalypse.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Negan. They bond over their mutual outsiderdom in Alexandria, and she's the only one shown to be upset when he leaves the group for good in "No Other Way".
• Interrupted Suicide: Both times by Carol, and coincidentally in the sixteenth episodes of Season 9 and 10.
  • In "The Storm", she's moments away from letting a frozen walker bite her.
  • In "A Certain Doom", she's ready to lead the walker horde over the cliff when Carol takes her place. Lydia follows up by interrupting Carol's own attempted suicide, and the two take cover so that neither of them die.
• Irony: In "The Storm", a suicidal Lydia is seconds away from letting a walker bite her on the left arm before being stopped by Carol. In "Family", Lydia gets bitten by a walker on the same arm while trying to help Elijah to safety and is forced to amputate the arm to save her life.
• It's All My Fault: How she feels about the pike massacre. She even tries to convince Carol to kill her on the grounds that Alpha will never stop terrorizing them as long as she's still alive.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: As seen when she plays with a cat at the hospital the group is holed up in. The cat repays her kindness in the worst way possible by inadvertently leading Beta in the direction of the Tower.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: In "Family", a walker bites her on the wrist, forcing Jerry to amputate her arm to stop the infection. She survives.
• Like Mother, Unlike Daughter: Much to her mother's chagrin. Lydia is an average, if troubled, teenager who only desires a normal life while Alpha is, well... Alpha.
• Mirror Character: To Judith Grimes. Both are the biological children of a major antagonist (Alpha and Shane respectively), both have absent fathers (Frank and Rick respectively) and both form strong parental bonds with Daryl and Negan. But while Judith spent most of her life living in a peaceful community with her loving adoptive mother, Lydia led a miserable existence moving from place to place with her abusive, biological mother. Lydia even tells Judith, "not everyone gets to have a mom like yours." Both girls also lose said mothers in Season 10, with Alpha being killed by Negan and Michonne embarking on a mission to bring Judith's presumed dead father home. In "Family", they're the youngest Coalition members active in the field, and both suffer an arm-related injury over the course of the episode. In Lydia's case, she loses her arm to a walker bite while Judith is shot in the shoulder by Pamela during a firefight.
• Never Learned to Read: She is revealed to be illiterate, presumably due to having been so young at the start of the apocalypse and Alpha seeing no reason to teach her otherwise.
• Out of Focus: Besides the Cold Open of the premiere and going on a scouting mission in "Out of the Ashes", Lydia does very little in the first part of Season 11. She gets a bit more screen time in the second part of the season.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: She gets added to the main credits for the last third of The Walking Dead Season 11.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Decides to abandon the Whisperers after Alpha tries to have her kill Henry and threatens to have Beta kill them both if she does not.
• Self-Made Orphan: Averted. She has the chance to end it all and kill Alpha (who is badly injured), but she can't bring herself to.
  Daryl: Did you kill her?
  Lydia: If it was your father, could you have?
• Ship Tease:
  • With Henry. She thanks him for standing up to Daryl for her and even tells him her name, something she previously refuses to do with Daryl, Michonne, and Tara. Later, Lydia asks Henry to spend the night outside her cell so she isn't alone, and even kisses him goodbye when she decides to return to her people. By "Chokepoint", they've officially progressed to couple and share a few more kisses. Unfortunately, that ship is promptly sunk with Henry's death in the penultimate episode of the season.
  • Elijah is shown to have a crush on her but Lydia is hesitant to get attached after what happened to Henry. After some advice from Carol and Aaron, she finally reciprocates Elijah's feelings in "Variant".
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Falls for Henry after he shows her kindness and goes out of his way to protect her. Months after Henry's death she gets together with Elijah, who is another Nice Guy, though she also tells Carol she hasn't forgotten about Henry. Carol tells Lydia not to worry and to take happiness wherever she can get it.
• Sole Survivor: Thanks to her Heel–Face Turn, she's the only Whisperer^note Not counting the infant and non-combatant Adam to survive after the rest of the group and their horde are wiped out in "A Certain Doom". "Out of the Ashes" reveals a small party of them managed to survive and have holed up in the remains of Hilltop.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: What her relationship with Henry amounts to, especially since Alpha personally guarantees the two of them will never be together.
• Teens Are Monsters: Averted — a rarity for this show, in which mentally unsound youth are pretty much the norm. The only time Lydia does anything even remotely approaching "monstrous" is when she prepares to knock Henry unconscious to escape Hilltop (which she wouldn't have been able to do anyway since Daryl was secretly watching them).
• Time-Shifted Actor: Scarlett and Havana Blum portray a young Lydia in flashbacks in the episodes "Omega" and "We are the End of the World", respectively. The former also reprises her role in an episode of Tales.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: She starts smiling more after forming a relationship with Elijah.
• Unreliable Narrator: Though not by choice. Thanks to Alpha's gaslighting, she believed for years that her father was an Abusive Parent who terrorized her mother, when it was really the other way around.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: She has a moment of this in "We Are the End of the World", when she tells Alpha that she wants to be like her and even goes out of her way to test her courage later in the episode. That desire fades as she gets older, however.
• When She Smiles: After everything she's been through in Season 9 (including Henry's death and two failed suicide attempts), it's downright adorable seeing her smile as she joins in the snowball fight at Alexandria in the finale.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Daryl's group rescues her, Alexandria agrees to take her in, and she and Henry arrange to sit together to watch a movie at the Kingdom fair. Then Alpha murders ten people including Henry, causing nearly everyone to turn their backs on her and making her an even bigger outcast than she was before.
• Zombie Infectee: When she is bitten on the arm in "Family". Jerry puts a stop to it in short order, and Lydia pulls through.

Captured Whisperer

"Captured Whisperer"

Portrayed By: James Parks

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 10)

Debut: "Bonds"

"You lie to yourselves. To each other. You fight for what? Sandwiches? You ignore the truth, when it's staring you in the face. I would never betray Alpha. She rescued me. She protects me. She loves me. She loves us all."

One of the Whisperers who manages the horde. Daryl and Carol capture and interrogate him to find the location of the horde, which has little success until he mentions that Alpha supposedly murdered Lydia in a show of strength. Carol decides to produce Lydia for him to show Alpha was deceiving him, but the Whisperer suddenly became deathly ill from hemlock poisoning, all but stated to be Dante’s work once he heard of the plan to bring Lydia forth.

---

• Bait the Dog: He pretends to be overjoyed and emotional over Carol offering him decent food, but once he gets a bite in he spits it out onto her out of spite.
• Canon Foreigner: He never appeared in the comics.
• Character Death: He dies of hemlock poisoning thanks to Dante’s subterfuge.
• Fingore: Daryl threatens him with removing his fingers.
• Foreshadowing: He drops a few hints about Dante’s true nature, such as his clear familiarity with him, his above quote, and being frantic when he’s dying in Dante’s care.
• He Knows Too Much: It’s strongly implied Dante poisoned him to prevent him from potentially turning on Alpha and giving up the location of the horde since Carol was going to fetch Lydia to break his trust in Alpha.
• Locked Out of the Loop: As with all the Whisperers sans Dante, he is fed the lie that Alpha killed Lydia.
• Manly Tears: He pretends to have these when given good food by Carol, but it’s all an act.
• Mauve Shirt: Only appears in two episodes, but he’s characterized as a fanatical loyalist to Alpha who can manipulate and trick people with excellent acting.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His smug rant that Alpha killed Lydia for the Whisperers convinces Carol of the necessity to reveal Lydia’s survival to the Whisperers. Revealing it to Mary eventually leads the group to the horde and Carol is able to take out roughly half of it, preventing the Whisperers from outright overwhelming the heroes during the ensuing war.
• No Name Given: Since the Whisperers don’t use their pre-apocalypse names and only their command staff use titles, we don’t get a proper name for him.
• Too Kinky to Torture: He lusts after Carol even as she begins torturing him.
• Undying Loyalty: Lydia says the most fanatically loyal Whisperers are specifically put in charge of the horde, Alpha’s greatest weapon. He expresses nothing but disgustingly slavish loyalty to his leader during his interrogation.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Or rather, What the Hell, Villain? When he is dying of hemlock poisoning, he begins frantically questioning Dante about what’s going on and begs for him to help him. It’s clear he never considered the possibility that Dante would kill him to keep him from potentially turning on Alpha.

Dante

Dante

"We're like gods in the apocalypse."

Portrayed By: Juan Javier Cardenas

Voiced By: Matías Carossia (Spanish dub), Valentin Stilu (German dub), Guildin Tissier (French dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 10)

Debut: "Lines We Cross"

"Dude, your spawn was screaming bloody murder. I could hear it down in the infirmary."

A Whisperer who joined the group sometime after their first encounter with Hilltop. His strong devotion to Alpha's ways caught her attention on the night of the barn massacre. After the winter, she sent him to infiltrate Alexandria with the intention of destroying it from the inside. Dante quickly acclimates to the community's way of life and his past experience as a Combat Medic in Iraq gives him a vital position as Siddiq's new medical assistant.

Despite forming a genuine bond with Siddiq, nothing ever truly shakes his faith in the Whisperer creed. Dante makes good on Alpha’s orders, breaking the water filter system to start poisoning the community with unfiltered water. He also begins stirring up fear and resentment against the Whisperers to cause an air of paranoia to start overwhelming the survivors. Dante’s luck runs out when he is forced to kill Siddiq, who finally recognized him from the night of the pike massacre, and is quickly caught by Rosita. Shaken that Dante entered the community on his watch, Gabriel soon arrived to brutally murder Dante in his own jail cell.

---

• Adaptational Late Appearance: Comic!Dante first appears after the Time Skip following the Savior War. He doesn't appear in the show until well into the Whisperers arc. Ironically, his comic incarnation was the first person to encounter a Whisperer.
• Adaptational Villainy: Comic readers may be shocked to learn of his affiliation with the Whisperers, given that his book counterpart was a genuinely good guy who went on to become a love interest for Maggie. Juan Javier Cardenas himself didn't know Dante was being reimagined as a villain until he arrived on set for filming.
• Ambiguously Bi: While he might be into women (see Casanova Wannabe) he also becomes very attached to Siddiq in a short amount of time, jokingly flirting with him and later breaking down crying as he strangles him to death. Siddiq's actor Avi Nash believes that Dante may have had stronger feelings for Siddiq than just simple friendship.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: He tells Siddiq about a soldier in Iraq who suffered a complete mental breakdown after losing his squad in the line of duty.
  Siddiq: What happened to this guy?
  Dante: You're having a drink with him.
• Apologetic Attacker: He is in tears as he kills Siddiq and cries that he didn’t want it to come to this.
• Asshole Victim: It's telling that on the following episode of Talking Dead, only 1% of the audience felt he didn't deserve his fate.
• Beard of Evil: Has a trimmed beard and, though he's not as evil as Alpha, is still a nasty piece of work in his own right.
• Becoming the Mask: Subverted hard. His time in Alexandria shows him that the Coalition's society does indeed have its' perks and it can work... but he's too loyal to Alpha's cult to care and works hard to bring it down anyway. He also genuinely grows to care for Siddiq and is upset when he has to kill him in an attempt to preserve his cover.
• Casanova Wannabe: Kind of. He jokingly hits on the elderly Cheryl and offers to drop by a sick Rosita and see how she's doing.
• Character Death: Stabbed to death by Gabriel in "The World Before".
• Character Tics: Has a tendency to click his tongue, which is what allows Siddiq to realize that he's The Mole after he remembers one of the Whisperers doing the same next to him prior to the mass decapitation at the barn.
• Combat Medic: He reveals to Siddiq that he served as a field medic in Iraq, but doesn't like to talk about it unless he has to.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may be (or at least pretend to be) a snarky doctor, but give the guy credit. He managed to infiltrate Alexandria without arousing suspicion and live there for months while creating fear and tension and making several residents sick. He kills Siddiq and might have gotten away with it were it not for Rosita. After his death it's revealed he used Cheryl's grave to create a passageway for Beta to tunnel into Alexandria, making him responsible for the deaths of the ten people Beta kills in his search for Gamma.
• Cynicism Catalyst: His son's death was likely the event that changed his worldview and put him on the path to joining the Whisperers.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He witnessed many horrors in Iraq that still shake him to this day. He also had a son who was killed by walkers.
• Deadly Doctor: He makes several Alexandrians sick from tainted water, poisons a captured Whisperer with hemlock to keep him from talking, and finally chokes Siddiq to death to keep him from revealing the truth about Dante's identity.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's quick with a witty remark, though not always at the most appropriate time.
• Death by Adaptation: To go with his Adaptational Villainy, he receives his due comeuppance in the following episode after his treachery is revealed, while his comic counterpart was still alive at last mention (while he doesn't appear in the Grand Finale, there's no indication that he died either).
• Decomposite Character: Due to him debuting at a much later point than his comic counterpart (and being a villain to boot) one of his key moments from the books involving him being kidnapped by the Whisperers and later returned to Hilltop is given to Alden and Luke in the show.
• Didn't See That Coming: He is quite surprised when Gabriel suddenly stabs him out of nowhere.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite how many lies he’s told, Angela Kang has confirmed that he really did have a son who was killed by walkers and that he still grieves for. It’s his love for his late son that was able to convince the Alexandrians vetting him that he was genuine.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He’s still genuinely shaken by the horrors he saw during his time in Iraq, despite being a member of a psychopathic cult who gleefully murdered ten helpless people.
• Evil All Along: Pretends to be a good-natured doctor but is actually an undercover member of the Whisperers.
• Evil Counterpart: To Negan, of all people. Both are crude, sarcastic, bearded men tasked with infiltrating each other's communities. They're both seduced by the new lifestyle they find themselves in and even strike up a friendship with someone there, who they later reluctantly kill in a moment that also reveals to the audience their true allegiance. However, Dante has no compunctions about letting a child (Coco) be killed by her parent (a zombified Siddiq). Negan, on the other hand, draws the line at letting Alpha kill Lydia and murders her for it. Dante's murder of Siddiq leaves Coco with a Disappeared Dad, similar to how Negan's murder of Glenn left Hershel to be raised alone by Maggie. Finally, Dante is executed in the cell where Negan was imprisoned for eight years — by Gabriel, who was previously put in charge of determining Negan's fate.
• False Friend: Subverted. He genuinely does come to think of Siddiq as a friend, but his loyalty to Alpha and his belief that society will inevitably crumble outweigh the affection he has for him and he still murders Siddiq when he uncovers the truth.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's very personable even for a murderous, psychotic Whisperer.
• Hate Sink: On top of being a member of the Whisperers, he makes many Alexandrians sick with the intent to destroy the community from the inside out, and smothers the elderly Cheryl with a pillow even though she was already dying from said illness. Then he lets Siddiq (who he knows is suffering from Survivor's Guilt) take the blame for the poisoning of a fellow Whisperer that Dante himself committed. Finally, he ends up being forced to kill Siddiq to preserve his identity and almost does the same to Rosita. He is also completely willing to allow a reanimated Siddiq to eat his own child, an act made even more despicable by the fact that Dante once lost a child himself.
• Hero Killer: He kills Siddiq, and very nearly kills Rosita as well.
• Karmic Death: He is murdered by Gabriel, who loved Siddiq like a brother and cared for Siddiq's child like his own son.
• Kick the Dog: He smothers Cheryl with a pillow, even though she is already dying from poisoned water and has a few days to live at best.
• The Mole: He's a plant sent by Alpha to obtain information and destroy Alexandria from the inside.
• No Body Left Behind: Gabriel burns his corpse, privately, outside the walls of Alexandria.
• Odd Friendship: Siddiq is initially unsure of how to react to him, but they slowly become friends as Dante opens up about his past struggle with PTSD and covers for Siddiq when he breaks down while performing surgery. He later tries his hardest to help patients who have become sick from tainted water, and even calls Siddiq his friend. As it turns out, Dante has been making them sick all along and murders Siddiq when he realizes the truth. Though, his last words to Siddiq indicate that it might not have been wholly false. Indeed, he admits in the next episode that he actually did like Siddiq and killing him "wasn't part of the plan."
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son, Jimmy, was killed by walkers.
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed. He does come to regard Siddiq as his friend. Just not enough to keep from murdering him.
• Plucky Comic Relief: He seems to be filling this role in Season 10, with his cocky demeanor and many badly timed jokes and remarks. Except he's not.
• Refuge in Audacity: He hides a tunnel entrance for the Whisperers to use to infiltrate Alexandria using the grave he digs for Cheryl, the old woman he killed.
• Remember the New Guy?: He joined Alexandria during the Time Skip between Seasons 9 and 10. It's justified as Alpha sent him to infiltrate it in order to sabotage the community from within.
• Secret-Keeper: He is initially the only Whisperer to be aware of Lydia's survival, until Beta finds out in "We Are the End of the World".
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He returned from Iraq with PTSD and quickly recognizes Siddiq displaying the same symptoms from his time with the Whisperers.
• Smug Snake: While being interrogated for Siddiq's murder he does nothing except gloat to his captors and smugly asks if Alpha's massacre taught them anything about how monstrous people could be.
• Survivor's Guilt: He blamed himself for the loss of his entire squad in Fallujah.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: He was not a Whisperer in the comics.
• There's No Kill like Overkill: Gabriel turns him into a human pincushion, stabbing him a total of fifteen times.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: There's little to indicate what a true psychopath he really is, which is why Alpha chooses him as her spy to infiltrate Alexandria.
  Alpha: You are the kind of man they'll trust. Practical, loyal, smart.
• Undying Loyalty: It says a lot that he was able to live in Alexandria for months and be accepted as one of their own yet, in the end, he still chose Alpha.
• Villain Has a Point: He smugly points out to Gabriel that he’s entitled to a fair trial since Alexandria and the Coalition champion the old, civilized ways. Unfortunately for Dante, Gabriel acknowledges this to be true but he doesn’t give a damn.
• Walking Spoiler: It's pretty much impossible to discuss him without spoiling the big revelation about his character at the end of "Open Your Eyes", specifically that he's The Mole.
• Warm-Up Boss: He's a major source of conflict in the first third of Season 10, but Gabriel deals with him by the eighth episode.
• Would Hurt a Child: He is willing to allow baby Coco to be eaten by the newly reanimated Siddiq, gloating to Rosita that "in nature, sometimes parents eat their young."

Mary's Family

Mary

Mary / "Gamma"

"I should have left you behind when I had the chance."

Portrayed By: Thora Birch

Voiced By: Sandra Jara (Spanish dub), Victoria Grosbois (French dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 10)

Debut: "We Are the End of the World"

"When it all went down, my sister and I kept making bad decisions. We needed someone to make them for us, and then we met Alpha."

A Whisperer who is protective of Alpha. So severe is her brainwashing that when her sister Frances attacked Alpha in a rage, she threw her to the walkers to save her leader’s life. She was thus rewarded with a promotion to “Gamma”, third-in-command of the Whisperers. Her loyalty to Alpha came into question when she began meeting Aaron, who played a game of mental chess with her as they both tried seeing what information they could get out of each other. Gamma, however, was intrigued by society thriving in Alexandria and also the desire to see her nephew - the baby abandoned at Hilltop on Alpha’s orders. Gamma was shaken when it turned out Alpha lied about killing Lydia, and turned over enough information for the group to find the horde.

Negan, who had joined the Whisperers as Gamma fled to Alexandria to warn them of a trap at Alpha’s cave, alerted Alpha to Gamma’s change in allegiance. Beta was sent to retrieve her from Alexandria, but she managed to stay with the survivors after earning their trust and fought the horde alongside them at the Battle of Hilltop. In the aftermath, Gamma - or rather, Mary - met her end just after getting one moment with her nephew. Beta murdered her, with Alden putting her reanimated corpse down so she wouldn’t have to rejoin the Whisperers.

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• And Then John Was a Zombie: Beta intends on adding her to the walker horde when she turns. An arrow through the head, courtesy of Alden, quickly puts an end to her suffering.
• The Atoner: She makes an honest effort to prove herself as a loyal ally to the heroes before dying.
• Cain and Abel: More antagonistic than Frances, and ends up causing her sister's death.
• Canon Foreigner: She never appeared in the comics.
• Character Development: Goes from a cynical, apathetic Whisperer loyalist to The Atoner after realizing how bogus Alpha's ways really are.
• Cult Defector: Starts out as another brainwashed follower of Alpha before guilt over causing Frances' death and discovering Alpha lied about Lydia make her second guess the Whisperer lifestyle and lead to her changing sides.
• A Day in the Limelight: She gets a decent amount of focus in "Stalker" as we learn some more of her backstory and she makes a full Heel–Face Turn over the course of the episode.
• Defiant to the End: She continues to punch at Beta and even rips off part of his mask before going down.
• Dies Wide Open: Her eyes stay open as Beta guts her and leaves her against a tree to reanimate.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. Mary impulsively feeds her own sister to a pack of a walkers to save Alpha, but we later see that she feels terribly for doing it. She also begins operating as The Mole for the chance to see her nephew, who is the only family she has left.
• Evil Redhead: A red-haired Whisperer who murders her sister. She's not really evil, though, and eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn.
• Foil: To Dante, another Whisperer who murders someone close to him and realizes Alpha's way isn't the only way. Unlike Dante, Mary finds the strength to turn on her leader and dies a hero, while Dante ends up murdered by an angry Gabriel.
• Given Name Reveal: She admits to Aaron that her real name is Mary.
• Gutted Like a Fish: Beta kills her by stabbing her in the stomach and then slashing through her chest.
• Heel–Face Turn: Upon seeing the error of her ways, she turns her back on the Whisperers and begins secretly helping Alexandria instead. She also fights alongside Hilltop during the attack in "Morning Star" and "Walk With Us".
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • To save Rosita's life, she agrees to go back to the Whisperers' camp with Beta, knowing full well she will be executed by Alpha for her treachery. This act of bravery earns her Rosita's trust.
  • She also helps get Adam, Alden, and Kelly to safety by luring some walkers away from a car where they have taken shelter. This leads to her death after she is ambushed by Beta a short while later.
• Hidden Depths: First appears to be another weak-willed victim of Alpha's manipulation, but her Heel–Face Turn allows her to display a surprising amount of courage. She stares down Beta with barely a hint of fear, threatens suicide so Beta won't kill Rosita, and creates a diversion to protect Alden, Kelly, and Adam from some walkers. When Beta stabs her in the gut she keeps punching and clawing at him, refusing to cower before him even in her last moments.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Beta, who finally catches up with her a day and a half after failing to deliver her to Alpha as promised.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Quite standoffish at first, though she mellows when she learns the truth about Lydia's survival.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Like the rest of the Whisperers sans Dante and Beta (at first), she is fed the lie that Alpha killed Lydia. She discovers the truth in "Open Your Eyes".
• Love Redeems: Her desire to reunite with Adam and genuine remorse for causing Frances' death are what motivate her Heel–Face Turn.
• Mauve Shirt: Gets a solid amount of characterization and her own complete arc. She still doesn't live past her first season.
• Mercy Kill: Given one by Alden so she won't have to rejoin the Whisperers in death.
• Mirror Character: To Merle Dixon. Both had a strained relationship with their younger sibling, though in Gamma's case, the two never separated and Frances became a member of the villainous group alongside her sister. Also, unlike Merle who, for all his jerkassery would never consider killing Daryl and actually turned against the Governor because of it, Gamma goes the extra mile and throws Frances to a walker herd to save Alpha's life. Both Merle and Gamma have a Heel Realization that leads to them performing a Heroic Sacrifice to protect their remaining loved ones, with Gamma leading a swarm of walkers away from her nephew and Merle trying to take down as many of the Governor's militia as he can to save Daryl and the prison group. Sadly, this final act of bravery causes both of them to be killed for their treachery to their former group. Both are left to reanimate and end up being put out of their misery shortly afterwards.
• The Mole: Feeds Aaron information about the location of Alpha's horde and later goes to the gates of Alexandria to report that Alpha has trapped a group in the cave.
• Mook Promotion: Alpha rewards Mary for saving her life by making her third-in-command of the Whisperers.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When she discovers Alpha lied about killing Lydia, she runs off into the woods and cries, realizing that she killed her own sister for no real reason at all.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. There's a cannibal named Mary in Seasons 4 and 5.
• Redemption Equals Death: Renounces Alpha's ways, fights alongside Hilltop and saves her nephew before meeting a tragic end at the hands of Beta.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Having not witnessed her saving Rosita, Alden and Earl are understandably skeptical of Gamma fighting on their side, and are none to thrilled when she says she wants to see her nephew Adam, who was left behind to die by his own mother on Alpha's orders.
• Replacement Goldfish: Beta points out that Alpha is trying to fill the void left by Lydia.
• Sixth Ranger: Tags along with the convoy to Hilltop after her position as The Mole is compromised by Negan.
• Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: How she saves Rosita's life, threatening to slash her own throat with one of Beta's knives unless he brings her back to the camp to be made an example of like Alpha ordered.
• Token Good Teammate: The only Whisperer besides Lydia and Keith's group to make a Heel–Face Turn.
• Too Happy to Live: Finally gets to reunite with Adam, only to die almost immediately after.

Frances

Frances

Portrayed By: Emily Lane (Season 9) and Juliet Brett (Season 10)

Voiced By: Alicia Valadés (Spanish dub), Jamie Lee Blank (German dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 9-10)

Debut: "Bounty"

Gamma's sister. She was ordered by Alpha to bring her newborn son to the stand-off at Hilltop as insurance against Hilltop’s superior firepower. When the baby began to cry and attract walkers, Alpha orders her to surrender her child to the walkers. Luckily, Connie rescued the baby and took him into Hilltop, where he was eventually adopted by the Sutton family. She eventually went insane with grief over the loss of her son and turned on Alpha, only to be thrown to the walkers by Gamma, who chose their leader over her own sister.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard not to feel sorry for her especially when it's revealed she was the one who had to abandon her baby at Hilltop on Alpha's orders.
• Canon Foreigner: She never appeared in the comics.
• Chekhov's Gunman: "We Are the End of the World" reveals she was the Whisperer tasked with leaving her son to the walkers in "Bounty".
• Devoured by the Horde: Gamma throws her to a herd of walkers to save Alpha.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While the "evil" part is debatable, she is nevertheless devastated by the loss of her child, enough that it causes her to snap and attack Alpha in a fit of near-suicidal rage. She also seems to love her sister Mary, who unfortunately doesn't return the sentiment (at first).
• Parental Abandonment: Alpha makes the choice for her.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She gets a small amount of characterization before perishing in her second episode.

Adam

Adam Sutton

Portrayed By: Noah and Preston Wilbourn (Season 11)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 9-11)

Debut: "Bounty"

Frances' infant son. After being abandoned by his mother (on Alpha's orders), he is rescued by Connie and adopted by the Sutton family.

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• Canon Foreigner: As his mother is an invention of the show, he never appeared in the comics.
• Cartwright Curse: Of the parental variety. As of "No Other Way", both his biological relatives (his mother Frances and his aunt Mary) and all three of his adoptive parents (Earl, Tammy Rose, and Alden) are dead.
• Disappeared Dad: It's unknown who his biological father was. His adoptive father, Earl, has perished as of mid-Season 10, leaving Adam in the care of Earl's surrogate son, Alden, who's also dead as of Season 11. It's unknown who's taking care of him after this, though he's seen being held by Barbara in "No Other Way" and reappears playing in the cemetery at Hilltop in the series finale.
• Missing Mom: Both his biological and adoptive mothers are dead as of Season 10.
• Morality Pet: Mary makes a Heel–Face Turn because she wants to see him again.
• Raised by Grandparents: Played With. He is adopted by Earl and Tammy who are certainly old enough to be his grandparents, but their biological son Kenneth never had any children, making him this by proxy.

Other Whisperers

Helen and Sean

Helen and Sean

Portrayed By: Allie McCulloch (Helen) and Benjamin Keepers (Sean)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 10)

Debut: "Guardians"

"You led us into danger. With the boy here, we're still in danger. His people already killed many of ours, and where is the payback for that? You haven't failed me. You failed all of us."

— Helen

A pair of Whisperers who find themselves disillusioned with Alpha's ways and question her leadership in front of the rest of the camp.

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• And Show It to You: Before killing him, Alpha hands a mortified Sean his girlfriend's head.
• Bullying a Dragon: They thought it was a good idea to challenge Alpha in front of the entire camp. Naturally, Alpha takes this as a cue to assert her dominance, and kills them both.
• Decapitation Presentation: Not only to Sean, but Alpha clearly uses her decapitation of Helen and handing off her head to Sean as a means of psyching out a captured Henry.
• Made of Plasticine: Helen's head comes off a bit too easy considering Alpha is only using what appears to be a normal garrote wire (and presumably doesn't possess the same level of strength as someone like Beta).
• Make an Example of Them: Alpha uses the pair as a reminder of her supreme authority among her people.
• Off with His Head!: Helen's fate. Let's just say Sean got off easy by comparison, only taking a single knife wound to the gut.

Negan

See Negan Smith

Negan's Whisperers

"Negan's Whisperers"

Portrayed By: Alex Livinalli

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 10)

Debut: "Look at the Flowers"

A trio of Whisperers who declare Negan the new Alpha in the wake of Alpha's death.

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• Broken Pedestal: They are enraged when Negan turns on them and try to kill him for it, despite having sworn loyalty to him mere moments before.
• The Comically Serious: They're used to Alpha's no-nonsense approach, so Negan's joking, humorous behavior baffles them a little, and their reactions are amusing.
• Decomposite Character: They take on a similar role to a Savior named Mark from the comics, who was the only Savior willing to welcome back Negan's old way of doing things after the Whisperer War; similarly, the trio try to appoint Negan as their new leader to continue the Whisperer War on his terms. Both comic and show Negan violently reject the mindless sheep who kneel before him, though show Negan actually kills this trio of Whisperers instead of just punching Mark for being an idiot.
• Klingon Promotion: They believe in this, swearing loyalty to Negan after learning of his assassination of Alpha.
• Kneel Before Zod: They're quick to kneel before Negan, who is more than a little delighted to see it after many years since his time as the cult of personality he was as leader of the Saviors.
• No Name Given: As per usual with the rank-and-file Whisperers.
• Properly Paranoid: Deserting Beta was a smart move given pretty much anybody with half a brain knew that he would take the death of Alpha very poorly, especially given how he'd already proven to be willing to take out his frustrations on his own people. Unluckily for them, Negan isn't interested in being their leader instead.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: There's only three of them, and their blind obedience to Negan is quite funny. But they still put up a decent fight against Negan and Daryl before going down.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Despite Beta taking command of the Whisperers, they leave his command to appoint Negan as the new Alpha.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: One of them wields what is strongly implied to have been Alpha's shotgun. He causes his own demise when he gives it to Negan, who uses it to slay him and his companions.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The trio serves two purposes despite only being around for a short while. One, they confirm to Daryl that Negan assassinated Alpha (when the only one who would corroborate his story, Carol, is uninterested in doing so due to her own issues, and the only proof was Alpha's head which had been taken from its' pike by Beta). Two, despite being the potential starting point for a new, villainous army at Negan's command, Negan rejects them, saves Daryl from them, and kills them - proving to Daryl and the Coalition at large that Negan is no longer their enemy.
• Terrible Trio: They're a trio of villainous Whisperers.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Only around for one sequence before being killed off.

Dark Haired Whisperer

"Dark Haired Whisperer"

Portrayed By: Jessica Pohly

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 10)

Debut: "The Tower"

A Whisperer who is not happy to have Beta as leader of the pack.

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• Boom, Headshot!: She gets an arrow in the head from Daryl.
• Everyone Has Standards: Has no problem serving under Alpha's command, but she starts to lose her cool when Beta takes over leadership.
• No Name Given: She's credited only as "Dark Haired Whisperer".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ditches the Whisperers after becoming unnerved by Beta's Sanity Slippage.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Daryl kills her when it's clear she has no additional info to give him.

Keith

Keith

Portrayed By: Brad Fleischer

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Season 11)

Debut: "Out of the Ashes"

A Whisperer who survived the destruction of the horde and outlived Beta. He leads a small group of surviving Whisperers taking refuge at the remains of Hilltop.

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• Fingore: Aaron allows a walker to bite his hand in a dark attempt to force him to reveal any other surviving Whisperers. It's unknown if Aaron amputated his hand or if Keith did it, but the next we see him, Keith is nursing his arm, having survived the ordeal.
• Friend to All Children: He claims to have given Lydia extra rations during hard winters for no other reason than pure altruism, and to defy her abusive mother.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: With Alpha and Beta dead and the horde destroyed, Keith and the other Whisperers are not actively antagonizing the group that defeated them, but they're not buddies either. Aaron's group gives them some food and leaves them alone at Hilltop.
• Innocently Insensitive: One of his companions was using a discarded hijab that belonged to Nabila for themselves, presumably unaware of its significance to its owner. Nabila’s husband, Jerry, is outraged.
• No Name Given: Defied. When Aaron and Jerry interrogate him, they demand he give them his real name, and not "that Alpha Beta crap", so Keith obliges with his real name.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Keith insists that not all of the Whisperers were psychopaths like Alpha, Beta, and many of their brethren. He proves he has no malevolent designs towards the Coalition and leaves in peace now that Alpha and Beta are gone.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • While Keith and his group didn’t seem to mean anything by it, the group finding them taking refuge in the remains of Hilltop, the community the Whisperers sacked which led to Alexandria being on the brink of starvation, does no favors for them.
  • He and his group were also using one of Nabila’s discarded hijabs, surely not recognizing what it was and thinking it was another piece of clothing. Jerry, Nabila’s husband, actually loses his temper when he sees his wife’s hijab being used by their apparent enemies.
• Remember the New Guy?: Makes his debut in Season 11 but was apparently a Whisperer off-screen.
• Sole Survivor: He and his group are the last known surviving Whisperers besides Lydia.
• Token Good Teammate: He claims to have snuck food to Lydia during hard winters while Alpha wasn't watching, but Lydia can't clearly remember it happening. Nonetheless, she's willing to give him a chance due to recognizing him.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about him without revealing that the Whisperers weren't fully wiped out in "A Certain Doom". He also sheds some light on Connie's whereabouts after that episode.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Keith and his group are last seen as Aaron’s group leaves them alone at Hilltop. In Part 2 of the season, Maggie and a group of survivors return to repopulate and rebuild the community, with no mention of Keith’s group or what happened to them. Though Lydia warning Keith not to "look back" implies they left the community and went their own way.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: He pretends to be weak and too afraid to plot anything, but when pushed into a corner, he sneak attacks Aaron to try to escape.
• Zombie Infectee: Briefly, when Aaron allows a walker to bite his hand. It's amputated and his life is saved.

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