The Walking Dead: Noah’s top 5 moments

Noah wasn’t with The Walking Dead for very long, but he made a big impression in a short amount of time. We honor his time with a look at his top 5 moments.

Noah joined us at Grady Memorial when we discovered where the black car with the cross on the window had taken Beth when Beth and Daryl were separated on the road to Terminus. Grady was not a friendly place, but Noah was a friendly face for Beth inside of Grady.

Noah and his father had gone looking for Noah’s uncle, and Noah had been taken by the officers at Grady, just like Beth. Noah’s father had been left behind to die, presumably because he was stronger and more capable and would have fought back.

Dawn Lerner made Noah her personal assistant. She was unaware that he was planning to escape while ironing the scrubs and keeping her schedule for her.

Beth made fast friends with Noah and had Noah to thank for the group finding her, even though the results were tragic for both of our young Grady residents.

Let’s count down Noah’s moments chronologically. We fell in love with Noah more as we got to know him.

Number 5: Noah, Beth, and the Escape Plan

Noah gives Beth the low down on the place she finds herself in when she wakes up in Grady Memorial Hospital after being kidnapped from the street outside the house where she was with Daryl days before on the road to Terminus after the fall of the prison where her father had been decapitated by The Governor.

Dawn Lerner had just informed her that they had saved her from the rotters and that she owed them. Noah told Beth the story of his father and uncle and how the debt would never be paid. He talked about how they thought he was weak and scrawny, but he was going to escape.

Together they made a plan to escape. They weren’t going to waste any time. The plan was for that very night. They were going to escape using the elevator shaft. They went through with their plan. But poor Beth was caught during the escape. Thankfully, Noah made it out.

Number 4: Noah, Daryl, and Carol

In a double dose of dramatic irony, we find out that Noah is the one that was in the woods with Daryl when Michonne found Daryl in the woods by the church at the end of the previous episode and said, “Come on out.”

We also know before Daryl and Carol that Noah is friendly and knows Beth. I love dramatic irony, and The Walking Dead loves it, too. A quick reminder of dramatic irony: when the audience understands more than the characters.

Noah is frightened and tries to put on some bravado with Daryl and Carol, whom we know as apocalyptic badasses, so we know it’s a hilarious folly, and takes Daryl’s crossbow and Carol’s weapons and slices open a tent of walkers to give himself a head start.

Carol and Daryl take turns deciding if they are mad enough to want to hurt or kill this “kid.” Of course, we know they need him to find Beth, so we want him alive. And so the twists of the dramatic irony keep twirling before Carol gets hit by a car.

Noah finally blurts out something about the people who can help her at Grady, and finally Daryl and Noah realize they both know Beth, and we get confirmation that it was, indeed, Noah who was with Daryl at the church.

Number 3: Noah and Beth

Noah participated in the plan to get Beth and Carol back. He used himself as bait to get the officers to capture him. The plan seemed to be going okay except for a few small hitches that every plan has that get modified as things move along.

Bob knocked out Sasha, Daryl had to knock out another officer with a walker head, and Rick ran over Bob with a police car.  But then the plan seemed on track again. Carol was turned over, and then Beth.

Then Dawn threw another monkey wrench into things. She wanted Noah back. Noah being noble and having experienced both groups for himself, giving him a keen understanding of the world and the way things worked now, offered to stay.

We know that things didn’t work out that way. A horrible accident left Beth on the floor, hearts broken, eyes wide, and jaws dropped on the screen and in our homes.

Number 2:  Noah and Tyreese

Even with the results of the exchange and the guilt and responsibility that Noah must have felt for Beth’s death, he still had the wherewithal to tell Tyreese that the plan was the right plan. Tyreese and Noah needed each other that day in Shirewilt estates.

Noah had been holding onto the idea that his family was still there. And just the way Noah told Tyreese that the plan was the right plan, Tyreese let Noah know that things aren’t always the dominoes that people think.

Dominoes were the weapon that Martin would later use against Tyreese that day in Tyreese’s hallucinations. He would claim that if Tyreese would have killed Martin that Martin wouldn’t have come back to kill Bob.

But Tyreese let Noah know that if Tyreese hadn’t been there to save Judith, She wouldn’t be with Rick now. We don’t get to choose which dominoes we like and which we don’t. We have to do the best we can and hope for the best.

Noah at least tried to help find Beth and they got Carol back. Noah’s community inspired Michonne and Glenn to find a place like Alexandria. You never know what dominoes are going to fall where.

Number 1: Beginnings and Endings

Reg and Noah sat eating oatmeal and talked about the future of Alexandria on the day of Noah’s death. Noah was imagining the big picture. Reg gave him a notebook to start writing about his ideas. That notebook was found in the van after Noah is gone with the words “This is the beginning.”

Although it was the end for Noah, it really was the beginning for the group and for Alexandria and the next phase of life in the new world as people are discovering that they must start living and building new lives in the world as it is now. The sheer survival phase is ending and they need to figure out what the world is going to be now.

Noah let Glenn know that they needed to hold onto part of who they were as this next phase started coming about. They could see the clash of worlds with the innocence of Alexandria and the harshness of the outside world and what it had done to some of the survivors.

Glenn represented a little of both worlds. In the stunning and awful clutches of the revolving door of fear, Noah told Glenn not to let go. Nicholas came from a world of innocence, and his fear allowed him to do a horrible thing and run away from it. Glenn came from a world of darkness and his survival skills and loyalty allowed him to bear witness to the horrible thing.

Noah and Glenn were able to look each other in the eye til the very end and not let go. Noah knew Glenn would begin again for him.