The Walking Dead: Sam’s A stamp and the Wolves’ W

The letters A and W play an important role in an emotional scene in the second episode of The Walking Dead. Strong but subtle. Ugly and beautiful, just like Carol must force herself to be in the world that is the same.

We first associated the letter A with Terminus. Being trapped. Trapped in a train car. Being trapped in a church. Then the A popped up again in Alexandria. Would we be trapped again? Trapped within these walls? Trapped by civilization?

We’ve come a long way since Terminus. Alexandria means something different now. It’s hope. Rosita seems to think Alexandria and Abraham make life worth living and fighting the daily fight. Sam’s A means you’re one of us. You belong. Welcome to Alexandria.

Sam was playing with his stamp like we play with a pen that clicks or a yo-yo while sitting on Carol’s porch when Carol told him to move on. (Sidebar: Tara should donate her yo-yo to little Sam!)  I believe when she walks in the house, he puts his A stamp on her porch to tell her he loves her.

She is always so truthful with him. He’s used to her directness. That’s the only Carol he knows. He’s a child. He sees things differently. Children sometimes see things we don’t realize.

Melissa McBride, via Comicbook.com, talks about the A on the porch at the end of the episode…

"Yeah and that comes right when she’s wiping that “W” off of her forehead…. Just that whole dichotomy, that polarity…it’s the sweetness of Sam. That was his stamp. The “A, welcome to Alexandria, you’re one of us now,” and just that whole community and safety and shelter. Just being a child, I think that’s what I was thinking of when I saw it and I was thinking of him and I’m shattered."

That A is so important in that scene. It strips away every negative connotation the A has had on The Walking Dead so far. It brings tears to my eyes writing this the way it brings tears to Carol’s eyes. The beauty of little Sam’s love for her.

His acceptance of her. Of all of her. Her ugly, bold truths. Who she has to be to protect him and those she loves from the ugly bold lies of his father, the ugly lies and bold denial of Alexandria, and the ugly, jagged, red W that is everything opposite of his big, red, beautiful A.

Next: Season 5:All Named Character Deaths

More from Undead Walking

• Walking Dead alum Jayson Warner Smith promotes new film, Chipper, watch it now
• Walking Dead actor Chandler Riggs filming new movie in Tampa Bay
• Why is there no season 12 of The Walking Dead?
• Will Morgan Jones find Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live spinoff?
• Watch Tales of TWD actress Jillian Bell in Prime Video’s Candy Cane Lane