Tara and Althea: Keeping secrets in the TWD universe

Fans of The Walking Dead will recall that Tara was faced with a similar dilemma in episode 706, “Swear.” The episode title refers to the promise she made to the women of Oceanside. In order to be allowed to leave she had to promise not to reveal their existence to anyone.

However, when it was clear that a battle against the Saviors was coming and the need for more weapons was needed to appease the deal with the Scavengers, Tara made the decision to come clean about Oceanside. It’s interesting to note that we never saw what happened after she revealed this secret to Rick because the important thing was to go and get the guns. There was no time for blame or questions.

As much as Tara might have wanted to keep her promise, in order to save her friends she gave the secret away, and soon Oceanside received another visit from Rick and the group. At that point, sheer desperation made it so that Rick wasn’t about to take no for an answer, and that definitely put a strain on the inter-community relations.

It wasn’t until later on, after All Out War and after the women had their revenge against the Saviors, that there was a peace between the communities and any memory of Tara’s promise was long forgotten.

One of the chief differences between Tara’s situation and Al’s situation is that by the time Tara encountered Oceanside she was already a valued and trusted member of the Alexandria community. There was no reason not to trust her or to question why she didn’t say anything sooner, and ultimately her information helped win the war.