Tara and Althea: Keeping secrets in the TWD universe

Keeping secrets is trickier for Al. The members of this group haven’t known each other long enough. Al’s secret, when (or if) revealed, could signal that she’s keeping secrets from them and that could cause friction between everyone. Even if Al is keeping the secret with the best of intentions, leaving out such a big event – namely, that somewhere out there is a group trying to save the world – won’t be looked upon favorably. Al has sacrificed a great deal for her stories and this secret could prove troublesome in the long run.

Keeping secrets might not be harmful in the short term, but should they raise their ugly heads later on they could be very problematic. Thankfully Tara chose to break her promise to Oceanside when she did, because those guns were what helped spur victory for Rick’s group (in a roundabout way) and it created a new group of allies. If things were different, and if they lost the fight against the Saviors because they didn’t have enough weapons or firepower, then Tara’s secret could have cost her everything.

Al must be careful with this information. If she chooses to share it at some point she has to be prepared for the possibility that her friends will be upset that she didn’t reveal the information sooner. And that’s totally fair, because Morgan and Alicia saw the helicopter and know that Al was in the same vicinity that it came from. She had a chance to tell the truth and she didn’t, and those optics don’t bode well for the intrepid reporter.

Keeping secrets from your friends can be a challenge in the apocalypse. There’s no telling what might happen when the truth reveals itself and it’s hard to spin why you’d keep something secret for so long when so many people are trusting you with their lives. Al’s saving grace is that keeping the secret and revealing the truth at the right moment worked out for Tara, but only time will tell if that becomes the case with Al.

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.