The Walking Dead: 5 reasons why Alpha didn’t send the walkers

#2- Walkers are Resources

Negan has always talked about how people are a resource, but for Alpha the dead are the biggest resource of all. Beta’s anger that he had to kill members of the herd to save Alpha is reflective of how much they revere the undead, so sending them without organization into a slaughter makes very little sense.

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In fact, it would probably be rather upsetting for Alpha to know she was sending her precious walkers to their deaths. She wouldn’t make the decision lightly, so when she unleashes the horde she will do so with precision and a clear plan for them. The walkers that arrived in Alexandria were not organized and they just kept coming because that’s what walkers do. The ones that came to Hilltop likely heard the tree crash through the fence, and they picked up more walker friends along the way.

Since it doesn’t appear that Alpha sent these walkers, the biggest thing that The Walking Dead fans need to think about is what Alpha would do with the horde. What are the circumstances where she would use the tens of thousands of walkers against the survivors? That’s the immediate question. Judith is absolutely right: Alpha is trying to wear them down, yes, but she’s not using her precious resources to do it.

#1- Unleash the Horde

When the Whisperer War begins, we’ll very likely see how she uses the horde to fight for her. Though she values the walkers more than her own people (as we’ve seen), like a general commanding an army it seems reasonable to assume that Alpha will be willing to sacrifice members of the horde for the greater good, just as you’d see on a battlefield. There will always be casualties, and based on what Lydia has said there have been times when the horde has been unleashed in the past.

Unleashing the horde is something that Alpha will do with great consideration and calculation. It’s not something to be done without planning and strategy, and when it happens it will no doubt have a devastating effect.

Let’s just hope that Michonne and the survivors have a plan in place for when the horde truly is unleashed, because despite what the saw in “Ghosts”, that group of walkers is nothing compared to Alpha’s horde.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.