The Walking Dead Theory: It’s ALL Alpha!

Some of my colleagues think Alpha is not the one causing chaos for the communities in The Walking Dead. I’m here to tell you why she IS.

A few days ago, one of my colleagues here at Undead Walking wrote an article explaining why she thought that Alpha was being truthful when she told Michonne, Carol, and Daryl that she wasn’t sending the waves of walkers to their doorstep.

Well, after watching Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead, I’m going to have to…disagree.

Theory: It’s ALL part of Alpha’s plan.

Alpha is nothing if not crafty. As we’ve seen, in her discussions with Beta, it seems like everything she does is deliberate, everything is calculated, and nothing the Whisperers do happens by accident.

Of course, I’m not simply just going to say this and expect you to believe it…I think I got the proof.

First of all, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page here.

Following the communities’ incursion into Whisperer turf to stop a wildfire from engulfing Oceanside, a (Relatively) large herd of walkers set upon Alexandria. Then another. Then another. Then another.

When have we ever seen walkers behave like this before? Sure, it’s possible, but, in all the time The Walking Dead has been around, we’ve never seen walkers come in waves like this, it’s always been as one massive herd that washes over an area all at once.

This is because of something my brother calls “The Fluid Dynamics Of The Dead”. One walker will be drawn by something, and move towards it, and their movement will draw a second walker, and a third, and so on, flowing with the terrain until some new hotness distracts walkers at the sides or back of the herd, and, slowly, breaks it up.

But…this? Nah. This seems deliberate, as if someone has cordoned off subsets of a larger herd, then, guided them in a particular direction, and just kept doing it. But, who would even have such a large herd at their disposal? Hmm…

And, while we’re at it, let’s also address the other elephant in the room in regards to recent misfortunes faced by the communities: The tree falling and wrecking part of Hilltop’s walls.

I mean, nearly everyone at Hilltop assumes it was the Whisperers who knocked the tree down, but, when the evidence (No visible damage to the tree, strong roots, etc.) is presented by Earl, it seems like it’s just the paranoid ramblings of an old man, bitter after his wife’s murder; This isn’t helped by Yumiko’s skepticism about the Whisperers’ guilt.

Now, you might be asking: “Where’s this proof you were talking about?!”

Oh, don’t worry, I was just about to get to that!

You see, I don’t need any additional evidence when the accused freely admits their culpability for all of us to hear!

As we saw on Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead, Alpha admitted that the tree falling on Hilltop was part of her strategy, along with Gamma damming up a nearby creek, as well as tainting it walker blood.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing we learned, was it?

Just before a particularly luckless Whisperer suggested sending the entire horde to wipe out Hilltop and Alexandria, he lamented what he saw as the wasting of walkers “with these little nicks”, in other words, the incessant waves of smaller (From their perspective, anyway) herds. While Alpha sliced the insides of his knee and elbow for his insolence, she also did so to demonstrate the effectiveness of the “little nicks” strategy.

No denials. No claiming that she was simply taking advantage of the situation. In fact, not only did she not deny it, she killed a Whisperer for talking ill of the tactic. This was Alpha all but bragging about sending the walker waves to attack Alexandria!

Now, there is one lingering question which my colleague brought up: Why? What’s the motive?

…Well, if you listened carefully to Alpha, as she was speculating about her war of attrition against the communities, she had one line that stuck out to me: “…The smart ones will know where to come to stay safe”.

While she didn’t drop any names, I think the “smart one(s)” Alpha was thinking about, specifically, is Lydia.

As we’ve seen over last season, Alpha has ingrained this philosophy in the Whisperers that communities like Alexandria and Hilltop should no longer exist, yet, her daughter, whom she does care about (Despite her abusive tendencies toward her), has chosen them over the life Alpha tried to create for her, and, as we’ve also seen…that bothers Alpha more than she lets on.

So, then…why risk Lydia possibly getting hurt in these attacks?

That’s the thing: I don’t think Alpha thinks Lydia would get hurt in the attacks.

I think Alpha has confidence in Lydia’s ability to survive. I think she intends to wear down Alexandria and Hilltop until they teeter on the brink of collapse, in the hope that Lydia, seeing her mother’s philosophy holding true, abandons Alexandria and returns to the Whisperers, hopefully (As far as Alpha’s thinking, anyway) now truly ready to accept her mother’s way of life.

While my colleague is right, and the waves of walkers attacking Alexandria could have been a coincidence, I just see too much for them to be anything but a calculated attack by Alpha to bring it down.

She definitely has the means and the opportunity, Hell, she’s got those in spades, but, as I think I’ve just demonstrated, she’s also got a damn good motive, too. All the components are there. As far as I’m concerned, all the major disasters that have befallen Alexandria and Hilltop are just the first wave of Alpha’s attempt to wipe them out.

But, what do you think? Do you think it’s all just a coincidence? Was Alpha telling the truth when she denied sending the walkers? Or do you, like me, think she was lying, and think that the walkers were sent by her? Let me know in the comments!

And, if you want, hear my theories on how to survive a zombie apocalypse in the real world, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also find it on Kindle here, and on iTunes here!