Fear The Walking Dead Theory: The Beginners Of The End?

Are the people writing “The End Is The Beginning” Walking Dead’s newest crazies?

Season 6 of Fear The Walking Dead began with a man named Walter being decapitated by the bounty hunter, Emile. By the end of that first episode, we learned that this was at the behest of a couple of men in Galveston, Texas, in search of a key. As they reminded one another of their need for the key Walter had in his possession, one of the men spray-painted the phrase “The End Is The Beginning” on the side of a beached submarine.

At that point, it just seemed like a slogan. Many groups we’ve seen across The Walking Dead universe have one — “You drink from the well, you replenish the well.”, “Those who arrive, survive.”, “One lives. All live.”, etc. — this one seemed no different. Honestly, it sounded like the group the two men were part of believed that the end of the world was a new beginning for humanity. Sounds perfectly normal for a zombie apocalypse, even positive.

…That was, however, until we saw it again on this week’s episode of Fear. This week, for the first time this season, members of Morgan’s group (Althea and Dwight, specifically) found the slogan, spray-painted on the back wall of the lobby of a skyscraper (A.K.A. “Drop Site Baker”).

By itself, the slogan’s appearance means little. It simply means that members of the group who hold that slogan (Who, not having an official name yet, I’ve chosen to call “The Beginners”), had stumbled upon this particular building, and left a calling card. No biggie.

What makes it noteworthy, however, is what else Al and Dwight found in the building: Rats, and, not just any rats, PLAGUE RATS.

Somehow, a swarm of rats carrying the black plague had infested the building and were infecting all of its occupants with the medieval contagion, a coincidence that was not lost on Althea, who speculated that the people who wrote the slogan on the wall (i.e. The Beginners) were the ones who left the rats the behind.

The question is: Why?

Fear The Walking Dead Theory: The Beginners are a DEATH CULT.

With Al’s theory that The Beginners planted the plague rats inside Drop Site Baker, it would mean that they knew people were either there, or going to be there. You don’t just dump rats with the black plague in a random building for shits and giggles, there’s too much risk involved to do that sort of thing randomly and on a whim. Why would someone risk catching one of the deadliest diseases known to man just to stuff them in a random building in an otherwise abandoned city?

They wouldn’t.

I think The Beginners planted the rats specifically for the purpose of killing Nora’s group, and, they’ve probably done it to other places in the area.

Again, the question is: Why? Well, I believe that their slogan is not quite as uplifting as it might appear. I believe when they say “The End Is The Beginning”, what they mean is: “When the old world and those who cling to it are destroyed, THAT will be the new beginning.”

Think about all the other warped cults we’ve seen in The Walking Dead, the Wolves and the Whisperers are the first that come to mind. In both cases, they believed that communities or any attempt at civilization was “wrong” or “archaic” or “clinging to the old world” or something along those lines, and made a point of destroying any groups they came across. Going back to the idea of slogans, the Whisperers’ slogan was “We are the end of the world.”, to give you an idea of what their ultimate goal was.

I think The Beginners see themselves as the opposite of the Whisperers, believing themselves “The Beginning” of a new world, but, like the Whisperers, believe that, in order for that new beginning to take place, “The End” of the world that came before (And, subsequently, anyone attempting to restore anything remotely like it) needs to come first.

If this is true, then, clearly, they believe in using tactics not unlike those of the Whisperers, relying on biological warfare to destroy other groups, and, even the specific method The Beginners use appears designed to not only further that end, but also, to invoke fears of it.

The black plague is one of, if not the most notorious epidemic in human history, with the destruction and death left in its wake reverberating across the centuries, and is the very reason governments have entities like the Center For Disease Control on their books, to prevent pandemics of that scale, and the fact The Beginners use it seems intended to invoke fears of that very apocalypse.

In fact, if you want further proof that The Beginners are indeed looking to bring about the end of what’s left of civilization, remember that, because of their weapon of choice, they were practically guaranteeing that, if Nora’s group couldn’t find the antibiotics necessary to cure the plague, that the disease would have begun to spread beyond Drop Site Baker. Eventually, the now plague-infected walkers of Nora’s group would have gotten out, and potentially, spread the black plague to anyone they attacked, whether they bit them or not. You don’t give people the plague unless you intend for it to spread, and you don’t intend for it to spread…unless you want an apocalypse.

Unfortunately, we still don’t know enough about The Beginners. For example: What they wanted Walter’s key for. I’ve heard some suggest it was for the submarine the two members we know about were spray-painting with their slogan. While I don’t necessarily subscribe to it (How would they get it back out to sea? It’s beached.), if it were true, it would only lend credence to this theory, as The Beginners would, presumably, instigate this plague, hide out in their submarine, safely beneath the Gulf Of Mexico, and wait for their scheme to destroy everything whilst they bide their time.

Whatever the case may be, I think The Beginners are a far more threatening group of people than anyone else we’ve yet met in Fear The Walking Dead, and I think, the further along we go, the more we’ll see just how threatening.

But, what do you think? Do you think The Beginners are as warped and sinister as I do? Or, do you think they’re just jerks who sic plague rats on people? Do you think they’re a death cult like the Whisperers, or just out to carve up their own part of Texas, like the Pioneers? Let me know in the comments! And, if you want to 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 at Amazon here, and on iTunes here!