The Worst Walking Dead Death Of 2020

Deaths are bound to happen in The Walking Dead, but, what was the WORST of 2020?

The first thing you might notice about this article as opposed to my “Best Deaths” article is that I don’t have five deaths, in fact, the title doesn’t even mention more than one, this is because, after looking back…I can’t really think of four more deaths to add to this list!

This isn’t to say that there weren’t other “bad” deaths this year in the Walking Dead universe, but, if I’m being honest, considering the level of prominence the characters on the wrong end of those deaths had…their deaths fit.

Most of the other characters I could think of who had very underwhelming deaths this year, while, yes, their deaths were underwhelming, the characters themselves weren’t going anywhere. It’s not like they were gaining prominence in their respective shows, or had a great deal of storylines specific to them, so, I can’t imagine anyone was expecting them to have the sort of powerful, dramatic deaths that a more important character would deserve. Basically, you get the death equal to your level of importance on your respective show, so, while the deaths were “bad”, they weren’t bad enough for me to really care about.

One person whose death I did care about, was, quite frankly, one of, if not the most important death in this year’s season of The Walking Dead: Beta’s.

As much as Alpha was the villain of season ten of The Walking Dead, Beta was right there behind her. I said earlier this year that, this season, Beta truly came into his own as a villain. He was no longer just a henchman, he was the monster our heroes needed to fear, and, in the last quarter of the season, was the villain, the one trying to destroy everybody.

…Sadly, his death did not reflect that.

In the season finale, as Daryl, Carol, Negan, Jerry, Luke, Magna, Kelly, Beatrice, Jules, and Lydia tried to lead the Whisperers’ horde away from the hospital, they were confronted by the few remaining Whisperers, led by Beta. Casualties were had on both sides before Beta came to blows with Negan, and was killed after Daryl stabbed him in the eyes, which drew some of the walkers to surround and consume him, as he accepted becoming one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, seeing Daryl stab Beta in the eyes looked cool, but, overall, his death was…anticlimactic.

After all the things we’ve seen Beta survive, to see him go out like this made him look like a chump. It felt like, if he could get taken down this easily…why hadn’t someone done this to him earlier?

Think back to his first confrontation with Daryl in season nine’s “Chokepoint”: He and Daryl beat the crap out of each other, Daryl stabbed him in the chest and threw him down an elevator shaft, and what did Beta do? He got up, and just stared at where Daryl had been standing, a look on his face that said “Oh, you done screwed up now.” and plainly obvious that their business was far from over. Just imagine if Beta’s death had been a proper continuation of that fight.

Imagine Beta properly fighting Negan, trying to use his size and strength to choke the life out of the man who killed Alpha, before being interrupted by Daryl stabbing Beta in the kidneys or something. Then, Beta would turn his attention to Daryl, fighting through his injuries and throwing hands with Daryl, pulling one of Daryl’s knives out of his kidneys and preparing to stab him in the throat, before getting cracked in the head with Lucille by Negan, opening the door for Daryl to grab his knives, and then stab Beta in the eyes. After that, the death carries on as we saw, with the herd surrounding Beta and consuming him, but, this time, instead of Beta just accepting it, he tries to soldier on, trying to listen for Daryl, and continue attacking, with the last we see of him being his hand reaching out for Daryl, before the herd finally takes him.

That is the death a villain like Beta deserved, one which put on display how badass and dangerous of a character he was, while letting us see him go down fighting his two most important rivals, Daryl and Negan, and letting both play roles in his downfall, while still having his death formally come at the hands (Or teeth) of the very “guardians” he held so dearly.

Yet, that is not the death Beta got. Instead, he scuffled with Negan and Daryl for about a minute or two, got one cool moment of being stabbed in the eyes, and then, just…accepted it.

So many other villains in The Walking Dead — Shane, The Governor, Gareth, Alpha — got deaths which fit them in their own way, but, Beta just got one that seemed rushed, like the showrunners realized the episode was approaching its runtime, and someone said “Wrap it up. We gotta go.”

It’s sad, because Beta might have been the coolest villain The Walking Dead has ever had, being, at times, more like a slasher movie villain come to life, and, instead of going down like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, needing to be hit with everything but the kitchen sink before dying, he wound up going down like some kind of Saturday morning cartoon baddie, beaten after only one move, and just accepting it.

When you take a great monster heel like Beta, and turn him into a two-bit henchman, you earn the title of “Worst Walking Dead Death Of 2020″. Hands down.

But, what do you guys think? Do you agree? Is there anyone else who had a worse death in any Walking Dead show this year? Did you think Beta’s death wasn’t that bad? I’m curious to hear what you have to say. And, if you enjoyed this and want to learn how to have the “best” death of all in a zombie apocalypse (By not having one), then why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!