Tales of the Walking Dead’s third episode has left fans in a state of confusion regarding Alpha’s story. Samantha Morton and Scarlet Blum reprised their roles as Alpha and Lydia in an episode of the anthology spinoff series that was a back story of a time right before Alpha became the leader of the Whisperers.
In the episode “Dee,” the name Alpha used previously, the mother and daughter joined a group that used a riverboat as their community. This group was led by a woman named Brooke (Lauren Glazier), a beautiful, well-respected, capable leader. She took a shine to Lydia as it was apparent her mother didn’t give the child special attention. This didn’t sit well with Dee, and the women often butted heads.
The community ends up falling apart, with only Brooke, Lydia and Dee surviving. Dee wants to kill Brooke for being unable to fulfill the promises she made to her daughter, but Lydia intervenes, and Dee instead cuts her face as a reminder of her failure.
Tales of the Walking Dead – Dee
The confusion for most viewers comes when Dee is just about to commit a murder-suicide as she feels she and Lydia can’t make it in the world they find themselves in and encounter a group speaking in hushed tones and wearing the skin of walkers.
Viewers always assumed that Alpha (Dee) was the one who organized and started the Whisperers. This comes from The Walking Dead episode “We Are the End of the World” when Alpha met Beta (Ryan Hurst), and she encourages him to take his dead friend with him by cutting off his face and wearing it.
But, think back to this scene; Alpha’s head is already shaved. But, when she meets the Whisperers as Dee in Tales of TWD, she still has hair.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Channing Powell confirmed that the events of “Dee” are “neatly tucked in there” between the events that happened in the basement (during the flashbacks in TWD) and when Alpha meets Beta.
Morton talked with Digital Spy regarding the so-called inconsistencies stating,
"There’s no inconsistency at all. I was very heavily involved in the making of it, in the development of it with Channing [Powell] – there’s no inconsistency, I think that the episode is called Dee, and that says it all."
In an earlier Undead Walking article, we asked what took Alpha and Lydia away when they met Beta. Did she fight with Hera and leave but, upon finding Beta, realize she could take over with him at her side?
Powell also says:
"And then for the larger mythology, should everything work out and we ever film with actors’ schedules aligning, we do have her meeting Beta right after this story."
It would be fascinating to have the story connecting “Dee” to “We Are the End of the World.” There is a significant story there, and it needs to be told.
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