Emily Kinney returns to The Walking Dead universe as Beth Greene in Dead City season 3’s alternate history episode, which airs on Sunday, Aug. 30.
It’s so awesome to see Kinney back as Beth in Dead City, hanging out with her sister Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and performing an original song. I wish the franchise found a way to do these kinds of things with other characters who were killed off.
While I’m more than happy to see Beth again, it’s such a stark reminder of how big of a blunder Beth’s death was in The Walking Dead.
How does Beth die in The Walking Dead?
Let's take a trip down memory lane to The Walking Dead season 5 episode 8, "Coda," the midseason finale of the season.
As you’ll recall, Beth was being held captive, along with Carol (Melissa McBride), in Grady Memorial Hospital by Dawn Learner (Christine Woods) and the other corrupt officers in season 5. Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Daryl (Norman Reedus), and the rest of the group kidnapped some of Dawn's people and arranged for a hostage swap. Everything was fine until Dawn demanded that Noah (Tyler James Williams) remain behind at the hospital.
Beth did not appreciate that, and when she hugs Noah to say goodbye, she stabs Dawn with some scissors. Reacting to the stabbing, Dawn shoots Beth in the head. She doesn't appear to do it on purpose. It seems to be more of a reaction, but whatever. Dawn is awful, and she kills the fan-favorite character, Beth.
Then, Daryl kills her, and it looks like there's going to be a massive shootout, but everyone somehow agrees to put their guns down, and they all go their separate ways.
Beth's death didn't feel earned
The Walking Dead loved to pull the surprise card early in the series with important characters.
After Beth's introduction in season 2, we saw so many notable deaths in short succession. We lost Dale Horvath (Jeffrey DeMunn), Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal), Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), and T-Dog (IronE Singleton) within a handful of episodes across season 2 and season 3. Beth was right there for all of that. Shortly after those deaths, we also said goodbye to Andrea (Laurie Holden) in another ridiculous death.
Some of those deaths were deserved or even earned. We saw the path laid out before us for multiple episodes in a row for some of those characters, notably Shane and Lori. We got a little of that setup with Beth, too, but the payoff was terrible. Beth died for basically no reason at all. It was a mere shock value play.
Beth's death feels cruel because, to me, she was a representation of innocence in The Walking Dead. Sure, she had to get her hands dirty by the end, and she made her fair share of bad choices along the way. But she was always there helping care for the most vulnerable in the group, like Judith, the other kids, the elderly, and the sick. Killing Beth was a signal for fans that no character was ever going to be safe. It still felt shallow, though.
In season 4 and season 5, we see a different side of Beth that we saw in the first two seasons. The character was growing in the right direction, and they just killed her for shock value, rather than story or character development.
It wasn't even that Beth died that was so frustrating. I would have been okay if Beth had died sacrificing herself for someone or doing something that helped the group. That was just not the case, although she showed courage, of course. How she died made all the difference, to me, in how it was perceived.
This was a conflict between a few people. Beth hated Dawn, and Dawn hated Beth. And Dawn did one last thing to get under Beth's skin. So, why not have Beth kill her on the spot? Why have Beth just stab her only for Dawn to, basically, accidentally shoot her in the head? If the show was willing to show that Beth has what it takes to do something like killing Dawn, why not let her kill Dawn?
And we all know that Dawn is terrible, so why does she act like she didn't mean to kill Beth? It's all just so convoluted. I hate when shows seem afraid to take the big swing. The Walking Dead is literally known for taking big swings, so let Beth have her moment instead of whatever misunderstanding this was.
Beth's death also resulted in a viewership drop
The Walking Dead takes a massive swing, literally, just a season after Beth's death when the show introduced Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and let him take a bat to Glenn's head. That's still one of the worst deaths and biggest mistakes in the show's history, but I would argue Beth's is similar in terms of story, shock value, and ratings impact.
There wasn't a massive drop in viewership like there was with Glenn (Steven Yeun), but ratings weren't stellar. After opening with more than 17 million viewers for the season 5 premiere, The Walking Dead killed Beth in the midseason finale. Then, we saw less than 15 million viewers tune in for the season 6 premiere. It was the first time in the show's history that the show had a drop in premiere viewership from the last season.
To me, there's a direct connection between how the show chose to kill off Beth and that drop in viewership in the next season. There are many things that happen in the second half of season 5, but none are more impactful than Beth's death.
Looking back, Glenn's death is probably the biggest misstep for The Walking Dead, but there are reasons that it happened. Negan does kill Glenn in the comics. It's also been reported that Steven Yeun was ready to move on to other projects.
The circumstances were not the same for Kinney, who would have continued to play Beth had the creative team not made the decision to kill off her character. It just seems so short-sighted when you consider how many original stars were already lost. Keeping Beth and Maggie together was one of the best things the show could have done, but they botched it.
At least, now, 12 years later, we're getting a look at what could have been between Maggie and Beth.
Watch Kinney's return in Dead City season 3 episode 6 on Sunday, Aug. 30, on AMC and AMC+.
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