If you know me, you’d know that The Walking Dead was kind of my life for a very long time. And when a show is your life, the character deaths that happen can hit very hard and leave a long-lasting impression on you years later.
While I have grown up and seen heartbreaking death after heartbreaking death on this show, there’s one death that really hits harder for me than any other—and yes, I mean more than Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) death.
Glenn’s death is still devastating
Don’t get me wrong—I'm not going to preach to the choir here and say that I wasn’t torn to shreds with Glenn’s death because, trust me, I certainly was. In fact, I was basically inconsolable for a couple of days after.
Glenn’s death was one of those that fundamentally changed Rick forever. Heck, it really changed the show forever, because I think a lot of folks stopped watching after that. His death should have played out differently, and I stand by that. I still don’t like the fakeout they did with Abraham’s death all this time later. It’s a death that, unlike some forgettable Walking Dead demises, I always remember.
That said, I don’t think it affected me nearly as much. I always knew Glenn’s death was imminent thanks to the comics. And a part of me felt that because his death was such a huge moment in the comic books, the producers and writers of the show would be fools to change it. They still did, but just not in the way I was expecting.
And there’s just one death that overtakes it for me.
But Beth’s death is still the absolute worst
I said what I said.
Out of all the deaths in The Walking Dead, Beth’s (Emily Kinney) death was the one that took me the heck out. I was only a sophomore in high school at the time, and let me tell you something (Shane reference intended); I felt like my body was floating in existence and not in a great way.
I really think the reason it hits so hard even years later is that it was so fast. Really, one of the fastest deaths in The Walking Dead. While it’s not the most graphic one, Beth’s death was sudden and felt like an arrow straight to the heart.
And what made it hurt even more is that there was so much character growth over seasons 4 and 5. We really saw Beth grow out of her own shell and become someone different, someone who I could easily see becoming a hardened survivor—or, at the very least, making it a couple more seasons before she was eventually killed off.
All for that to end with a shot to the head because of a reflex, of all things, made it impossible to get past. And Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) reaction after is just the cherry on top of the sadness cake.
With Beth appearing in an alternate reality episode of Dead City, I’m eager to see how the heck that is going to work. But now it’s just making me think of her demise—and maybe in another alternate universe, she’s still surviving somehow.
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