SQUAWKING DEAD: September 2022

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Originally Recorded 2022/08/28

Say what you will about Alpha on #TheWalkingDead television series: it takes a hell of a lot of talent to flesh out a character from the comic book (with very little to go on) far more than even #RobertKirkman could've ever imagined! This episode provided us far more information on Alpha's motivations for becoming who she really is, regardless of how twisted they become, down the road.

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David Cameo:
Bridget Mason-Gray:

🎖SURVIVORS TIER MEMBERS:

Aliza:
Jasmine:

We take time at the top of our show to catch up with our SURVIVORS TIER MEMBERS: Aliza & Jasmine who haven't been with us for our breakdowns of Better Call Saul and the first two episodes of Tales of the Walking Dead!
Dave says it took him a few watches to really wrap his head around this episode!
Bridget says she had to go back and watch Season 10, Episode 2 of The Walking Dead, which offered backstory on the characters of Alpha, Beta, and Lydia.
Did you find this episode a little confusing in terms of the timeline? The final scene, where Dee meets Hera and The Whisperers, raises some questions about how well it falls into what we have previously learned about Alpha and Lydia.
Aliza also went back to TWD 10x02, then went on to research what the writers, directors, and Samantha Morton (Alpha/Dee) had to say about the timeline. She also said she watched this episode 4 times (talk about dedication!).
Aliza said that Dee opening the episode by saying "Let me tell you how I died" is remeniscent of "Call me Ishmael" from Moby Dick.
Dave says this episode finally allowed him to understand Alpha's motivations as he thought a lot of her choices on The Walking Dead were fairly hypocritical.
Dave then compares Dee's transition to Alpha to Walter White's transformation into Heisenberg, over on Breaking Bad. Both characters started breaking bad for their families, but lose sight of their reasons, along the way. They end up embracing their alter egos to the point where that becomes their sole identity - or perhaps that's who they were always meant to be and the precise conditions needed to be met in order for their respective transformation to be realized.
Sherrandy sends in her take, since she couldn't join us in our episode breakdown: she thought the episode was good, but she had a hard time enjoying it because she isn't Alpha's biggest fan. She also found Lydia to be a little annoying.
Sherrandy also mentions that the rabbit Dee gives Lydia reminded her of the stuffed rabbit Maggie Rhee picked up in the subway tunnels during the first two episodes of TWD's 11th Season.
Aliza then brings up the stuffed rabbit that was in baby Gracie's crib, when she is found by Rick Grimes in Season 8, Episode 3 of The Walking Dead.
...that Daryl Dixon has a tattoo of a rabbit on his arm...
...another stuffed rabbit is found in a scene with Rosita Espinosa and her daughter Soccoro "Coco" Espinosa...
...she then circles back to the one Sherrandy mentioned: Maggie ends up dropping the stuffed rabbit she picked up, which Daryl steps on further into the episode.
Aliza describes rabbits as symbolic of innocence and a sense of security, which we see in characters like Beth Greene and, in this episode, Lydia.
...that there is always a stuffed rabbit that appears on the set of Talking Dead
Dave then brings up the bunny slippers on the Teddy Bear Girl Walker in the pilot episode of TWD.
Aliza then mentions a couple more examples: like how Leah Shaw's Reaper mask (on TWD) depicts a rabbit.
Dave jokingly says *SPOILER ALERT IF YOU AREN'T CAUGHT UP ON THE WALKING DEAD* "Well, who cares? She's dead anyway!" referring to Leah. I'm here to tell you! I still care, and I know Sherrandy does too!
[Editor's note: I care about Leah, too: I only meant "who cares" in terms of the concept of (her) innocence. Leah is, of course, not that innocent, but that we lose her in a manner that falls a little flat for all the rapid and complex character development she received, it's difficult to determine the degree to which she is innocent absent the screen time necessary to truly make that determination; we just didn't get enough time with a character that most of us felt was new and truly interesting, IMHO].
Aliza also brings up that when Daryl spends time with The Claimers in Season 4 of TWD, they spilt a rabbit.
Did we miss any other rabbit symbolism in the The Walking Dead Universe? Please tell us in the comments, below! I am going to share a couple more examples, some of which I stumbled upon while drafting this iteration of our blog! The only one that immediately jumped out at me as Aliza and Dave discussed it were the rabbits that Lizzie Samuels kills in the back half of TWD's 4th Season.
...when Michonne and Carl Grimes stumble upon a painting of rabbits.
A final example I found thanks to the folks over at TWDMusicBoxMystery was in a scene with Aaron and Gracie containing a plush rabbit in the background.
Can you tell we have rabbits on the brain? Dave asks if Sophia Peletier also had a rabbit, but it was actually a doll given to her by Eliza Morales. They also mention Sophia's doll having a name, which I believe they mistakenly attributed to Mika Samuels' doll, named Griselda Gunderson. Coincidentally, Mika's sister Lizzie named her walker friend Griselda as well.
Dave begins drawing parallels to Dee and Carol Peletier. He cites the conversation Judith Grimes has with Gamma/Mary: how Dee/Alpha just met the wrong people, first. Could Carol have gone down a similar path to Dee under a different set of circumstances and with a different team of people?
Samantha Morton (and some of the writers) have said that the flashbacks in TWD Season 9, Episode 10 are from Lydia's perspective, as a child who's memory has been compromised due to trauma. We are left to wonder how much of her memories are to be relied upon as a possible unreliable narrator?
Why do you think Dee joins the Riverboat community in the first place?
Aidan's Aside: While authoring this blog, I couldn't help but think about how thrilled Alpha would have been to have Lizzie Samuels as her daughter. They were definitely cut from the same cloth and if Lizzie had survived the early days of the zombie apocalypse, she could have gone down a very similar path. Had they worked together, where would Lizzie & Alpha be now? Could they have both survived/thrived?
Bridget suggests that Dee only joined the Riverboat Community as a way to manipulate Lydia into believing she isn't a monster.
Aliza suggests that joining the community is Dee's way of repenting for what happened in the basement (during the flashbacks of TWD 9x10) and the killing of her husband Frank.
Jasmine asks a great question: What was Brooke's motivation in allowing Dee aboard the riverboat community in the first place?
Bridget suggests that the main reason was probably for Lydia's sake. The children are our future.
Aidan's Aside: For those of you who weren't aware, the actress who played Lydia in TWD Episode 9x10, Scarlett Blum, reprises her role in this episode. Her sister, Havana Blum, played Lydia in Episode 10x02.
Aliza compares the music on the boat to the Titanic movie, which immediately made her think that this boat would sink!
Dave and Aliza talk about how they see Brooke and Dee as foils of one another. Both characters are trying to do things that they see as realistic ways to navigate this world, and though many aboard the boat are on board with Brooke's vision - to the point of Billy seizing that vision for himself - many outside of their groups (and, of course, the audience) see it as unrealistic.
Bridget brings up how Brooke is representative of many characters we've seen in The Walking Dead Universe who try to maintain a semblance of civilization, as we knew it: we can still have things like aerobics classes and polite social gatherings. The Commonwealth and the Alexandria Safe-Zone (prior to the arrival of Rick Grimes and company) tried to do the same thing.
Aliza points out Dee's acute ability judge someone's character. She immediately suspects Billy (the bartender) is bad news.
Do you think Billy's group might've had a connection to Hera's version of The Whisperers?
Dave compares Billy trying to take over the Riverboat community to Rick's confrontation with Deanna Monroe and the residents of Alexandra, during his breakdown.
Were you on Dee's side this episode? The episode seemed to have been constructed in a manner that might've gotten those of us who have been watching TWDU for the longest time to agree with Dee's point of view.
Aidan's Aside: Now that we know the flashbacks of Dee & Lydia in The Walking Dead were from Lydia's perspective, is it fair to say that Lydia's trauma was further compounded post the downfall of The Riverboat Community? Is it possible that we may see this further reflected, in some small way, during the final 8 episodes of The Walking Dead?
Does Dee/Alpha truly have love for Lydia or does she (eventually) view her as her property? Aliza brings up the time when Alpha slaps Lydia after The Hilltop exchanges her for Alden & Luke, "You call me Alpha, like all the rest".
Bridget brings up that Dee's backstory, killing her father at the age of 9 years, resembles that of Fear The Walking Dead's Madison Clark. In its third season, Madison reveals to her children, Alicia Clark & Nick Clark, that she killed her father when she was younger.
Do you see Dee as simply a survivor (of [her] circumstances)? Knowing what we know about Madison, can she be somewhat viewed similarly?
[Editor's Note: Remember when Carolina Gallardo (AKA O.G. SQUAWKING D, Carol G.) theorized how Alpha could've been played by Madison, herself? Check out this clip:]
Aidan's Aside: This conversation heavily reminds me of the time before Samantha Morton joined TWD as Alpha, when fans speculated if Madison Clark could become Alpha. Others also suspected it could be Anne/Jadis Stokes played by Pollyana McIntosh. Maybe including the detail about Dee killing her father was a fun wink from the writers to fans who held this old theory.
Aliza brings up Samantha Morton's real life history about living in foster care and how she has become such a major advocate of (orphans/foster) children in the UK today.
Bridget points out that Lydia is the same age, now, as Dee was when she killed her father. Did Dee feel as though she had to kill Frank in order to make Lydia as strong as her?
Where was Dee's mom when she killed her father? Is she trying to now fill the role of both absentee parents?
Had Sophia lived on, could we have seen her blame her mom, Carol, more than she would have blamed her father Ed Peletier, because Carol failed to stop his abusive tendencies enough to protect her?
Dave also brings up recently watching the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which features both Dan Fogler (Luke, from TWD) and Samantha Morton. Sam plays a character named Mary Lou, a foster mother who physically abuses the children in her care, which is fascinating when you consider her role as Alpha and her real-life past.
The team decides that because Lydia never truly became the person Dee wanted her to be, she ends up thriving under the care of our survivors on The Walking Dead, instead. It's not without its bumps and bruises, but it's definitely far less traumatic.
Please skip to this time in the video to watch Dave's Alpha impression!
Would you fund Aliza's efforts to start a sex hotline, where she just does Alpha voice impression? Honest answers only (meaning, yes).
Jasmine mentions how in Telltale's: The Walking Dead (video game), the characters meet a Whisperer named James, who helps them by using Whisperer masks to climb aboard a boat to retrieve some of their people who have been kidnapped. Could this episode, or even this series, contain more ties to the Telltale Games universe (even though it's canon is derived from the comic book)?
Could we potentially see a Clementine cameo or even episode featuring her in the second season of Tales of the Walking Dead? For those of you who don't know, she is the major protagonist of Telltale Games: The Walking Dead.
Bridget brings up an article that reveals how a crew member was injured during the filming of this episode.
Dave points out that Alpha wears Hera's face as her Whisperer mask (whom she regards as someone she loves, in the between-scenes narration/monologue), while it's revealed on The Walking Dead that Beta wears the face of the friend he made in the psychiatric institution, along with some of his clothing/accessories.
Rachael asks in our Discord (which you can join for as little as a dollar a month by going to Ko-fi.com/SQUAWKINGDEAD/tiers and joining a membership tier for as little as $1 /month) if there is some sort of initiation process for the Whisperers that Dee must undergo to receive her own Whisperers mask, which is the reason why she isn't using her own mask and is apart from Hera's Whisperers in TWD Episode 10x02.
Does Dee eventually bring Beta with her to overthrow Hera and The Whisperers at some point, after the events of TWD 10x02?
Dave questions if Beta's "friend" was more than just a friend. As a country music star, Half Moon, who was constantly in the spotlight, he might've felt he wasn't allowed to live as his true self because he was expected to be heterosexual (on top of all the other pressures of fame).
Was Dee in love Hera in the same manner as Beta and his friend, or were her overtures during her narration strictly towards the mask of Hera's face (rather than of Hera, herself)?
Aliza compares Dee's transformation into Alpha to Bruce Wayne's transformation into Batman. Putting on the suit completely alters his persona.
Bridget rebuts this by saying that Batman is the real persona and Bruce Wayne is the façade. The same can be said about Alpha and that Dee is her façade.
Like Aliza, are you craving more scenes containing the events that take place between this episode and TWD 10x02?
Aidan's Aside: In an interview with Showrunner Channing Powell, who also wrote the first of Alpha's flashbacks (Season 9, Episode 10), she reveals that she has plans for Alpha & Brooke if they are green-lit for Tales of The Walking Dead Season 2 or beyond. She also mentions that Dee sees Hera as a (potential) romantic interest, which Dave had also brought up during our coverage.
Aliza: Rather than choose the name of another Classics God/Goddess myth, Dee chooses the name "Alpha". Hera is the goddess of women, marriage, the hearth, and childbirth.
Bridget points out that Dee most-likely occurs around the same time as Evie/Joe and that, as far as the timeline is concerned, we are somewhere around Season 3~4 of The Walking Dead.
Dave compares Dee's situation to that of Phillip "The Governor" Blake. Dee had the opportunity to escape her trajectory, just like The Governor in Season 4 of TWD; however, they choose to double-down and fully - for lack of a better phrase - break bad.
Aliza: "She doesn't realize she is the eye of the hurricane, and the Alpha of the chaos". Dave: "Alpha was the It she was trying to save Lydia from and never realized it, even in death."
Special shoutout to Samantha Morton, Scarlett Blum, Lauren Glazier (who played Brooke), and everyone else on the cast and crew for creating another incredible episode of Tales of The Walking Dead!