‘The Walking Dead’: Alexandra Breckenridge Talks Getting Bloody And Rick Romance
Since last season on The Walking Dead, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) has been telling Alexandrians they need to step up their game and learn how to fight. The invasion of the Wolves last Sunday in “JSS” proved him right, and at least one character, Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge), stepped up on The Walking Dead and showed she’s got game. Breckenridge recently spoke with EW about that bloody scene and the possibility of continuing the romantic tension with Rick as Season 6 of The Walking Dead progresses.
“I was happy that my character actually got it together, and her fight-or-flight kicked in and she’s desperate to save her family.”
That’s putting it mildly for any Walking Dead fans who saw the episode. Jessie got medieval on that feral female from the Wolves, stabbing her repeatedly till her kitchen floor was nothing but a bloody mess, with her son bearing witness to the carnage. It was definitely a brutal “Mama Bear” moment.
Breckenridge told EW how she prepared for her most gruesome scene since joining the cast of The Walking Dead, focusing on the part of herself that is insecure and pretending that she was attacking her own “demons.” Breckenridge also felt that her character, Jessie, was doing the same as well as fighting the physical threat and defending her family.
“All of the emotion that has been built up in her for so many years in this environment and with what’s taken place is being unleashed on this woman in that moment. I think it’s pretty obvious that she just goes crazy. And for her it’s just ‘I will not let this take me down. I will survive. I will become a fighter.'”
“I will become Carol,” as many Walking Dead fans would say, taking a lead from the first abused housewife of The Walking Dead, who proved again this episode she is the smartest and most lethal person of the group. The damage done by the Wolves would have been much greater if Carol (Melissa McBride) hadn’t donned her Wolves disguise to defend the armory.
The other battle facing Jessie now on The Walking Dead is the romantic tension she feels for Rick. On the good side, her husband is now out of the way after he killed Reg (Steve Coulter). On the bad side, Rick is the one that killed him, although it was justified homicide. This sort of complicates things for any kind of romance between Jessie and the man who killed her sons’ father. But does Jessie still have some lingering romantic thoughts about the alpha male of The Walking Dead?
“She has underlying feelings for him. But given the circumstances, she’s not really paying much attention to that… within a couple of days she has to get over the loss of her husband and all of what that means and become the strongest she’s ever been in her life so that she can fight for her family and protect her children. So she is grateful to Rick for opening her eyes in that way, but she’s not thinking about him romantically now. Her concern is to learn how to use a gun, learn how to defend herself, so that she can become the strongest.”
It looks like there are no immediate plans on The Walking Dead for a Rick and Jessie hook-up, and the long-term prospects look pretty dim, as well. Regardless of her feelings for Rick, Jessie will have a hard time overcoming her sons’ resentment of Rick for killing their dad for any kind of Walking Dead romance.
The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC.
[Image via AMC / The Walking Dead]
