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‘The Walking Dead’ Fans Need To Let Go Of Beth—And That Embarrassing Petition!

By Toni Matthews
Published on: 01:35 PST, Dec 10, 2014

On the mid-season finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead, there was a major character death that upset quite a few people.

Beth Greene, on the threshold of being reunited with her older sister Maggie, made the mistake of trying to stand up to Dawn by stabbing her with a pair of scissors.

The response was a gunshot to the head followed by her immediate death.

This is important for a couple of reasons.

First, it means she’s dead. And second, it means that she will not “return” to The Walking Dead as a zombie.

In other words, if things stay as they are (and they probably will), it means that Beth Greene’s character is absolutely dead on the show, killed off as a last minute surprise.

Second, this Walking Dead death deeply angered fans of Beth, who have made it a point to protest her demise in a rather unusual way.

Fans of Beth sent the Walking Dead producers a mountain of spoons to show that what happened to her mattered.

This gesture is well-meaning and would have been fine if these Walking Dead fans stopped there.

But no, in true “you don’t get how this show works, do you?” fashion, the tantrum moved into the predictable and embarrassing territory with the “demands” that The Walking Dead bring back Misery Beth.

The justification for this move is that Greene was “good” and that her story was “unfinished.” They say that Walking Dead producers have an easy out for correcting what fans of the show feel is a horrible, horrible mistake.

Earlier in the mid-season finale, we see character Carol Peletier unconscious in the background. Walking Dead fans feel that Beth’s death can be easily reversed if Carol is seen waking from her horrible dream. She and Beth can then leave as if nothing went wrong.

There’s just one big old problem with this theory: Carol was asleep in the background. We don’t see her waking from her own point-of-view with everything happening around her.

Also, please consider the fact this deus ex machina has been used before. MULTIPLE TIMES.

It’s a well-known plot device that is quite frankly far beneath The Walking Dead, a post-apocalyptic show set in a time and place where life sucks and people die.

Yes, that includes good people.

If goodness didn’t save Hershel Greene from his tragic fate, why the heck are we expected to believe it would be enough justification to save Beth?

“But Beth’s story isn’t finished!”

This is a matter of opinion, not fact.

We’re talking about The Walking Dead, not Peter Pan. It’s not enough to believe and clap your hands until the producers give in to your insulting demands and bring this ONE character back to life.

It’s an insult to the spirit of The Walking Dead, and it’s an insult to every other Walking Dead fan… especially those who lost their favorites and yet dealt with it.

Beth Greene’s death is upsetting in the way a lot of shocking TV deaths are. But there is a difference between the death of a character on The Walking Dead and an unexpected end to The Walking Dead itself.

If The Walking Dead were suddenly yanked off the air, that is when you get out your spoons, knives, and forks in protest.

But a somewhat popular Walking Dead character meeting her demise on a show where characters die every season? That’s just good (painful) television.

Beth Greene is dead, and The Walking Dead story will go on without her, just as it has after the loss of Shane, Lori, The Governor, and a host of other named and unnamed characters.

It may be hard for fans of this character to fathom that The Walking Dead can continue without her, but it can and it will.

Spoons or no spoons.

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