5 Reasons Killing Off Beth Greene Was a Dumb Move for The Walking Dead

5 Reasons Killing Off Beth Greene Was a Dumb Move for The Walking Dead

Lindsay MacDonald Lists, The Walking Dead

Now that it’s been a good six months since what I like to call “the incident,” and we’ve all gotten a little distance, it’s time to look at one of TV’s most turbulent decisions of the year.

Killing off Beth Greene.

The Walking Dead has become infamous for cutting down characters in their prime (or when they’ve long outstayed their welcome) as a way to move the plot forward and keep the zombie apocalypse realistic. We can’t have everyone surviving all the time, after all. It’s the APOCALYPSE!

But was this particular death a good move? I’ve got about 65k people in my corner who would say, hell no.

Here are a few reasons why.

Beth Greene The Walking Dead

1. Shock Factor

As stated above, The Walking Dead likes to kill off characters to shake things up. But when you’re killing off a character simply for shock factor… doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Nothing gets shaken up, it’s just par for the course. Mid-season finales have become predictable in that someone inevitably sings their swan song simply because it’s the mid-season finale.

However, that’s not a great way to create an organic story, killing off a character because it’s “about that time again” instead of because that character’s arc has played out to its conclusion.

The worst part of it all is that Beth’s death didn’t drive the plot anywhere. It was barely mentioned before Tyreese’s death took center stage.

2. The Hospital Plot

Beth getting captured by Atlanta’s most corrupt police force presented an exciting change up to the group dynamic as well as a new set of survivors. Those survivors were then dropped like a sack of potatoes the second Beth bit the dust.

But, why? Why go through the trouble of introducing all of these new faces and stories if they’re just going to be mercilessly cut out of the narrative the second Beth isn’t around to make them interesting anymore? What was the point of developing them at all?

For the most part, Beth’s hospital plot felt completely separate — and completely useless — to the rest of the season, as if it were happening on an entirely different show. Not the greatest story setup.

3. Beth was a Survivor

I’m not talking about kicking ass and taking zombie names, though she eventually did get there.

I’m talking about way back in Season 2, when Beth was determined to die and slit her own wrists. Beth’s survival sent the message that depression and suicide are things you can get past. Something that a lot of her fans connected to on a deeper level.

She turned her life around after that attempt, becoming a support system for Maggie, a mother to Judith, and a friend (maybe more?) to Daryl. For someone who went to such a dark place to become a beacon of light and hope for so many other characters? If that’s not a survivor, I don’t know what is!

4.  Young Female Audience

People like to joke about rabid fangirls and Twi-hard Teens, but most of them don’t acknowledge that young female viewers are actually a wrecking ball of pure ratings power. Young women are drawn to genre shows just as much as men (maybe more), and you know what young women like to see on these shows? Representation.

Beth was the only young female character on The Walking Dead, ambiguously aged at around 19-years-old. For all that I adore Maggie and Sasha and what’s-her-face (Tamara? Tasha? Tara?) they are very firmly characterized as ADULT. There is no “growing up tale” to be told with them.

With no one left to relate to on the show, you have to wonder if the young female audience might look elsewhere for Sunday night programming…

5. Story Left to Tell

I can’t be the only one who thought Beth had about three seasons of story left to delve into, can I? Sure, I appreciate the symbolic meaning behind Beth’s death — people often die right in the middle of their story, not at the end of it — and how tragically beautiful that message is.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t think it was a damn waste of a good character and countless future story arcs.

What about her relationship with Maggie? Her something with Daryl? No follow-through on the fact that she practically raised Judith? Even her alliance with Noah was kind of interesting.

Come on, writers! There were so many doors left unopened! That’s not poetic; it’s just kind of lazy.

Lindsay is an associate editor for Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer, viewer, and internet addict. Her obsession with TV started with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and has been going strong ever since; current favorites include Scandal, The 100, The Walking Dead, and Arrow. She considers a perfect Friday night to be a joint-cuddle-session between an adorable puppy dog and her Netflix queue. Follow @lindsayjoane

17 comments

  • Yes Yes Yes. To every word written here.

    Well thought out and put together., perfectly succinct..

    Beth Greene deserved better.

  • This is spot on. This as a very poorly setup and executed story line. It made no sense in relation to the set up. Beth was just coming into her own and was killed in a stupid way. While very boring characters are still around. :-[

  • This is what I and many other people have been saying for six months. Thank you for publishing this. I’m still angry about it. There are so many things wrong with Beth’s death, and the article doesn’t even touch on the actual scene itself which was completely atrocious and not up to par with what we’ve come to expect from TWD. It was such a waste.

  • Yes! You said it all. Thank u for these great points, they are spot on. There was so much story left to tell instead of this recycled one. It wasn’t even shocking it was cruel and traumatic because of who this character was and what she endured. Beth Greene showed the viewers that being badass does not mean emotionally weak, unstable or morally compromised. She decided to live at all costs not just survive and was an inspiration to the audience as well as her walking dead family. They lost hope and most were on a downward spiral. One of the only characters to clearly hold onto his humanity was daryl, who spent the most time with beth. TPTB interrupted a strong survivor heroine arc and a classic romantic trope. Before we even got to the middle. Beth became confident in her physical strength and ability to survive through daryl. She also taught him to feel, see the good in himself and the world and that maybe he deserved this happiness. These characters possessed an underlying “u complete me” as we’ll as went out of their comfort zones for each other and accepted one another w out judgement. Beth was one of the emotionally strongest characters on the show. She was paired w one of the physically strongest as they learned from one another they allowed each other to grow and be the people they wanted to be. Two shy, introverted, heartwarming characters finding strength and love in that dark setting is a part of the human relationships that make the show interesting as opposed to just walking around and killing things. They need to have romantic and familial love to fight and live for. Beth showed us, daryl and herself that she could survive and live in that world but needed to show her sister, family and resume her caring relationship with Judith. There was nothing about her death that was acceptable. Writers must be true to their story but in doing so should consider the trust and respect of the audience. They did not follow through with the story they were giving us through the forshadowing, Easter eggs and symbolism which all pointed to a true survival story. Making the audience care and feel for the characters is good writing but angering and disrespecting them by manipulating a story or cutting it off at the knees is, in your words, just lazy. It was as if they forgot where they were going and thought we would forget too ,which insults viewer intelligence. No one got the benefit of meeting the new beth Greene which was a damn shame because she fought against all odds and deserved it. There was no payoff for the characters or audience for all the time invested in her story. In the history of TWD they never let a character go w out a burial, grave marker or knowledge of what happened to the body. There was no closure for fans or characters and both deserved so much better!

  • Well said. I agree with every single reason, and may I add one more. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, the decision to kill Beth off was definitely made in haste, not thought out, almost reactionary. What could the writers have been reacting to? 1. Norman Reedus fangirls upset their coupling with Carol was threatened. 2. The likability factor, the fact that a woman can’t be perceived as both emotional, physically fit and strong without requiring some sort of defecting of femininity. Beth did not rely on Glen (like Maggie) to drive her growth, or become a somewhat androgynous/asexual caricature like Michone, but she did have great emotional development and all of that was beautifully executed by a terrific actress Emily Kinney. And in return she is rewarded with the least ceremonious parting, an almost freezing of media coverage on her death after the finale night, cancellation of convention panels with her at the center and cold shoulder to her other artistic endeavors by almost everyone else involved with TWD. Very Hollywood, for a show that prides itself of coming from the Georgia backwoods.

  • I think they killed her because 1) Daryl, which is really lazy because basically everyone who Daryl loves or appreciates gets kill and it has become… ridiculous, to be honest. And 2) because of Carol.
    If you went to the comment section of The Walking Dead’s Facebook during the episodes where Beth was with Daryl, you could see plenty of people saying that they hate Beth because she was getting between Carol and Daryl.
    Carol has become a favorite too fast (seriously, I think she was like “meh” for the audience but then one episode later everyone were hyped about Carol), and with many people saying they would stop watching the show if Beth x Daryl ever happened… Well, I guess TWD decided to listen to their audience.
    (I’m still angry with Carol and I stop watching the show because fans justifying the murder of two innocent people EVEN when two doctors already told her that killing them wasn’t necessary, is something that I just can’t tolerate… What she did wasn’t “a bad need” it was pure evil.)

  • if anything all is wonderful but just stop with the whole, ohh beth and daryl. thats just messed up and wrong; just stop.

  • I just think they didn’t want Daryl to have a commitment so they could keep the fan base but they didn’t ever have to put Beth and Daryl together. I thought it would be great for the rest of the survivors to see how brave and capable Beth became and really see that story go somewhere. I think this is the worst written death of all the deaths on the program. It did nothing for the story line except introduce some strange Atlanta people who have now disappeared off the earth much like the cannibals.

  • I agree with this…I’m late to the story as we are watching it on Netflix. I waited for so many episodes for Daryl to find Beth. The episode with Beth and Daryl building a friendship and it turning into something more was one of the best ones I watched and was sick she was immediately taken. Then to find out 8-10 episodes later he finds her to only have her killed was ridiculous and horrifying! I felt so defeated as they aren’t giving anything for the viewer to want to watch. It seems so hopeless at this point. The writers REALLY got this wrong, wrong, wrong. I’m having a hard time now wanting to watch the rest of season five much less season six. Shame on them for not listening to the 65,000 viewers who absolutely felt so strongly about it they would take their time, like me who has never researched something like this before, to get them to change their minds. In their line of business they should know the fastest way to find an end to your show…piss off the viewing audience!

  • I agree totally. Well said and good to know from someone who has watched the series recently that is as big a shock as it was for those watching it as it unfolded. I keep thinking how interesting to see what Beth would have done is Alexandria and with Daryl and Maggie and the baby.

  • Now they are adding a character this season “who reminds the viewers of Beth”. Why not just keep Beth. When they had her speech with Daryl about how she’s not strong like Maggie and Michonne and how she wouldn’t be here and he would miss her, wouldn’t it have made more sense for her to survive because she had adapted and changed and even though she wasn’t Maggie or Michonne she had a different strength, one of growth. As a young person I think her character would show that they could actually adapt more as they were still developing when the zombie apocalypse came about.

  • I Agree with all of the above especially the young female audience paired with the fact she had so much story ahead of her, It was a pleasure watching her act and there was so much story and chemistry built up with Daryl, I was personally counting the hours until I could watch the next episode to see where things would go with them, It felt like a massive anti-climax and a huge rip off, I’ll be struggling to keep interested in the next episodes, I honestly think I’ve lost interest.

  • Kelly, same thing here. I am watching TWD for the first time and binged season 5 to see how Beth will come from this experience at the hospital, and how she and Deryl will be re united, since clearly they felt something for each other. Beth is the cutest innocent character, able to move Deryl to the core, making him smile and reflect on his own life under a new light. It is a shame. I just lost interest.

  • I really did think that Beth and Daryl could have gone somewhere. Most people found it gross but really it just showed us that Daryl really did care and wasn’t so distant. If the Daryl and Beth moments never happened Daryl’s character would be going no where.

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