‘The Walking Dead’: Who is Alpha?

The Walking Dead gave fans their first glimpse at Whisperer leader Alpha in action on Sunday night.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9×09 follow. Major spoilers!

In the closing moments of The Walking Dead‘s Mid-Season Nine premiere, the Whisperers’ leader stepped forward to take Alden and Luke as hostages. The moment was pulled straight from her first appearance in issue #132, though the verbage was changed a bit. In the books, Alpha first says, “Don’t move,” although the TV series had her telling the Hilltoppers their path leads here.

Alpha is a vicious a bald woman whose true name is never revealed in The Walking Dead comics. Ruthless in her ways, Alpha insists any member of her Whisperer group leave any signs of civilization, emotion, or attachments behind. Nearly anything goes when it comes to survival among the Whisperers which pushes the group in barbaric directions. Alpha’s daughter, Lydia, becomes a problem for both sides of the upcoming Whisperer War when she develops a relationship with Carl Grimes — a narrative which will be allocated to a different character given Carl’s absence from the series. This story will be remixed with other characters on the AMC series.

Alpha is played by Samantha Morten, with her daughter Lydia being portrayed by Cassady McClincy. Both characters debuted in The Walking Dead‘s Mid-Season Nine premiere.

The Whisperers are best known for their infiltration of the fair which took place among the Alexandria, Hilltop, and Kingdom communities in Robert Kirkman’s comics.

After the group became what Alpha deemed a threat, she kidnapped several survivors including a pregnant Rosita and King Ezekiel, only to behead them and placing their reanimated faces on spikes. These spikes would mark the Whisperer territory and serve as a warning to Rick which claimed he and his people are not allowed to step into Whisperer-land.

In the next few weeks, fans of The Walking Dead TV series will see a lot more of Alpha, including an origin story which was never unveiled in the comic book series.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season later in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.