The Walking Dead’s Samantha Morton on Alpha’s Transformation: “She’s Got Nothing to Lose Now”

Alpha has “nothing to lose” now that daughter Lydia (Cassady McClincy) has picked Daryl (Norman Reedus) and the survivors over the Whisperers, says star Samantha Morton, who explains the transformed Alpha created by the end of The Walking Dead 1010, “Stalker.” Alpha swears she’s “stronger than ever” after surviving a ferocious fight against Daryl and failing to convince Lydia to kill her and take her place as leader of the Whisperers, being reborn with a vengeance.

No longer needing to refrain from unleashing her walker horde against the communities harboring her daughter, Alpha reaffirmed the Whisperer mantra before telling her indoctrinated believers the horde will “butcher and consume” their enemies who must now prepare for war headed to Hilltop.

“Alpha fundamentally did not want her daughter to be living and raised with people that have such fundamental disagreements how to live,” Morton explained on Talking Dead. “So it’s not just about being a Whisperer or not being a Whisperer, it’s just that Alpha, since the apocalypse, just thinks that the way we live in society is so unbelievably wrong. And it doesn’t make any sense, and all the reasons that she has for that.”

When Lydia discovered a half-dead Daryl and Alpha in the gas station where their battle ended, she told her mother, “They’re human. Not perfect. Just human. That’s all I ever wanted. It’s what you never gave me.” Refusing to kill Alpha marked Lydia’s final rejection of her mother and her followers.

“To lose her daughter initially to the other group was awful, but then you find her scene in the gas station where Lydia makes the choice she makes,” Morton said. “I think at that point Alpha goes into a different head space of, it’s almost like when you’re fighting and you don’t think you’ve got any fight left in you, and you find one more breath, one more kick, one more push, one more punch. So for Alpha in that moment, she’s got nothing to lose now.”

“We are the end of the world,” proclaims Alpha and her Whisperers, their ranks now including a masked Negan, who will wage war on the Hilltop starting in 1011, “Morning Star.”

Daryl and the survivors have everything to lose, including Rosita (Christian Serratos) — temporarily relocated to Hilltop after suffering injuries in battle against Beta (Ryan Hurst) — as well as single dad Aaron (Ross Marquand), who helps defend Hilltop alongside Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Kelly (Angel Theory), Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), Luke (Dan Fogler), Jerry (Cooper Andrews), and King Ezekiel (Khary Payton).

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.