‘The Walking Dead’: Watch Shocking Whisperers’ Baby Scene

AMC published the most shocking scene from Sunday’s The Walking Dead 911, ‘Bounty,’ which sees a member of the Whisperers abandon her crying baby to be eaten by walkers.

The child was ultimately rescued by Connie (Lauren Ridloff), who was in turn rescued from pursuing walkers by Daryl (Norman Reedus), but the cruel act still managed to unnerve Walking Dead fans.

“As we were talking about the Whisperers rules and philosophy, we started to talk about a lot of different scenarios. Like, how do they handle children? What do they do if somebody is hurt? I think that they really have a very hardcore philosophy, which is survival of the fittest and you’ve gotta be able to make it work. Otherwise, it’s all over,” showrunner Angela Kang told EW.

“It’s really kind of the coldest cruelest version, and we thought: What if somebody has a baby and a baby cries? It’s the thing that Lori was scared of when she was pregnant with Judith. What happens when a baby cries? It’s just gonna bring the zombies. She really felt like you can’t survive, and here is a group of people who have taken that to the extreme.”

Worse still, Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton) exhibited a cold indifference when motioning to sacrifice the crying child, whose death would come as part of the group’s barbaric philosophy of survival of the fittest.

“What I really thought was so interesting and chilling about Samantha Morton‘s performance as Alpha there is when she looks back at the woman and literally just shrugs. Like, ‘Well, you know what to do,’” Kang said.

“There’s such a casualness to it that I think is so crazy, that I love so much. I thought that was such a brilliant acting choice on her part because there’s so many different ways you could play that moment. It’s scripted that she looks back, but it could be like a cold chilling stare, it could be she just shrugs. But I think that that’s right. I do think that for this group, they all know the deal, and their whole thing is that you have to stamp out your human emotions about it. You just have to do what you have to do so that the group continues to survive.

“So it’s a moment that I think is really interesting and it was interesting from the inception of it to how it ended up putting out on-screen. It’s definitely one of the more memorable moments that stands out in my mind. Of this thing that was a notion, that became this really chilling moment that is really cool because of the performances.”

The Walking Dead next introduces another merciless member of the Whisperers, Ryan Hurst’s Beta, in Sunday’s 912, ‘Guardians,’ premiering at 9/8c on AMC.