The Walking Dead Showrunner Teases “Epic” Carol and Alpha Scene

Carol (Melissa McBride) and Alpha (Samantha Morton) will have an “epic” face-off in The Walking Dead Season 10, according to showrunner Angela Kang.

“I mean, we’re gonna see some Carol-Alpha, and it’s gonna be awesome,” a giddy Kang said Sunday on TWD Season 10 Preview Special. “I’m just thinking about this scene that they have together which is just epic, that’s so cool. Yeah, there’s a little bit of a beef there.”

That beef, of course, is Alpha’s murder of Carol’s son Henry (Matt Lintz), whose decapitated head was used by Alpha when staking Whisperer territory. The sight was so traumatic it now haunts Carol in the form of graphic visions of her son’s mutilated corpse.

“When we saw her last in [Season] 9, she was absolutely devastated by the death of Henry and everyone else that ended up on the pikes,” McBride said on Talking Dead. “And I think she’s gonna feel maybe isolated a bit, gathering her bearings, perhaps fighting some feelings of vengeance. It’s some unexpected stuff from Carol. Unexpected and expected. Expect the unexpected.”

For Kang, pitting Carol versus Alpha is a means of exploring two mothers who have each lost their children: Henry was murdered by the Whisperers as revenge for his romantic entanglement with Alpha’s daughter, Lydia (Cassady McClincy), who defected from her mother’s cult to link up with Daryl (Norman Reedus) and the survivors.

“I’ll say that… it’s interesting, from a writing perspective, we’ve definitely been delving into just the duality of these two characters and the way that they’ve had certain paths in life and diverged, in terms of kind of what their philosophy of the world is,” Kang explained at San Diego Comic-Con.

“But they’re both two incredibly powerful women, who just happen to be on opposite sides of this kind of epic struggle that is happening between our people and the Whisperers. So there’s just some really cool stuff up ahead. I think Melissa is amazing, as is Samantha, so they are formidable forces to go up against each other.”

The Walking Dead Season 10 premieres on AMC Sunday, October 6.