The Walking Dead Star on Saddest Part of Shocking Death

The Walking Dead star Samantha Morton speaks out on Alpha’s death at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in 1012, “Walk With Us,” where audiences learned Alpha’s murder was arranged by archenemy Carol (Melissa McBride). Believing Negan was taking her to captured daughter Lydia (Cassady McClincy), who defected from the Whisperers before assimilating into the Alexandria community home to Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), Alpha was betrayed when she was marched to an empty shack where Negan slit her throat before taking her head. For Morton, the “sad thing” about Alpha’s death is she never again saw her daughter after their last meeting in 1010, “Stalker,” where Lydia rejected her mother for the last time.

“I think her downfall was her mental health issues. She’s had whatever happened to her in the apocalypse, and the choices that she made to survive, and for Lydia’s protection,” Morton told EW. “In a way, the way that I played it was almost like, imagine your child goes and joins ISIS. The way that Alpha feels about how human beings are choosing to live post-apocalypse is so alien to her, like we messed that up the first time, and it didn’t work. We need to get back to nature.”

Despite Alpha’s attack against the communities that slaughtered nearly a dozen victims in Season 9 episode “The Calm Before,” Morton says the territorial Whisperers kept to themselves before they killed a trespassing Jesus (Tom Payne) in Season 9 episode “Evolution.”

“You have to remember that the Whisperers were minding their own business, they were just living in the woods minding their own business. They didn’t start the trouble, they didn’t kill anyone first. They’re quite tough and cult like, and they’re quite ruthless, but they were just minding their business,” Morton said. “I think Alpha’s downfall ultimately was her daughter, and her protection for her daughter, and the secondary madness that came into her brain because of that.”

Alpha’s downfall can also be attributed to her unprecedented relationship with Negan, who was the first Whisperer to be intimate with the pack leader. As she told him in “Walk With Us,” Alpha wanted Negan to “become a lion” and “build a new pride” continuing the Whisperers.

“She definitely thought that she had a new leader in Negan when she realized that Lydia wasn’t going to become another Alpha, and she was thinking about in her mind some suicide pact, that Negan would take over because she can’t trust Beta in that way, that he couldn’t become the leader. She’s always known that about him,” Morton said of Beta (Ryan Hurst), Alpha’s ferociously loyal number two. “He doesn’t have it in him to be a leader, but Negan could be a leader of the Whisperers. But then it doesn’t happen that way, and she only finds out in that last moment when she turns and the room’s empty.”

For Alpha, her failing was not getting to “free” herself and Lydia, who she confessed she still loved.

“It’s okay, she gets it, because she’s not afraid of death. I mean, seriously, not afraid of death,” Morton added. “The sad thing for Alpha in that moment is that she didn’t get to see her daughter. If we’re going to feel sorry for Alpha at all, it’s because she didn’t get to say goodbye in the way that she wanted to.”

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