In storytelling everything has a purpose, everything has meaning. Back in Season Two of The Walking Dead, the search for Sophia isn’t just about a group of people looking for a little girl, it’s about a group of people trying to decide what’s important to them. If someone falls behind do we just leave them, or do we risk the survival of the group for a single person?
So when (Season Five spoiler?) Beth died, I was unsettled not only by her death, but by the manner in which her character arc leading up to her death had been structured. Because I think it was poetic and a little sadistic. Here’s why.
1. Beth was a minor character until Season Four
Up until Season Four, Beth doesn’t really do much. She tries to commit suicide in Season Two and she is often the one taking care of Judith in Season Four, but there isn’t a lot there in terms of actual screen time, or effect on other characters, or the direction of the story.
2. They define Beth in tandem with Daryl, everyone’s favourite character next to Glenn
When we start to learn more about Beth and watch her grow as a character, it is in connection to Daryl who is one of the more popular characters on the show.
When Beth and Daryl escape the prison, Daryl has given up on anything past pure survival. He ignores Beth’s pleas to search for other survivors from the attack on the prison, they merely survive together in silence.
Gradually, Beth encourages Daryl to start living. By having her rejuvenate one of our favourite characters, we start to like Beth more.
3. Beth is the pure one. The pretty one.
Beth wasn’t a fighter. She sang hymns. She took care of Judith.
She has a very pretty face, which an audience is instinctively drawn to.
These are important things to consider. This is the kind of character that gets captured; that gets killed. Her death is symbolically a loss of innocence.
4. They spent a lot of time building Beth up.
Beth went from being a character with only a few qualities and little background to someone who was defined and growing each episode. When Beth was prisoner in that hospital, we spent several episodes largely focussing on just her; rooting for her to escape.
This is as much time as was spent on Maggie and Glenn trying to get back to each other and demonstrates a strong dedication to a storyline.
Walking Dead does a pretty good job of being economical with its storytelling. It shows you only what you need in order to understand the story they’re telling you, which is why they take that time and distance when Maggie and Glenn are separated, so that when they reunite you feel the breadth of that time apart and you’re as thankful as they are.
5. Poetry and sadism
Good poetry is designed to make you feel how the author intends. It’s a difficult thing to convey in only a few words, but it’s also difficult to convey over a series of television episodes with multiple themes and plotlines and actors.
And I believe that Beth’s death was poetic in the sense that, the show spent several episodes reforging her as a symbol of hope and then killed her just as she was about to be saved.
So why do this? All the previous deaths, Lori, Hershel, even the girls have their own purpose for the story that was being told at the time. Lori’s death is a turning point for Rick and Carl, Hershel is the death of reason, and the girls is more for character development for Tyrese and Carol.
I think Beth’s death is a specific manipulation to make us feel as helpless and hopeless as the characters in the story do. As if to say, “we’ve killed a lot of people, but now we want to kill something that matters.” And that’s hope. Like the hope that Beth brought to Daryl. The hope that Beth could be rescued and that Daryl could save her. That even in this world, hope can be protected and saved. That we can start to believe in a future for our characters. And the with Beth’s death the show creators are saying: “Hope is dead.”