Part 2: Could this Character Make a Surprise Return to The Walking Dead?

Beth Greene, the girl who died too soon, the character whose death caused a massive upset with fans. A character whose death sparked a petition to be started calling for her to be brought back (You can sign it here). Her death caused a group of fans to band together who would later come to be called Team Delusional/Team Defiance, and for short, TD. The support behind Beth Greene’s character hasn’t wavered, and the belief among members of TD that she is still alive hasn’t faltered once since that fateful episode, “Coda,” aired. The evidence supporting the theories that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, soft-voiced character could survive only seems to grow everyday. In a previous post, which you can read here, I presented a few tidbits of evidence and things to question surrounding Beth Greene’s death, but there is much more to be discussed.

The Evidence

Where’s her body?

I touched on this briefly in the first article, but the truth is, the mystery of Beth’s body is perhaps one of the most compelling pieces of evidence surrounding Beth Greene’s supposed death. She was shot, Daryl carried her out of the hospital, and then her body seemingly vanished. There has been no mention of her body or of a burial. Nothing. Radio silence concerning what happened to Beth. All that we know is that the group left the hospital and a few weeks later they were in Virginia.

            “We bury the ones that we love and burn the rest.”

            -Andrea, 2.08, “Nebraska”

That statement has held true ever since Andrea first said it in season two after the walkers exited the barn. The group buries the ones that they love, or at least, finds some way to give themselves closure, and in doing so, giving the audience closure. Andrea herself was killed in season three, and while we never saw a burial, we did see her body covered by a blanket being brought back to the prison, presumably to be buried among the others that they had lost. Earlier in season three, when it was assumed that Carol Peletier was dead, a cross was erected in her memory and a Cherokee Rose placed by it. Closure. Closure is such a huge theme surrounding character deaths, and yet there has been no closure with Beth Greene.

The theme of closure has been highlighted even further in season six. Every character that has died has gotten some form of closure. In the season six premiere, we see Ron looking for where his father was buried. He needs that closure. Pete, a murderer, is buried. We see a grave for Eastman, the man who had acted as a sort of mentor to Morgan. We see the graves of the various people and walkers that Eastman has killed, including the man that he starved to death. Tabitha the goat even gets buried. In Alexandria, after the mission to detour the walkers goes bad, a memorial wall is set in place, the names of those lost written on it. After the Anderson family dies, we see headstones for them.

The importance of burials and being laid to rest is best exemplified in the character herself, Beth Greene, the girl who openly expressed the beauty that she saw in laying people to rest. From her time with Daryl in season four to her time in Grady in season five, Beth Greene refers to burials. “Can’t we bury him?” she asks Dr. Edwards as they go to the elevator shaft to toss a body down. Emily Kinney herself has even confirmed that she isn’t positive what happened to Beth’s body. “Well, they had to get out of there fast. I think Beth would have understood that,” Emily told Kate Nash in a “Stalking Dead” podcast (you can watch the podcast here.). Couple that with Andrew Lincoln’s quote: “The interesting part about the [Virginia] decision was that it was the only physical way they could honor Beth.”  So, no funeral for Beth. No burial.

The Walking Dead is great at saying goodbye to characters, except the one time that they didn’t…

Grady is Still Standing

Grady Memorial Hospital is still standing, something that is unheard of for our motley group of survivors. Every place that they have been has been destroyed in the wake of their departure.

• CDC: blown up
• Hershel’s farm: overrun by walkers, barn burnt to the ground.
• Woodbury: burnt to the ground by the Governor.
• Prison: fell after the attack by the Governor, fences destroyed, holes blown into the walls.
• Terminus: left in ruins and overrun by walkers.
• The church: overrun by walkers.
• Grady Memorial Hospital: still up and running with survivors living in it.

So why did Grady Memorial Hospital break from the normal trend of things? Places are introduced on The Walking Dead only to later be destroyed. Nothing lasts long, nothing stays standing…except Grady Memorial Hospital. The storyline surrounding Grady Memorial Hospital and the residents still calling it home was left open, it never ended. A working hospital in a zombie apocalypse equipped with medicine, medical equipment, and a doctor. If anyone were to survive a seemingly fatal injury, it’d be quite convenient that the injury occurred at a hospital and that the hospital wasn’t later laid waste to.

Clocks and a Music Box

The clock and the music box: two things that have become synonymous with Beth Greene amongst TD, and others within the TWD fandom. In the opening scene of “Slabtown,” the episode where Beth’s whereabouts are finally revealed, there are various close-ups of the clock in the room, each giving a different time or set of numbers:

• Little hand on 5, second hand on 4, or 5×4
• Little hand on 5, second hand on 7, or 5×7
• Little hand on 5, second hand on 8, or 5×8
• Little hand on 5, second hand on 10, or 5×10

The curious thing with the position of the hands is that the numbers can be translated into terms of episode numbers (5×4, 5×7, etc.) What makes this even more significant is that each number/episode number given is an episode in which Beth Greene appears, apart from 5.10 (more on that later, though…because that’s the best part of this one!) In episode four of season five, Beth wakes up in the hospital and learns more about Grady and the people living there. In episode seven of season five, Beth saves Carol. In episode eight of season five, Beth meets her “demise,” or so it should appear.

Now onto episode ten. Little hand on 5 and second hand on 10. But, you may be thinking, Beth Greene never appeared in episode 10, so clearly this isn’t a very convincing argument or very strong evidence. This may be true, but whether you realize it or not, Beth Greene still played a significant role in episode 10. It is in episode 10 that the music box appears, an object that has been confirmed to be a symbolic representation of Beth. All right, so I know that I still don’t have you convinced, but stick with me here.

When Carl gives Maggie the music box it doesn’t work. It’s broken. It is silent and doesn’t sing. Its music has been quieted. The music box is, in relative reasoning, dead. Cut towards the end of the episode. Daryl fixes the music box, or so he thinks. His explanation as to why it didn’t work?

            “Gearbox had some grit in it.”

Very curious selection of words there, Daryl Dixon. This statement is, whether intentionally or not, describing what happened to Beth. Gearbox = brain…what works and controls the body/object. Grit = bullet/what stopped the object from working. Still, though, the music box doesn’t work.

It isn’t until the very end of the episode when Aaron first appears that the music box begins to work, right after Aaron tells Maggie and Sasha that he has good news. It begins to sing again. The music isn’t dead. The song hasn’t ended. The music box is alive. The thing that is meant to represent Beth in the episode, the thing that was hinted at in episode four in the images of the clock, is suddenly revealed not to be dead.

            “I sing. I still sing.”

            -Beth Greene, 5.04, “Slabtown”

Unseen Filming for Season 5

This is something else that was briefly mentioned in the first article, but it is something that deserves further explanation. In case you weren’t aware, there are groups of people who go to Georgia every summer and sit outside of filming areas in hopes of catching sight of their favorite characters. Some of these people report back to spoiler sites, such as The Spoiling Dead Fans (TSDF), which is possibly the largest and most well-known spoiler group for The Walking Dead. During filming for season five, TSDF posted various filming spoilers, keeping track of the actors and the locations filmed. A select few of these locations and scenes filmed never made it to screen, adding to the speculation of what exactly happened to Beth Greene. So let’s jump right into these filming spoilers from season 5.

The white houses. They were used for filming from the morning of May 23, 2014 to the early hours of May 24, 2014. Multiple scenes were shot here and various characters were reported being there, including Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan), Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), and Tara Chambler (Alanna Masterson). There were also reports that Morgan (Lennie James) was possibly on scene. TSDF even reported that a blonde woman was rushed from a white van and into the house under tight security. This blonde woman was assumed to be Emily Kinney, aka Beth Greene. It was believed that scenes with Beth were filmed in these houses, but none of these scenes ever made it to screen…and that’s a lot of scenes to cut and a lot of time filming that was wasted…money wasted, too.

The exterior of the one house was worked on to make it appear as if it’s a house that’s been standing in an apocalypse. A metal door was used and the windows were covered with boards that had crosses cut into them. Walkers were spotted on location, and Tara was supposedly filmed taking them down. A Rottweiler was brought in for filming, something that the owner of the dog confirmed on Twitter, but the dog never made an appearance (And before you say that there were dogs in episode 10 of season five, a Rottweiler was not among them).

Further scenes were filmed that add to the curiousness of these seemingly forgotten filmed scenes. Emily Kinney, dressed in character as Beth Greene, was filmed driving a car out of Grady Memorial Hospital. Once again, this never made it to TV. Emily Kinney was spotted filming scenes with the group and by herself. But all of these scenes were cut.

So what’s the significance of this? How could this possibly indicate that Beth Greene survives? Well, to put it simply, some believe that these deleted scenes could be scenes that are meant to appear later in the series. It’s possible that these scenes were filmed during season five so as to not spoil Beth Greene’s survival…after all, with so many people keeping a close eye on filming; it’d be easy for Beth surviving to be spoiled. Film the scenes during a season that she’s still supposed to be alive and nobody will bat an eye.

Bonus (and a bit of speculation here):

           

The Bethfoot Photo.

Yes, you read that right. The Bethfoot photo, or so it has been dubbed by TD. The photo of a blonde woman that was taken during filming for season five. The photo that nobody knows for certain who is captured in it. All that is known is that it is a blonde woman. The picture was posted in the comments section of a TSDF post on November 18, 2014. The picture is at the set for the Alexandria Safe Zone, and the only other blonde female character at the time was Jessie. When asked on Twitter if it was her, Alexandra Breckenridge, who portrayed Jessie Anderson, stated that she didn’t know who it was. Fans have gone so far as comparing images of Alexandra Breckenridge walking and images of Emily Kinney walking in relation to the Bethfoot image.

Andrea Parallels

This one is a mixture of fact and speculation/theory. Beth Greene and Andrea Harrison, and the parallels between the two characters, specifically comic book Andrea. It has been confirmed that aspects of comic book Andrea have been split between multiple characters, such as Sasha being gifted with Andrea’s sharpshooter skills. Let’s break this one down a little.

SCARS

The injuries that Beth Greene receives while in Grady Memorial Hospital very much resembles the injuries that Andrea Harrison receives in the comics. Andrea’s wounds later become scars that become synonymous with her character and her appearance, something that comic book readers immediately recognize. During her stay at the hospital, Beth receives a long cut to her cheek and another to her forehead, both of which comic book Andrea have. So, it seems as if Beth has received these injuries, which, if she survived, would later become scars.

Shot in the head

Okay, so Andrea wasn’t directly shot in the head like Beth Greene was, but she was shot, and the bullet did skim her skull. In my previous article, I expressed how some fans believe that the bullet skimmed Beth’s skull instead of going directly through her brain. Either way, both women received a bullet to the head. One survived, the other may or may not have.

Other Parallels

There are many other parallels between TV series Beth and comic book Andrea. These things include pieces of dialogue, such as both women stating that they are strong, that they don’t die, etc. Other include their relationships with older men. In the comics, Andrea is romantically involved with Dale, a man who is much older. In the TV series, Beth Greene formed a close relationship with Daryl Dixon (this relationship has neither been confirmed nor denied as being romantic, but it was a close and intimate relationship…a friendship). Comic book Andrea fell from a bell tower, and Beth Greene was lowered down an elevator shaft. The visual images are there. The connections can be made.

 

Weigh in on the conversation with your opinions below, but remember, please be kind and respect each other’s opinions.