The Walking Dead's latest episode just wasted a perfect opportunity to kill off Alpha (Samantha Morton) and focus more on fighting Beta (Ryan Hurst), who is proving to be a more than worthy adversary for the main characters. Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom have been at odds with Alpha since season 9 of the AMC series, but the Whisperer War almost took a huge turn in Sunday's episode.
The Walking Dead season 10, episode 10, titled "Stalker", focuses on a pair of major battles. In one of the two storylines, Beta launches a bold, one-man assault on the people of Alexandria, forcing Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) to unite the people to prepare them to take him down. This culminates in a fight between Beta and Rosita (Christian Serratos), but Beta still gets away in the end. Meanwhile, Daryl (Norman Reedus) tries to ambush a group of Whisperers and ends up in a fight with Alpha herself. Both are badly injured and left hopeless. Suddenly, Lydia (Cassady McClincy) returns and shares a moment with her mother before ultimately fleeing the scene with a wounded Daryl in tow.
Lydia would be Alpha's downfall. That theory almost came true. Lydia could have killed Alpha while she was hurt - Alpha even asked her to - but Lydia ed on this opportunity because she couldn't bring herself to kill her own mother.
What would it have meant for The Walking Dead if it had killed off the season's primary antagonist with so many episodes still left to be aired? Though Alpha is the main villain, she's not irreplaceable, and her death could have been a big moment for the season. It would have propelled the story forward for several of its characters, particularly Daryl, Beta, Whisperers having a new leader in Beta, an opponent Daryl engaged in a brutal showdown with during season 9.
Losing Alpha wouldn't stop the Whisperers, nor would it lessen the threat they pose to the communities, given what viewers have seen from Beta thus far. In "Stalker", Beta demonstrates once again that he's the one to fear. Even though the Whisperers were created by Alpha, there doesn't seem to be any character on the show who believes in what the Whisperers stand for more than Beta. It was Beta who reminded Alpha of what was really important when she was struggling with Lydia's betrayal and absence. Beta's ruthlessness and devotion to his ideals indicates the Whisperers would be in capable hands if he ever were to become their leader.