Beth Greene | |
---|---|
The Walking Dead character | |
First appearance | "Bloodletting" (2011) |
Last appearance | "People are a Resource" (2023) |
Created by | Glen Mazzara |
Portrayed by | Emily Kinney |
In-universe information | |
Occupation | High school student Farmhand Dawn Lerner's Ward at Grady Memorial Hospital |
Family | Hershel Greene (father) Annette Greene (mother) Maggie Greene (half-sister) Shawn Greene (half-brother) Arnold Greene (cousin) Glenn Rhee (brother-in-law) Hershel Rhee (nephew) |
Significant others | Jimmy Zach |
Beth Greene is a fictional character from the American horror drama television series The Walking Dead , created by season two showrunner Glen Mazzara, and was portrayed by Emily Kinney. She is the daughter of veterinarian and farmer Hershel Greene and the younger half-sister of Maggie. Unlike the majority of the series' cast of characters, Beth has no specific counterpart in the comic book series on which the show is based. [1]
Described as a source of optimism and hope for the group, often singing to help boost morale, Beth is soft-spoken and a devout Christian teenager. [2] After the loss of her mother, Beth attempts suicide but ultimately chooses to live. During the initial outbreak and beyond, Beth is a sheltered girl, but is eventually forced into hard laboring survival after the downfall of the prison, a place that had been a safe haven. She forms a close bond with fellow survivor and group member Daryl Dixon. Her final arc revolves around being held captive under the service of Officer Dawn Lerner in Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, and the subsequent efforts of Rick's group to find and rescue her become the primary driving force behind the first half of the fifth season.
Beth's character arc in the series has garnered acclaim from television critics, who praised her strong characterization, colorful story arc, and relationship with Daryl Dixon. Numerous television journalists have cited Beth Greene as one of the series' best and finest characters. Emily Kinney received a nomination from the Saturn Awards for "Best Supporting Actress on Television" in 2015 for her performance during the show's fifth season, losing to fellow costar Melissa McBride. [3]
Beth Greene is Hershel's (Scott Wilson) second daughter and Maggie's (Lauren Cohan) younger, half-sister. She is introduced in the second-season episode "Bloodletting", alongside her family and boyfriend, Jimmy (James Allen McCune) when Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his group come to the family farm. Along with her family, she believes members of her now reanimated family to be sick, until the events of the mid-season finale "Pretty Much Dead Already" where she is forced to watch the undead her family kept in the barn get shot, and in the episode "Nebraska", her own reanimated mother being put down after attacking her. This event drives her nearly to suicide in the episode "18 Miles Out", but she decides to live. After the group are forced to leave the overrun farm in the second-season finale "Beside the Dying Fire", in which several of her loved ones, including her boyfriend are killed, she is forced to deal with the apocalyptic world.
Beth becomes more self-assured and becomes a contributing member to Rick's group. She sings to help boost morale and spreads optimism among her survivors upon finding a place to live at the prison in the third-season premiere "Seed". When Hershel's leg is amputated after a walker bite in the episode "Sick", Beth chides Maggie for being pessimistic about his chances of survival. Beth devotes much of her time to assisting Hershel throughout his recovery, and also becomes a caretaker for Judith after Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies)'s death in the episode "Killer Within".
Beth has developed a relationship with one of the prison newcomers, Zach (Kyle Gallner). When he is killed in a walker attack in the season premiere "30 Days Without an Accident", she quietly accepts his fate. She opens up to fellow survivor Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) about this loss, and proclaims she doesn't cry anymore. In the episode "Isolation", Beth continues to attempt to repress her sadness to Maggie when the deadly virus at the prison spreads, infecting Glenn (Steven Yeun) and endangering Hershel, who goes to the sick ward to help. During the Governor's (David Morrissey) attack on the prison in the episode "Too Far Gone", Beth and Maggie watch in horror as Hershel is decapitated during the battle, then the sisters are separated and Beth flees with Daryl. In the episodes "Inmates" and "Still", Beth and Daryl travel alone together, where the two come into conflict over the likelihood of other survivors. Beth confronts Daryl on his emotional detachment, forcing him to open up and show faith in the other people who could still be alive. He begins to teach her how to use a crossbow in the episode "Alone" where the two have found a mutual respect for one another. However, this newfound bond is quickly disrupted by walkers swarming the house, forcing her to escape outside where she gets kidnapped.
Beth spends her time at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, starting with the fifth-season episode "Slabtown". She has been taken in by a group of police officers led by Dawn Lerner (Christine Woods). Kept against her will in a dangerous environment where she is mistreated and abused along with the other patients and wards, Beth devises a plan with Noah (Tyler James Williams) to escape, which involves escaping through the elevator. While Noah is successful, she finds herself caught fighting walkers and is eventually disarmed by the officers who find her. Later, Dawn shows signs of respect for Beth once she takes Noah's place as her ward but Beth openly tells her that she will find another way to escape. As Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) is wheeled into the hospital injured from a car accident in an attempt to rescue her along with Daryl, Beth devises another plan to retrieve medicine to save her life in the episode "Crossed". In the mid-season finale "Coda", a hostage exchange occurs when Rick's group, who have captured two officers, demand Beth and Carol back. The exchange runs smoothly until Dawn demands that she needs Noah back. However, the group protests. Dawn claims she needs Noah because Beth took his place and she needs him back. Noah reluctantly agrees as does the group until Beth hugs him goodbye before turning to Dawn. She tells Dawn she "[gets] it now", that her act of kindness was a masquerade in order to keep Beth under her subservient order. Beth defiantly plunges a concealed pair of surgical scissors into Dawn's shoulder, causing Dawn to reflexively shoot her in the head by accident, and in turn prompting Daryl to kill Dawn in retaliation. Daryl lifts Beth's corpse and brings her out in time to see that the other survivors have returned, which include Maggie who breaks down in tears seeing Beth killed after only finding out she was alive.
In the episode "What Happened and What's Going On," Beth is one of the few characters to appear in Tyreese's hallucinations, caused from a loss of blood from a walker bite. Sitting behind Lizzie and Mika Samuels, she plays a guitar while singing a song, assuring Tyreese that he will be okay. In his final hallucination, Tyreese notices Beth driving the vehicle he's in, who assures him once more that everything will be okay before he dies from blood loss. In the episode "Forget," Sasha revisits Beth's death in one of her flashbacks.
Beth is briefly remembered by Rick in several flashbacks when confronted with the idea that his friends could be killed by Negan's men, while also mourning the losses of Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee.
In Rick's final episode "What Comes After", Beth's voice is heard asking Rick, “What’s your wound?” during a lucid dream state. In a later hallucination, Beth's corpse appears alongside the corpses of Rick's friends and allies, both living and dead.
Although Beth does not make a physical appearance in season 10, a painting of the character can be seen in the Barrington House as part of a shrine built by Maggie in the episode "Morning Star." In the episode "Home Sweet Home," Maggie comforts Kelly by telling her a story about her sister, and later Daryl.
In the episodes "A New Deal" and "Outpost 22," Beth is seen in the form of flashbacks while Judith recalls prominent stories from her friend's pasts. In the episode "Rest in Peace," Beth is remembered by both Rick and Michonne Grimes when recalling both the living and the dead.
Beth appears in the form of photographs in The Walking Dead: Dead City . Several years after defeating the Commonwealth, Maggie and Negan reside in a deserted New York. At one point, Maggie goes through an old box consisting of photos of her family, with several of the photographs including Beth.
Beth Greene has been featured in several spin-offs, video games, and other works outside The Waking Dead television universe. The character is featured in the 2015 mobile game The Walking Dead: No Man's Land as a playable character. Beth is also featured as a playable character in The Walking Dead: Our World, which utilities her appearance from season 4. Both video games use archive footage of Emily Kinney from the television series. In 2023, Beth was featured as a main character in The Walking Dead: Destinies , which focuses on a retelling of the show's first four seasons. [4] In the game, Emily Kinney reprises her role as the character.
For merchandise, several trading cards depicting the character have been released over the years, manufactured by Topps, Crytpozoic, and Rittenhouse Archives. Based on her season 5 appearance, Beth received a collectible statue by Eaglemoss in 2015. In 2016, McFarlane Toys based an action figure on her appearance in the season 4 episode "Alone." [5] A vinyl Mystery Mini figure by Funko depicting a hospitalized and scarred Beth was released in 2016, with a rarity ratio of 1/36.
Emily Kinney was cast as a recurring character in Season 2 of The Walking Dead, where she portrayed Beth Greene. [6] Beth is introduced as the 16-year-old sister of Maggie Greene, while Kinney was 25 years old at the time of casting. [7] The second-season episode "18 Miles Out" deals with the aftermath of Beth's suicide attempt. IGN 's Eric Goldman commended the development presented in the episode; "While there's no denying that Beth was pretty much a non-entity until this episode, I did like a lot of her material here with Maggie—especially when Maggie said she couldn't handle another funeral and Beth told her, 'You can't avoid it,' which is of course a very sad, very true statement, given the circumstances they're in." [8] Gary Roszko of The Huffington Post affirmed that Beth's interactions with Lori were clichéd, comparing it to "an after school anti-suicide special". [9] New York 's Starlee Kine was much more pessimistic about the storyline than the general consensus and assailed the melodramatic nature of it. "We just aren’t going to care about the potential death of a character we don’t know," she iterated. [10] "Or if it refused to learn that lesson, maybe it could’ve then learned this one: We are very tired of watching survivors of a still undefined and non-wondered-about apocalypse talk other survivors into not giving up." [10]
After being on the show for two years, Kinney received a promotion to series regular for season 4, along with Chad Coleman and Sonequa Martin-Green. [11] The fourth-season episode "Still," which focuses only on Beth and Daryl, garnered praise in particular from television commentators, with viewers of the series having shipped Beth and Daryl as a couple. [12] [13] [14] Writing for IGN, Roth Cornet commended the "Still" episode, stating that "Daryl and Beth revealed themselves to be more perfect a fit than any of the other combinations" and that "[t]hey brought out a raw honesty in one another that yielded what were some of the most grounded and engaging character moments of the season. They are two sides of a coin, and that's not something that had been entirely clear prior to this entry." [15] She additionally commented positively on Kinney's acting, saying it was: "...the strongest acting we've seen from Emily Kinney, particularly in that final exchange on the porch." [15] Kinney said that the show was never clear on whether Beth and Daryl had a romantic or brother-sisterly connection, but that "it was a situation where they were getting to know each other. First, they were just trying to get along" because they did not see "each other's point of view very well" and, later, "as the story went along they maybe became friends" and "it started to sort of go, 'Oh, what more could this be? Could it keep going into something else?'" [13] In his review for Grantland praising the fifth season as a whole, Andy Greenwald had particular praise for the characters of Beth and Tyreese, citing their newly established complexities and character evolution in the fifth season. [16]
Regarding Beth's death, critics agree that Dawn did not intentionally shoot her, and that it was rather an accident or a matter of reflex, commenting on Dawn's surprised expression at the trigger having been activated. [17] [18] [19] [20] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix stated that because the season had mostly neglected that Maggie and Beth are sisters, Beth's death in "Coda" does not have the emotional impact it could have when Maggie breaks down in grief at the sight of Beth's lifeless body. [21] Matt Fowler of IGN said that although Beth's death was predictable, it "felt like a big moment and it's always wrenching to see other characters react to the death of their loved ones" and that although he liked Beth, he "still mostly felt bad about her death because Daryl and Maggie (who seemed to have to be reminded this week that Beth being gone at all was a topic she should care about) felt bad about it." [22] Fowler ultimately gave the episode a 7.6 out of 10. [22] Kinney said she understood Maggie not expressing much concern about Beth's whereabouts because it is "a world where they're losing people a lot. And if you're going to survive, you can't sit around mourning for very long," and that Maggie likely had unseen moments where she worried about Beth. [13] Zach Handlen of The A.V. Club stated that the episode ends in "a shocking finale which reminds us that, whatever else it's learned, the show still hasn't given up on its most beloved trick: killing people because it can. Beth's sudden death was a shock, no question, although I imagine some viewers were expecting just such a gut-punch." [23]
Rob Bricken, writing for io9 , commented negatively on Beth's death. He criticized the deaths of Dawn and Beth as a "wasted opportunity", citing the "childish, ridiculous logic" Dawn had for demanding Noah back even though she had "zero leverage", and Beth's "inexplicable, dumb decision" to stab Dawn in the shoulder. He wondered:
So what the hell was [Beth] trying to do? Get Dawn killed indirectly? Free the hospital from her idiotic non-control? Commit suicide by idiot? Whatever she was trying to accomplish — presumably getting rid of Dawn in some manner — weren't there many, many other ways to do it that didn't involve her almost certainly getting shot or potentially turning the hostage trade into a bloodbath? We'll never know, because Beth is dead. [20]
For her performance as Beth in the fifth season, Kinney was nominated in 2015 for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television. [3]
The Governor is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists from The Walking Dead comic book and television series. On television, he was portrayed by David Morrissey. Created by Robert Kirkman and artists Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn, the character made his comics debut in The Walking Dead #27 in April 2006 and his television debut in season 3. In both series, the Governor is the ruthless, charismatic leader of the town of Woodbury, Georgia, who comes into conflict with protagonist Rick Grimes and is responsible for the deaths of several primary characters. The Governor's origins are explored in the novel The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor, written by Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga.
Carol is a fictional character from the comic book series The Walking Dead, and the television series of the same name, where she is portrayed by Melissa McBride. Carol is introduced in the third issue of the comic's first volume, "Days Gone Bye", and the third episode of the first season of the television series, as a meek housewife and mother of Sophia at the survival camp in Atlanta, Georgia. Her arc in the television series was described as a "hero's journey" by executive producer Scott M. Gimple, having made many difficult decisions in order to survive.
Glenn is a fictional character from the comic book series The Walking Dead, in which he is known simply as Glenn. He was portrayed by Steven Yeun in the television series of the same name and voiced by Nick Herman in the video game of the same name.
Maggie Rhee is a fictional character from the comic book series The Walking Dead, portrayed by Lauren Cohan in the television adaptation of the same name.
Tyreese is a fictional character from the comic book series The Walking Dead and was portrayed by Chad Coleman in the American television series of the same name. He is a prominent character in both mediums, acting as group leader Rick Grimes' right hand man in the comic book series, up until the end of "Made to Suffer".
"The Suicide King" is the ninth episode and mid-season premiere of the third season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead. It was directed by Lesli Linka Glatter and written by Evan Reilly, and aired on AMC in the United States on February 10, 2013. The episode's first airing was the most-watched episode of the series and beat several ratings records for a basic cable series.
Sasha Williams is a fictional character from The Walking Dead, an AMC television horror drama series. The character was created by Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead comic book series which the show is based on and in which Sasha has no counterpart.
The fourth season of The Walking Dead, an American post-apocalyptic horror television series on AMC, premiered on October 13, 2013, and concluded on March 30, 2014, consisting of 16 episodes. Developed for television by Frank Darabont, the series is based on the eponymous series of comic books by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. It was executive produced by Kirkman, David Alpert, Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, Tom Luse, and Gale Anne Hurd, with Gimple assuming the role of showrunner after Glen Mazzara's departure from the series. The fourth season was well received by critics. It was nominated for multiple awards and won three, including Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series for the second consecutive year, at the 40th Saturn Awards.
"30 Days Without an Accident" is the fourth season premiere of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on October 13, 2013. The episode was written by Scott M. Gimple, the series' new showrunner, and directed by Greg Nicotero.
The fifth season of The Walking Dead, an American post-apocalyptic horror television series on AMC, premiered on October 12, 2014, and concluded on March 29, 2015, consisting of 16 episodes. Developed for television by Frank Darabont, the series is based on the eponymous series of comic books by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The executive producers were Kirkman, David Alpert, Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, Tom Luse, and Gale Anne Hurd, with Gimple as showrunner for the second consecutive season. The fifth season received widespread critical acclaim. It was nominated for multiple awards and won three, including Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series for the third consecutive year, at the 41st Saturn Awards.
"Isolation" is the third episode of the fourth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on October 27, 2013. The episode was written by Robert Kirkman and directed by Dan Sackheim.
"Too Far Gone" is the eighth episode and mid-season finale of the fourth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on December 1, 2013. The episode, written by Seth Hoffman and directed by Ernest Dickerson, shares its title with the thirteenth volume of the comics.
"Inmates" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on February 16, 2014. The episode was written by Matthew Negrete and Channing Powell, and directed by Tricia Brock.
"Still" is the twelfth episode of the fourth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on March 2, 2014. The episode was written by Angela Kang and directed by Julius Ramsay.
"Alone" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on March 9, 2014. The episode was written by Curtis Gwinn and directed by Ernest Dickerson.
"Us" is the fifteenth and penultimate episode of the fourth season, and 50th episode overall of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on March 23, 2014. The episode was written by Nichole Beattie and Seth Hoffman, and directed by Greg Nicotero.
"Crossed" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on November 23, 2014. It was written by Seth Hoffman and directed by Billy Gierhart. In the episode, Michonne and Carl Grimes stay at the barricaded Church with Gabriel Stokes as Rick Grimes and the others go on a rescue mission for Beth Greene and Carol Peletier in Atlanta. The episode received generally positive reviews, though most noted the set up for the mid-season finale. This is the first episode to feature all credited series regulars for the fifth season.
"Coda" is the eighth episode and mid-season finale of the fifth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on November 30, 2014. The episode marks Lennie James's second uncredited post-credits appearance in the fifth season as Morgan Jones. The episode was written by Angela Kang and directed by Ernest Dickerson.
"What Happened and What's Going On" is the ninth episode and mid-season premiere of the fifth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on February 8, 2015. It marks Chad L. Coleman's final appearance as series regular Tyreese. It also features several appearances from deceased characters in Tyreese's hallucinations. The episode was written by series showrunner Scott M. Gimple and directed by Greg Nicotero.