Spoilers below for the most recent episode of The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead gave fans the rare villainous tag-team in Season 10, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan skipping out on Alexandria in order to join up with Alpha and her Whisperers. The combination was enjoyable, and Negan seemed to be getting his kicks while fire-bombing Hilltop. But then Alpha went and told him he was killing people incorrectly, and nobody puts Baby in a corner – errrr – nobody tells Negan that he's using Lucille wrong, and by the episode's end, Negan had shockingly slit Alpha's throat and then decapitated her.
Of course, it turned out that Negan was working with Carol all along in a plot to take out Alpha. But while Negan might be pleased with himself for his duplicitous actions, star Jeffrey Dean Morgan himself is sorry to see co-star Samantha Morton leave the show, and said as much in a gloriously gnarly social media post. Check it out below.
Not gonna lie, Alpha's disembodied head in this picture is as spooky as anything in The Walking Dead proper this season. That black-and-white filter is everything here. Is it too soon to start clamoring for the show's merchandising team to release Alpha's B&W head as a paperweight? The glasses would be optional, but I kinda dig them for making those cloudy eyes all the more piercing.
Sounds like Jeffrey Dean Morgan was a little bummed to lose Samantha Morton at that point in the season. Which is completely understandable, since Negan spent a long time alone in a cell, with only the occasional visitor coming by. Which obviously meant the actor himself would go stretches without very much collaboration with his fellow co-stars. That definitely changed when he was let loose with the Whisperers, though, and Negan got his big-boy swagger back, though an evolved version from his previous state.
As weird and splendidly perverse as that particular coupling was, Negan and Alpha were quite unique within The Walking Dead's ranks. Negan hadn't really had anyone lust for him since Lucille, since most of his Savior-related relationships were forced upon his "wives." Likewise, Alpha maintained something of a celibate life as a Whisperer, and her kinship with Beta was firmly rooted in power, but not anything sexual. Now, Negan's got all the head he needs, amirite?
Ever the gentleman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan didn't specifically want to put out spoilers for anyone who hadn't seen the episode yet, but he couldn't very well let this opportunity pass, given Greg Nicotero's amazing handiwork. At least Morgan waited longer than the Live + 3 Day DVR ratings measure, which is the window when ratings are highest, so the majority of hardcore Walking Dead fans had probably already tuned in.
It doesn't look like Beta and the other Whisperers' response to Alpha's beheading will be revealed very soon, since the next episode seems to be wholly centered on showing viewers what Michonne has been up to since heading out with Kevin Carroll's Virgil with the goal of securing a bunch of weapons. (And also includes a weird flashback involving Laurie Holden's Andrea, somehow.) But let's just say that when Beta does discover what happened to Alpha, Negan had better hold on to his own head if he wants to survive the rest of the Whisperers War.
The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET. While waiting for more episodes, check out how former star Chandler Riggs thinks the show is going to end.
