Major spoilers about last night's episode of The Walking Dead!
Those who stuck around to watch Talking Dead after last night's mid-season finale of the AMC zombie drama saw Emily Kinney get rather emotional when talking about her exit from the series. Check out the video below, and if you're a sympathy-cryer, grab a tissue...
Emily Kinney plays -- or played -- Beth on The Walking Dead. The character made her grand and horrible exit during last night's "Coda," moments after she stuck a pair of scissors into one of the season's villains. The video above shows Emily Kinney discussing her feelings about leaving the show, and what gets her choked up is not so much what happened to Beth, but coming to grips with leaving Atlanta behind. "I have a whole life in Atlanta," Kinney explained. "We all moved there and worked there and..." Tears.
What's a mixture of funny and sad about the whole thing is the way her own tears seem to catch her off guard, as she jokes that she was going to try to wait until the end to cry.
We often hear TV casts talk about how close they are, but that seems more evident from some casts than it does for others when you see them together, or when they talk about one another. In the case of The Walking Dead, they do seem like a pretty tight-knit cast, and working in Atlanta, as opposed to Los Angeles, it's probably a lot less likely that they'll get to see much of the cast members who exit the series.. unless they find another job that shoots in Georgia. As Kinney tearfully told TVLine, she's "basically lived on and off in Atlanta for four years." That's long enough time to form a deep attachment to the location and to the people she worked with.
When talking to TVLine about Beth's exit, Kinney shared some interesting insight into her character's mindset leading up to her last episode...
She started to become fearless, like, “I could die at any moment! Whatever!” She would rather be the person she wants to be, strong and fighting for herself, then play the game. She didn’t have anything to lose.
Well, she certainly went out fighting for herself, and her people.
Last night's episode of The Walking Dead really went straight for the heart, providing more than a few reasons to get choked up. In addition to the gut-wrenching shock of seeing Beth get shot in the head, there was this...
And then this...
Not to mention this...
And finally this...
Because if seeing Daryl go from mad to sad to carrying Beth weren't enough, we get to see Beth's sister Maggie go from excited/relieved to completely devastated in just a few steps. I finished watching the episode while wiping my eyes, only to find myself sympathy-crying when Kinney tried to talk about leaving the show during Talking Dead. Too many feelings.
The Walking Dead returns in February for the second half of Season 5. Catch the latest trailer here.
