#i could also talk about every character arc especially daryls for about three hours each

[deathbypufferfish]

Need to be a walking dead stan for a second and talk about Norman Reedus's strange ass vibes that I love so dearly he's so babygirl

[bethgreeneishopeunseen]

She’s Waited at the Tunnel Gates

For over a year, it has been argued that Sasha was partially responsible for leaving Beth behind. All of this goes back to 4x01. In that episode, after the infamous “damn romance novel” line, she and Tyreese placed black crates with white crosses into the back of a car. Then after Coda she suffered a severe emotional decline, for obvious reasons, going so far as to have flashbacks in 5x13. One of these included her seeing Daryl carrying Beth’s body out of Grady (at 14:40: X). Her P.T.S.D. had also manifested as her being driven to put down walkers and to bury them. Then in 5x16 Gabriel accused Sasha of “sacrificing her” (X) (X), claiming that her brother was “apart of it.” Going by the flashes in 5x09, Tyreese was likely the one carrying Beth when the men were running with guns. Abe has also been linked to Beth, because of him being the heart of the D.C. mission, and because in the comics, he wanted to put Maggie down when she appeared to be dead. That plot point was referenced via an easter egg in Slabtown. Marketing has also tied Sasha and Abraham to a Beth walker that appeared several times leading up to season 6 and which appeared in AMC promotion (X) (X) (X). I consider them (Tyreese, Sasha, and Abraham) to be the Trinity of those missing 17 days, the three people most directly tied to Beth being left behind. 

Recently, @bethgreenewarriorprincess​​, @allatariel​, and I have been discussing the Trinity in relation to Beth’s return. Something we noticed awhile back is that Beth, Ty, Sasha, and Abe all had their names on the tunnel title card at one point or another. After Tyreese’s death, the tunnel card should have been removed, like Steven’s pocket watch card. TPTB update the credits as they go, yet they have kept the tunnel card, giving it to Abe/Michael Cudlitz intermittently in 5b before passing it to Sasha/SMG in season 6. Every character whose name has been on that card has died, except for Sasha.

Below the read more are potential spoilers for the season finale.

For a long time, I’ve speculated that Sasha would die. She and Beth have many parallels, from both losing their older brother and their two boyfriends, to being the recipients of several comic!Andrea traits/plot lines. Over the summer hiatus, I thought Sasha might commit suicide after Abe’s murder. It would make sense that she would die, closing the circle on the characters connected to the tunnel, bringing it back to Beth.

Well, two weeks ago reports came out that Sasha will possibly die in the finale, “sacrificing herself in a failed attempt to take out N3gan”. Even though TPTB claim SMG can film the Star Trek show and stay on TWD (X), it’s not likely, and show-people have lied before in order to keep a secret (X). 

(Source: X; pg. 1, 26)

The report of a dream/flashback sequence piqued our interest as Tyreese and Sasha’s deaths would bookend Beth’s resurrection. While Tyreese and Sasha aren’t twins, they are siblings and twin imagery was heavy in 5x09. It would close the mirror arc, allowing Alice to come back through the looking glass. Gimple has also been treating the seasons like religious days (X) (season 5 Good Friday, 6 Holy Saturday, and 7 should Easter Sunday), and so it would be one death per day. Tyreese died on Good Friday, Abe on Holy Saturday (as his death was presented via flashback in 7x01), and Sasha on Easter Sunday. Three die in the tunnel, and one comes back to life. The Trinity opens the door, since they were the ones who shut Beth in.

Furthermore, spoilers indicate that there will be a great battle in the finale, and it is the perfect opportunity for Beth to fully come back into the narrative. As Christy and I have discussed (X) (X) (X), Beth will likely come through the Alexandria gates as a mirror of Sophia’s death and the end of Coda. It goes back to the season six premiere, which was very meta with Emily arriving late to the event. She came in the middle, and she came to even out the girls’ side, even though TPTB could have used Tovah Feldshuh (Deanna).

 We have constantly speculated that Beth would return during a time of conflict. Andrea and Team Family discovered each other when Team Family infiltrated Woodbury, and Beth should as well, her arc mirroring Andrea’s. Beth also first disappeared from her family during the battle in 4x08. When it comes to Beth’s return, I keep going back to the music box’s resurrection. Maggie and Sasha were in a confrontation with a man from another group, and the music disrupted them. Beth's existence is a disruption in general, but her return will disrupt the entire narrative. If she returns in the finale, she will likely return during the battle, after Sasha’s death, and she will help Team Family fight the Saviors. It would mirror 4x16 and Rick reuniting with most of his family in Terminus, as the Savior arc has mirrored the Terminus arc. Rick having his family gave him the numbers he needed to escape Terminus, and Beth would be another ally he could use, especially if she has a group. In 6x10 he even remarked that “[t]he law of averages has gotta catch up”. Lastly, Beth returning at the beginning of the All Out War arc (AOW) fits the war themes/imagery that has been heavy in the show since season 5 and Morgan’s arc since Gimple (X) (X) (X). In # 47, Andrea returns to the prison during the Governor’s attack, riding atop the RV, shooting at his people. I could see a remixed version being applied to Beth.

Interestingly, the rumored dream sequence also relates to an interview Michael Cudlitz gave right before the season premiere (X). He gave two truths and a lie:

1) Every episode will be one hour long. 2) Myself, Daryl, Merle, and Hershel are going to go on an awesome adventure, and you'll be invited. 3) There will be sixteen episodes produced.

We know that #3 is true, and #1 isn’t, as some of the episodes have run into Talking Dead’s airtime. The writer of the article dismissed the second statement, chalking the interview up to “two lies and a truth”. The attitude comes across as presumptuous as the show has utilized various dreams, flashbacks, and hallucinatory techniques in order to illuminate a character’s psychology. 

Ghosts from the past went unresolved during filming for 5 and 6. Scott Wilson was spotted on set June 2014 and noted as acting by a fan; there was also speculation that Scott Wilson filmed with Emily last summer (X).

Scott was supposed to be at a con the weekend of June 19th to 21st, 2015 (X), but he canceled about a week before: “While Scott Wilson who played Hershel Greene on The Walking Dead was forced to cancel his appearance due to filming, there are still several great reasons to attend the 2015 Wizard World in Sacramento.” At the time he had nothing coming out in the near future, and he had season 2 hair and a trimmed beard. Christy uncovered eggs hinting that Beth would end up at a farm, and there is a missing farmhouse set from filming earlier in season 6 production (X). Emily’s This is War Tour had a weeklong gap from June 18th to June 24th (X), and while she was on the west coast at the time of the shows, she disappeared during the gap. She posted about the tour on June 18th, and on the 20th, she posted a concert latergram.

Source (X) (X).

Source (X) (X)

On the 21st, she posted a picture of a book, and reexamining the picture, something caught my eye. The flooring seemed familiar, so I reviewed other pictures Emily had posted. (While this could be a table, she photographed objects she placed on a floor before: X. Emily is very sneaky when it comes to social media, as I’ll show in a bit.) (It also is plausible that she would have a book in her trailer, as she would have downtime to read.)

Source (X) (X).

The flooring above resembles the flooring on the right side in the picture below, believed to be Emily’s TWD trailer. (@magaretgreene wrote a meta about the school post, connecting it to another cast member’s post: X.) 

Source (X).

(The left side flooring resembles the flooring seen in the picture below, the one that Emily posted on November 17th, 2014, the day Bethfoot was documented. It looked like Emily was in her trailer.)

Source (X).

On the 23rd, she posted a picture of her and her two sisters, captioning, “Me sis, big sis, lil sis. Best phone catch up with sis 2night. 😊 Troubadour 2morrow. 🎶🎸😎…” The picture implied she wasn’t in Georgia or likely even on the East Coast, as she was with her sisters. 

Source (X) (X).

While going through her Instagram pictures, I came across a picture from September 6th, 2014, nine months earlier. It was an almost identical picture of her and her sisters, except for a different filter and her older sister having her sweater buttoned. Emily could have held a phone conversation anywhere, but she wanted to make it look like she was out West with her family. If she wanted to include a picture of her and her sisters, to go with the post, she could have used a newer one. Instead she used an older, generic one that could match any time of the year. 

Source (X) (X).

So Emily disappeared for several days during TWD filming and latergrammed throughout the gap between her shows, hiding her location.

All of this might seen a bit excessive, especially in terms of storytelling, but Beth is on a Heroine’s Journey. It is a storytelling structure focused on the internal, feminine experience instead of the physical achievements of the Hero’s Journey. Hers is a story of identity, coming-of-age, and transformation.The Tunnel represents that transformation. It goes back to the Heroine’s Journey because the tunnel, as a setting, descends from classic literature. The tunnel, like the traditional forest or mountain top, is a liminal setting where the protagonist undergoes a change before returning to their “home”, concluding that segment of the story. Examples include the Cave Luke enters in Empire Strikes Back and the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter. (For more reading on the Heroine’s Journey, I highly recommend this two-part meta: X, X.) (You can read more about the tunnel here: X.) Emily hinted at this in an interview post-Coda, describing Beth’s character arc in season 5:

“Beth, when she was at Grady, was becoming a different person. It's like when you go to college and become a different person and then you go back home and try to fit in again.” (X)

In the Heroine’s Journey, the protagonist hits the Death stage at stage 6, and it functions as a symbolic death for the protagonist. This stage pushes the protagonist to accept humility and to be reborn. Coda, as stage 6 in Beth’s story, fits this mold. Beth supposedly “died” because of a moment of “overconfidence”. In the meta I linked above, the author describes the Death stage thusly:

“Note that both Death scenes in Tangled and Dragon Age 2 are not at the climax of the story, as you might find in a Hero’s Journey. They’re in the middle. That’s a huge, huge difference between these two narrative structures, and one that I personally find far more applicable to real life. Hitting rock bottom, and climbing out of that pit, is never really so simple as it’s presented in the Hero’s Journey. It’s ugly and time-consuming, and backsliding occurs, and it’s never really the end of change, but the midpoint.” (emphasis mine)

Leading up to Coda, many Beths fans were theorizing that Beth would have a fakeout death, as she was nearing the Death stage. None of us expected such a real fakeout though. It’s one of the reasons Coda seems so ludicrous; it happened in the midst of Beth’s arc, as she was growing. Because it happened in the middle, it came without any closure.

For a long time, Christy and I have speculated that Beth would become the central character of the story after her return. The story shifting focus to her makes sense. She is the new sheriff in town, and she is the Christ figure, the savior. Beth is likely immune/cured of the virus, as hinted in her Grady arc (X) (X), and she will go on to help find a cure. Such a storyline would help break the show’s from the rut it’s fallen into, and the storyline could carry the show for seasons. The Trinity were the price to have Beth back (a reoccurring theme at Grady and in 5x09). It should be noted that all three of them were the traditional warrior types, Abe and Tyreese two of the physically strongest men in the group. As Morgan said back in 3x13, the weak will inherit the earth. We just have to wait for that day, when Beth reaches the end of the tunnel. There she’ll find her family, including Daryl, up the road.