'The Walking Dead' Season 10 Episode 10: Lydia is the only one who brings out Alpha's human side
If you thought mother-daughter relationships are complicated in the normal world, imagine how it is in the post-apocalyptic world ridden with zombies — especially if your mother is a ruthless murderer. Yes, we are talking about 'The Walking Dead'. Episode 10 of the tenth season just aired and had several talking points, one of them being an injured Alpha (Samantha Morton) trying to persuade her daughter Lydia (Cassady McClincy) to kill her.
After engaging in a brutal fight with Darius, the two have a strange conversation. Alpha goes into a soliloquy about how she and her daughter are 'forged by pain'. Darius retorts by saying that Alpha lost Lydia because she didn't love her. Alpha lumbers towards him and then falls down again. She fades in and out of consciousness and finally sees Lydia sitting next to her.
Alpha tells Lydia that she must lead the Whisperers and asks her to kill her so that she doesn't feel the pain of a prolonged death. Despite her tears, Lydia remains firm and tells Alpha that even though the humans of the world are not perfect, being with them is all she ever wanted. The next morning, Alpha wakes up to find that Lydia rescued Daryl and has left a written message for Alpha. The message reads: "Your way is not the only way."
Later, Daryl asks Lydia if she killed Alpha. She responds by asking him whether he would have done the same to his father.
Like we said at the beginning, Alpha and Lydia's relationship was never exactly warm. Alpha's methods of 'toughening' up Lydia in the past included making her walk with the dead. This almost resulted in Lydia getting killed. Ironically, despite being furious with her at the time, Alpha has never held back from defending Lydia.
As a child, Lydia had rejected a stuffed bunny as 'she wanted to be more like her mother'. Pleased to hear this, Alpha tells her that if she doesn't become like her, she will be compelled to leave her.
Yet, in all her cold-heartedness, brutality, ruthlessness and propagating the view that she feels nothing, Lydia is still the only person Alpha has an attachment with. When Lydia wanders off as a child, Alpha yells at her and makes her promise that she will never leave her again.
In short, Lydia is Alpha's weakness. As we saw earlier in the season after Lydia left the Whisperers, Alpha concocted a story to her morbid community that she had killed Lydia. She portrayed it as a tale of noble sacrifice. It's Beta who later learns the truth after discovering Lydia's stuffed bunny on Alpha's bed. He understands that Lydia is alive and that Alpha wants her back. This causes Alpha to get tearful. In her own twisted way, she does love Lydia. Her daughter is the one person who can make her feel a tinge of humanity.
'The Walking Dead' airs on AMC on Sundays at 9pm.