Light Comic Spoilers
For those who don’t already know, Beta — played by Ryan Hurst on The Walking Dead — has an interesting backstory in the comics. He’s a famous and very recognizable basketball star, so when he is de-masked after his defeat, the Alexandrians are hugely surprised to find out who he is.
When Beta is eventually unmasked on the television show, it is expected that he, too, will be someone pre-apocalypse in this universe. In fact, thanks to a clever Easter Egg on TWD’s companion series, Fear the Walking Dead, we have a pretty good idea who Beta was before the apocalypse: A famous country-and-western singer. While Ryan Hurst has not confirmed that Easter Egg, he has said that “Beta was a large personality in the world before the apocalypse.”
Keep that information in mind as we discuss a fun Easter Egg in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead. Early on in the episode, Magna is listening to a record in a scene shared by her and Yumiko.
The song only plays briefly, but it was enough for folks to recognize that it was a song written by Emily Kinney, who used to play Beth on the series. In fact, Kinney confirmed it herself on Twitter.
Have you gotten a chance to hear my tune? On Sunday, it was on @TheWalkingDead !! Click to listen on @Spotify https://t.co/SwhdTpWdLA
— Emily Kinney (@emmykinney) November 5, 2019
The catch here, however, is that, though the song was written by Kinney, it was performed by a male voice. The theory circulating around the Internet is that the performer on that song is actually Beta, from his pre-apocalypse days. The theory makes all the more sense because we learned about his possible identity in Fear from a record, like the one being played on a gramophone on this week’s The Walking Dead.
It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss it in the episode, but if true, it’s another cool moment in a season that’s been full of them for The Walking Dead.
