Warning: Spoilers for the tenth The Walking Dead, including this week’s episode, “Walk with Us,” will be found below.
Midway through this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Walk with Us,” Gamma — played by Thora Birch (whose mother was an adult-film star) — is stabbed in the stomach and killed by Beta, second-in-command of The Whisperers (although, now he’s top dog). Before she died, and during the struggle, however, Gamma managed to scratch off part of Beta’s skin-mask, revealing part of his face beneath.
It isn’t much, but it’s enough so that another Whisperer, who walks up on Beta at the moment, instantly recognizes him. “It’s you,” he says, looking upon Beta with awe. “Your voice sounded familiar, but …”
The Whisperer can’t get anything else out before Beta quickly murders him. Why? Because Beta doesn’t want to be recognized. He doesn’t anyone to know who he is. It’s because Beta — who never removes his mask — is actually famous in real life (or at least, famous in The Walking Dead universe).
Who is he? We don’t know Beta’s real name, but we do know that he was a famous country-and-western singer (who also had an alcohol problem, which tracks with country singer). In an Easter egg over on Fear the Walking Dead last season, the show revealed the identity of Beta when one of its characters, Daniel, dropped a crate of albums, revealing this:
That is the man beneath the mask on the cover of an album, one good enough that apparently Daniel — a music enthusiast — thought enough to bring with him. When the other characters on The Walking Dead finally figure out it’s him, they’re probably going to be very shocked and may also have a good laugh at his expense, assuming he is dead when they figure it out.
