There has been one long-running fan theory in The Walking Dead that I can’t stop hearing about over the past few years, and one I thought it was time to take on directly.
The idea is that the show has already introduced us to Alpha, the leader of the next group set to take on Rick and company, the Whisperers. Not that this plot development is guaranteed to happen on The Walking Dead, but if you’d like to know nothing about them, turn back now.
The Whisperers are a group of rather out-there survivors who wear the skins of zombies in order to blend in with herds, where they strike from the shadows and direct walkers to do their bidding by lurking among them. Their leader is Alpha, a bald woman with a daughter, Lydia, who ends up falling for Carl, a plot turn that uh, can obviously not happen on the show any more.
But the theories here involve Alpha herself, namely that we already know who she is. There are two popular theories about her identity. One is that Alpha is Madison, and the entire story of Fear the Walking Dead is going to lead up to this point, where Madison will become a fully-fledged villain, don the skins, and crash into The Walking Dead’s crew as big-bad Alpha. That would also make her daughter, Alicia, Lydia.
The other theory is that scavenger Jadis is Alpha. She’s weird, lives in squalor and has a similarly weird posse. Now that her group has been slaughtered by Negan and she’s been abandoned by Rick, the thought is that Jadis will return someday as the leader of a new group, the Whisperers, now with a new strange gimmick, zombie skins.
But…I don’t buy either of these. Why not? Well, first off, there’s the fact that those making The Walking Dead have said outright that neither Madison nor Jadis are Alpha, not that anyone is even acknowledging that Alpha is definitely coming to The Walking Dead. But obviously writers/creators/showrunners/actors would say that, so it’s hard to take them at their word.
So instead, use logic. And without some serious back-bending, I don’t really see how either of these women turning into Alpha makes much sense.
Madison
I was originally a fan of this theory a long time ago, but we’re now reaching the point where it wouldn’t make any sense. It’s been more or less confirmed that Fear the Walking Dead is undergoing a time jump, which will allow the show to catch up to The Walking Dead in order to have Lennie James’ Morgan join FTWD after the Negan War concludes. It’s also moving to Texas.
But the Negan War is almost over, and the Whisperers are quite literally supposed to be the next plotline after this. That would mean that in order to arrive in The Walking Dead season 9, Madison would have to somehow make this enormous conversion to becoming Alpha during Fear the Walking Dead season 4, and that just doesn’t make sense given the current trajectory of the show and these hurried timelines.
While I do believe that Fear the Walking Dead will crossover with The Walking Dead someday, I don’t think it will be its crew showing up as the Whisperers. Mainly because, spoiler alert, the Whisperers almost all die, including Alpha, and it would be very weird to have the entirety of FTWD leading up to a mass slaughter of its cast by Rick’s group.
And while Madison and Alicia might fit the Alpha/Lydia idea, what about the rest of the cast? What about Nick and Strand and the half dozen new cast members the show is adding next season like Maggie Grace and Garret Dillahunt? Also, Fear the Walking Dead would have to show this conversion into its cast being the Whisperers, which would totally ruin any sort of surprise when they showed up on TWD proper.
This is a theory that maybe could have worked once upon a time, but heading into season 4, it’s clear that Fear the Walking Dead has bigger plans than ending the series as a one-off arc on The Walking Dead as a new rival group. I do think Madison is walking down a path toward being a villain, and may butt heads with Rick in the future, just not as Alpha.
Jadis
The Jadis idea makes more sense to me than Madison at the moment, but ultimately, I still don’t buy it. Yes, with a potential time jump after the Negan War, we could see Jadis show up again with a new posse, now doing something extra wacky like wearing walker skins but…I don’t think so.
I would have been more accepting of this idea had Jadis not just had her entire crew butchered last week, meaning she would have to somehow become the leader of an entirely new group just as crazy as the old one. And past that, I think the show is actually doing something more interesting with her character than turning into a walker cult leader.
We’ve already gotten indications that there’s more to Jadis and her trash heap than meets the eye, as she has a helipad (and possible helicopter), solar panels and military rations there. Indications are that she’s sitting on some kind of resource goldmine, and if there is a twist to her story, it’s going to be that she’s actually far more valuable and important than anyone realized, and if people had known that, both Rick and Negan would have treated her with more respect. I do not think her story is over, but I do not think she is Alpha, either.
The road to get from Jadis to Alpha would be elaborate. She doesn’t have a daughter, clearly, that we’ve seen. She has no group, no Beta second in command, no capacity to wage war. Again, a time jump could solve at least some of these issues, but sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one. Alpha, if she does exist, is just Alpha, a woman leading a group we haven’t met yet. Just because there are two female characters that are vaguely villainous in the Walking Dead universe right now, that doesn’t mean they have to be the female villain from the comics, especially when you have to do back handsprings to make either of these theories work.
I have mixed feelings about the entire Whisperers arc, as part of me wishes the show would just skip it entirely and do its own thing (there are a few more frustrating deaths coming I’d like to avoid), but the show has been sticking to the script lately, so I’d be surprised if we didn’t see them in season 9. Just not as Madison or Jadis.
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