Every character on The Walking Dead has a past that eventually gets revealed if they survive long enough. Some are more open than others, but the most reticent about his former life is the Whisperer second in command Beta, whose identity has remained a closely guarded secret, until now.
Last night’s episode, “Look at the Flowers,” revealed his pre-apocalypse persona to be that of a famous country singer with a stage name of Half Moon. After discovering Alpha’s severed and reanimated head mounted on a pike, he loudly plays a live recording of one of his concerts to attract a zombie horde to him, doubtless with the intent of seeking vengeance for the death of his leader. The revelation of his celebrity status mirrors that of his comic counterpart, who it eventually transpired was a successful basketball player who transitioned to acting.
His fame was previously alluded to in the season’s second episode “We Are the End of the World,” where a flashback scene sees his first meeting with Alpha in a rehab facility and her recognizing the face she saw after looking under his balaclava. Similarly, in the more recent episode “Walk With Us,” his mask is torn in a fight with Whisperer defector Mary, after which an anonymous underling states he knows who Beta is, who he then promptly kills to protect his secret.
Of course, his identity was first revealed in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg in season 5 Fear the Walking Dead episode “Today and Tomorrow,” where a vinyl sleeve was seen showing Beta’s unmasked face and distinctive beard. However, even with The Walking Dead’s gradually dwindling viewership, it still outstrips that of its spinoff show, so it would have been unreasonable to assume that all viewers would have seen it, and even those who did might have missed the significance of the brief shot.
Like most characters of The Walking Dead, who Beta was is ultimately a moot point in the post-apocalyptic world, but the revelation does grant him some small amount of development, showing his reaction to all that he ever achieved now being reduced to mere noise summoning the undead, as he descends into madness and prepares for the, sadly delayed, final battle of the Whisperer War.
