Samantha Morton’s Alpha is unmasked in The Walking Dead flashback images

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

This is a batch of images I was definitely not expecting to see so soon. Samantha Morton is playing Alpha, leader of the zombie flesh mask-wearing creeps The Whisperers on AMC's The Walking Dead, and the character was only just introduced at the end of last Sunday's episode, Adaptation. We'll obviously be learning more about Alpha in the next episode – apparently much more than I thought we would.

The images in this article not only show Alpha unmasked, but they also offer a glimpse of her life before she got into this Whisperer lifestyle. It looks like we're going to be getting flashbacks to this character's back story right up front.

A couple of these pictures also feature Scarlett Blum as a younger version of Lydia, Alpha's daughter. We just met a teenage Lydia (played by Cassady McClincy) in Adaptation, where she spent some time hyping up her mother.

I was not expecting to learn about Alpha's history any time soon, I thought they would stay in the present and let us get to know her through the way she handles the trouble that's brewing between the Whisperers and the other, more normal communities. But I am intrigued to learn all they want to tell us about her, especially with Morton bringing the character to life.

The Walking Dead is currently in the second half of its ninth season, which has the following synopsis:

The second half of The Walking Dead: Season 9 finds our groups of survivors, both old and new, continuing to deal with the impact of events that took place during the six years that have passed. Since the disappearance of Rick, many of these characters have become strangers to each other, and in some ways, strangers to themselves. What they do know is that they are in undeniable danger. They will soon realize the world just beyond does not operate as they thought. The group’s rules and ways of survival no longer guarantee their safety. A whole new threat has crossed their paths, and they soon discover it’s unlike any threat they have encountered or endured before. The group will start to question what they think they see. What may appear to be normal in this post-apocalyptic world could actually be more disturbing and terrifying than when the apocalypse first broke out. All that is certain is the stakes are high and numerous.

The show airs on AMC Sunday nights at 9pm Eastern.