“The Walking Dead” introduced some fierce new female characters this week, and we’re cheering
This season of AMC’s hit show is really focusing on introducing new characters. Last night’s The Walking Dead focused on another new group, as well as Tara. This group is full of women who seem to live an idyllic life near the ocean. However this group — Oceanside, as it’s called — isn’t quite like The Kingdom with Ezekiel and his tiger, Shiva. The people here are much more cautious.
That’s because the women at Oceanside have encountered The Saviors before — it’s the reason they lived closed off from the rest of the world. It’s also part of what makes them incredibly fierce (unlike the people singing in The Kingdom’s choir).
The first fierce woman we encounter on this week’s Walking Dead is Cyndie. Cyndie discovers Tara near Oceanside, and saves her life – in fact, she saves Tara’s life multiple times in this episode. She is a young woman trying to hold onto her humanity, defying the rules of her group to do what she believes is right.
We also meet Natania in this episode. She’s Cyndie’s grandmother, and clearly one of the leaders of Oceanside. She explains to Tara that typically, they shoot outsiders on sight, to protect themselves and keep their community secret. She’s a strong woman haunted by what The Saviors did, doing her best to protect the women and children of her group.
Another Oceanside resident we think might become important is Beatrice. She gets into a scuffle with Tara when the group at large first discovers her. Tara is able to take Beatrice’s gun but spares her life. Later, Tara runs from Beatrice and another woman because she thinks they’re going to kill her, and the pair’s combat is pretty impressive. Beatrice explains to Tara that The Saviors killed not only all the group’s men, but every boy over 10, so they went into hiding.
Finally, there’s Tara. She’s been a lovable, but generally minor character, for several seasons now. In this episode, we see that she can really carry an episode with her expressiveness and wonderful comedic timing. However, she’s also more more badass than we realized (but that might be the woman playing her). Actress Alanna Masterson did her own stunts in this episode (which involved running, fighting, and falling off a bridge!). If that weren’t enough, she did it just weeks after giving birth. You go, girl.
Tara returned to Alexandria at the end of the episode, but we hope to see Oceanside again on The Walking Dead. The women there are super strong; plus, they have incredible Good Guy Potential and when it comes to taking on Negan’s Saviors, we need all the good guys we can get.
