(Spoilers, spoilers–you’ve been told.) As you may know, wide-eyed, real-life anime character Emily Kinney has recently left The Walking Dead, after her character Beth met a grisly end (not eaten by zombies, but shot in the head by a rogue cop: somewhere on Reddit, no doubt, someone’s looking for an analogy to Ferguson.) Beth’s death left a lot of fans disappointed (not least because AMC spoiled the episode’s ending on its Facebook page.) Now fans are petitioning AMC to bring Beth back. A change.org petition was started on December 1st and already has over 40,000 signatures.
The petition’s mission statement – typos and all – reads “Beth Greene (played by Emily Kinney) was killed off in the mid-season finale in season 5 of The Walking Dead. Her death was far too soon and the writers threw away the potential of a perfectly good character. Her story wasn’t over. Emily Kinney and her character don’t deserve this. There was so much more to be done with her character and they chose to kill her in a disgusting, unsatifying death that caused more anger and dissapointment than shock and mourning. Beth was a symbol of hope that a lot of women could relate to and see themselves in (especially self-harmers who saw her as someone who overcame their suicidal/depressive feelings). By sloppily killing her it just shows that she was used to further a man’s (Daryl’s) storyline. We realize that the circumstances she dies in are irreverisble, but this is television. Anything is possible. By signing this petition you can at least show your support for Beth. Let’s show Emily Kinney how much we love her and want her back.” If you are the sort who believes in the Tooth Fairy and pots of gold at the end of rainbows, then head over there and sign it, because I hate to shatter your illusions, but Beth is not returning to the show … unless, of course, AMC decides to believe in the power of online petitions and brings Kinney in for a flashback. It could happen, I suppose. After all, Charles Dance is coming back to Game of Thrones. Emily Kinney, meanwhile, is busy becoming a rockstar.
