The Walking Dead: Is Alpha not unlike Fear’s Daniel Salazar? A distorted origin story

The Walking Dead’s Alpha actress talks about the distorted view of her character’s origin story. Figures that her origins are like “finding God.” Are there similarities to Fear The Walking Dead’s Daniel Salazar?

The Walking Dead “Bounty” episode debuts tonight and an in-depth interview with the talented Samantha Morton gave insight into Alpha’s origin story. Morton also figured that her character’s experience was like “finding God” when Alpha immediately goes south to the dark side of things, according to an AMC interview.

Is Alpha not unlike the former Junta of El Salvador, Salazar?

When I watched the “Omega” episode last Sunday, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the first few episodes of Fear The Walking Dead when people were discovering the recently deceased turning. The only person I could tie Alpha to was Daniel Salazar, the barber and former Junta of El Salvador. The show wasn’t too far into the first season when looters were starting to misbehave outside his shop.

It was then you could pick up subtle hints of how he knew how savage people can be via his previous life.  When he tortured the American soldier with barber tools, it was then you could truly see how savage he was. Of course, he rationalized his actions and highly valued the protection of his family. Salazar was even attuned to the U.S. government’s TRUE agenda of keeping their neighborhood isolated.

It does bring to question the contrast between Alpha and Salazar. You see, Alpha wasn’t a hardened military expert killer/interrogator. Salazar reacted based on a previous life that was helpful to him.

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Samantha Morton speculated Alpha’s reaction as something lying dormant in her DNA. It’s more of a mystery because she’s not like Salazar in that respect and that she’s acting on instinct. With Salazar I’m thinking it’s a combination of the two, but I think it’s his military background that stands out more as a reason for his behavior in Fear The Walking Dead.

"“Her nature, her DNA, these sides to her – maybe they were lying dormant. I think we’re all capable of all sorts of things if put in a certain scenario. We have to ask ourselves those questions. She’s put in that scenario and she becomes Alpha”."

Morton also figured her character had a religious or spiritual experience regarding “finding God”. So there’s that along with a DNA-triggered theory. To throw in another analogy, I would equate it to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Agent Phil Coulson’s “defining moment” regarding what new recruits experience when taking on their role.

To compare Alpha to someone in the core franchise, she definitely had a shared experience with that of Carol’s history via abuse. Henry shared with Daryl Carol’s reason for now growing out her hair and tying that to Lydia’s story about her mom’s (Alpha) experience. However, did we watch episode 10 in the guise of a distorted version of Alpha’s origin story told by Lydia? Samantha Morton gives her take.

Is Alpha’s origin story distorted via Lydia’s perspective?

The Walking Dead core show has taken a turn as a new threat looms. Origin stories of prominent characters are interesting as well as the psychology of how one would behave given a threatening situation. Samantha Morton gave her take on the “version” of Alpha that she played, citing it as Lydia’s experience with her mother as a child. After all, we only saw Lydia’s memories and it could be very well a warped or “distorted” version of the experience.

"“I found it liberating and really helpful – although, these are Lydia’s memories. So, are they distorted? Are they real? I have a version of Alpha that I was playing and then there are different elements to the flashbacks and Lydia’s memories that I was playing”."

When Henry released Lydia and escorted her around the Hilltop complex, along with a late night snack of sorts, I couldn’t help but think that her reaction to the environment was an indicator to how a distorted a view she had of the post-apocalyptic world. Her mother had apparently brainwashed her into believing that no such communities could flourish. Lydia saw otherwise. Also, The Vultures shared a similar view in Fear The Walking Dead. But, we’ll find out more tonight on AMC’s The Walking Dead’s “Bounty” episode starting at 9 p.m. EST.

How close in characteristics do you think Alpha is to Daniel Salazar? Do you think we’ll get a perspective of Alpha’s origin told from another point of view in tonight’s episode?