- Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead."
- "TWD" season 10, episode 13 confirmed Beta's mysterious identity when he was revealed to be a famous country singer before the zombie apocalypse.
- There have been teases on both "TWD" and spin-off "Fear TWD" about Beta's reveal you may have missed, including a record with Hurst's face on it. Magna also listens to one of his songs on season 10, episode five.
- In the comics, Beta is a famous basketball player.
- Actor Ryan Hurst, who plays Beta, told Insider how he came up with the update to the character.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Ryan Hurst's "The Walking Dead" character, Beta, never took off his mask on the show since joining the zombie series on season nine.
As a result, the show created a giant mystery around Beta's identity before the apocalypse. Late in season 10, viewers finally received a concrete answer about who he was before marching with Alpha and the undead.
While mourning the death of his Whisperer leader, Beta visited a hotel full of guitars and vinyl. One of the albums showed his face on them next to the words "Half Moon." It turns out Beta was a country singer.
The reveal is a twist from the comics where Beta is revealed to have been a famous basketball player before the outbreak.
"When I read the comic and I knew that his backstory was the basketball player, it almost felt more like a gag than anything else," Hurst told Insider. "So these weird little things happened where I was meditating one day and I was just like, 'Oh, I think he's a country music singer.'"
"So I just wrote up all these ideas of him being a country music singer and having a best friend whose face that he sort of took with him. And that that's sort of how the Whisperers were born," Hurst continued. "I just sort of threw out all these ideas, not really expecting them to use any of them and then they sort of called me back and said, you know, what else you got?"
After Hurst was first cast on the show, he previously told Insider they considered showing Beta's real face on the series so he wasn't hot under the mask all the time. Hurst pushed back since the character never reveals his identity in the comic until his death and was interested in exploring the reasons behind that.
On "Talking Dead," Hurst said he imagined that someone broke into his home and he defended them, killing the intruder. He then saw the person he was killing was wearing his band's T-shirt and that really affected him.
"That would be a reason why somebody would cloak who they were for the rest of the apocalypse," Hurst said on "Talking Dead." "He was going to let the life that he led before the apocalypse continue to inspire people, but he had to kill people in the meantime then he was going to do that also."
If you've been paying close attention to "TWD" universe at large, you may not have been surprised by Beta's reveal. Clues about Beta's musical background have been dropped on both "TWD" and "Fear TWD" since last year.
Insider rounded up every clue we could find that you may have missed. Though you may have caught some, even eagle-eyed viewers probably missed at least one big hint along the way.
A record showing Beta's face can be seen on an episode of season five of "Fear the Walking Dead."
If you don't watch "Fear TWD," you may have missed this one from September 2019. During season five, Daniel and Grace are traveling on the road. Daniel was traveling with his cat, Skidmark, and his collection of vinyl records.
When they're ambushed by a few walkers, one of the undead knocks the vinyl records into the road. An overhead shot during the scene momentarily shows an album with a familiar face on the cover.
In October 2019, "Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick inadvertently spoiled the surprise for fans who weren't watching "Fear" or who weren't watching the spin-off closely by teasing there was something in the episode relating to Beta.
"Ryan, do you want to comment on, there's a little bit of an Easter egg in 'Fear 514' that might be suggestive of Beta's past?" Hardwick asked Hurst on air.
"All I can say at this point is that maybe Beta was a large personality in the world before the apocalypse and sort of letting go of that may have been tragic to his psyche," said Hurst.
That's an interesting comment from Hurst. It suggests that Beta may not have been happy that after becoming famous, it didn't mean anything in a zombie apocalypse.
Relive the moment: See Daniel try to gather up some of his vinyl, including the one with Beta's face 22 minutes onto "Fear TWD" season five, episode 14.
Beta was humming early on in season 10.
If you go back to the flashback episode of season 10 where Beta and Alpha meet, you can hear Beta humming through the hallways of the abandoned building he's wandering.
Alpha knows the song too and starts humming it herself. This upsets Beta, who asks Alpha not to do it again.
When we mentioned this observation to Hurst recently, he said it was a "very astute" observation.
Relive the moment: Alpha overhears Beta humming 8:33 minutes into season 10, episode two.
Magna was listening to one of "Beta's songs" early in season 10.
This is a really cool Easter egg Insider learned about. When Magna is listening to a record on season 10, episode five, that's Ryan Hurst singing.
The kicker? He's actually singing lyrics to an Emily Kinney song titled "The Turtle and the Monkey" you can listen to here. Kinney previously played Beth on "TWD" and is a singer in real life.
"It was one of those sort of like actor's nightmare situations," Hurst told Insider of recording the music. "Before we started shooting, they said, 'So we're going to make him a country music singer, we're going to use all these ideas' and they said, 'Well, you can sing, right?' And I said, 'Well, yeah, sort of.'"
Relive the moment: Hear Hurst singing about six minutes into season 10, episode five of "TWD" as Magna and Yumiko have it out.
Beta's voice was recognized by one of the Whisperers.
After killing Gamma, part of Beta's face was exposed. A nearby Whisperer sees Beta's face and recognizes him.
"It's you," says the Whisperer. "Your voice sounded familiar, but..."
He never gets to say another word as Beta kills him on the spot.
Relive the moment: See someone recognize Beta 16:40 into season 10, episode 12.
Finally, on season 10, episode 13 of "TWD," we see Beta's face once again on a different album cover.
Beta walks into a building with guitars and looks at his face on an album cover. It reads Half Moon live in concert. He then puts the record on to gather a horde of the undead.
Relive the moment: See Beta revisit his past and look at one of his album covers 24:40 minutes into season 10, episode 14.
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