Episode 3 of AMC’s Tales of The Walking Dead returns to familiar territory — both in what to expect from this universe as well as characters.
Episode 2 took a decidedly strange turn with a Groundhog Day-like episode introducing two characters stuck in a time loop as they tried to navigate the zombie apocalypse.
Blair (Parker Posey) and Gina (Jillian Bell) were two employees that hated each other. However, they got stuck together when the same events played over and over again until they worked together to break the cycle.
Now, in Episode 3, the new anthology series returns to the usual layout of The Walking Dead and its companion shows that sees a realistic way in which the world behaves and reacts to situations.
In addition to this, the series has decided to revisit a couple of characters that will be very familiar to fans of The Walking Dead: Alpha (Samantha Morton) and her daughter, Lydia (portrayed by Scarlett Blum in this episode).
Originally, details of this episode were not revealed when early screeners went out, which led to the assumption this episode would hone in on Alpha — and fans were right.
Dee is not yet known as Alpha, leader of the Whisperers
Before Alpha became the fierce and unhinged leader of the Whisperers, she was Dee, a meek and unhinged mother trying to negotiate the zombie apocalypse while protecting her daughter, Lydia.
For some strange reason, the pair have wound up on a steamboat and now cruise the waters with a host of other people on what appears to be the destination vacation location now that the world has gone to crap.
“Let me tell you how I died,” Dee says as Episode 3 (titled “Dee”) opens.
This immediately lets viewers know that this story will delve into how Dee transformed into Alpha.
Dee and Lydia are already at loggerheads
In The Walking Dead, Alpha’s relationship with her daughter, Lydia, was strained and things are already like this back before when she was simply Dee.
Lydia struggles with the way in which her mother is far too realistic and harsh when it comes to the terrifying realities of the undead now ruling the world.
Dee’s daughter just wants pretty things and bonds with Brooke (Lauren Glazier) more than Lydia would like.
Meanwhile, Dee is already looking unhinged as she struggles with all she has already gone through in order to protect her daughter and doesn’t appreciate the fact her daughter would rather hang with Brooke.
Brooke runs a tight ship
Fans are then introduced to Brooke, who heads this strange ship as they are about to throw a party onboard. All the passengers are dressed up and, honestly, all I can think about is how everyone struggled so hard to survive the apocalypse in The Walking Dead, and here, everyone is dressed to the nines and ignoring the fact that the undead now rules the world.
Seriously, I agree with Dee when she points out that looking nice is not all that it’s cracked up to be.
Brooke seems perfect, though. She runs this cool cruise ship and allows people to live out their fantasies of the lives left behind thanks to the outbreak. I mean, she even runs exercise classes.
However, as to be expected, not everything is as it seems and there are people onboard that are there for nefarious reasons — and for once, it’s not actually Dee.
Don’t trust the bartender
While everything is hunky-dory onboard, Dee doesn’t trust that things will last, and, let’s face it, she’s absolutely right.
At first, she just seems paranoid about the creepy new bartender Billy (Nick Basta) but, it turns out she was right not to trust everyone when someone goes missing. Already, Dee is pointing the finger at Billy.
A quick search ensues but the reality is Brooke knows they will never find him if he went overboard so it’s back to pretending like the apocalypse never happened.
Meanwhile, Dee keeps her eye on Billy and finds that he’s even shifter than she first thought.
Lydia goes missing
After all the stress of the missing passenger and Dee not trusting Billy, Lydia is hidden in the dinghy right around the time Billy decides to take over the boat. This, conveniently, places Dee and Lydia out of danger while Billy takes over.
You see, Billy was responsible for the passenger going missing, just like Dee suspected.
But that doesn’t help much now that Billy is deciding who should live and die so that his own people can come onboard.
Brooke tries to negotiate but it all amounts to nothing as Billy is intent on taking over and being the one-dimensional villain so we can all hate him, killing people randomly to prove his point.
While everyone is arguing, Dee sneaks in, kills Billy’s people, and escapes with Lydia on the dinghy while the chaos continues onboard the ship.
Dee and Lydia are on the run
The tough times continue once Dee and Lydia get onshore and they have to hide inside the body of a walker in order to escape being attacked by the undead.
Afterward, Dee comes across Brooke, who has survived the onslaught and she instructs Lydia to sit down and not look at what her mother is about to do.
Dee confronts Brooke and they argue about who was right and who was wrong when it comes to handling the zombie apocalypse. When Dee goes to shoot Brooke, though, Lydia jumps in and it turns out Dee can’t do it while her daughter is quietly losing it.
Instead, she leaves Brooke behind and heads off with Lydia, trying to train her how to be tough and ruthless as soon as possible.
Of course, Lydia just needs her mom, and Dee can’t work that out until it becomes apparent that her daughter wants to die rather than live in this terrifying new world anymore.
The Whisperers appear
Eventually, Dee works it out and, decides this world is no place for either of them, so she gets ready to kill them both.
However, the Whisperers turn up at that exact moment, headed by a blonde woman called, Hera (Anne Beyer).
Dee and Lydia obviously join the group but, Episode 3 of Tales of The Walking Dead ends with Dee having killed Hera and using her face as the mask that we all remember Alpha wearing in The Walking Dead.
So, while not a lot of Dee’s early time with the Whisperers is revealed, viewers now know that she was not the one who started the group.
Tales of The Walking Dead airs every Sunday night on AMC at 9/8c.