Beth Greene is a major supporting character in the survival-horror TV series The Walking Dead. She is the youngest daughter of Hershel Greene and has been a part of Rick Grimes' group of apocalypse survivors from Season 2 to Season 5. She is portrayed by Emily Kinney.
Personality[]
Beth is a kind-hearted, shy and soft-spoken young girl when she first appears in Season 2. At that point, she was largely ignorant of the extent to which the world had been affected by the living dead, but soon learned the truth after the arrival of Rick Grimes and his group on the Greene family farm. Initially shocked, she attempted to commit suicide, but could not bring herself to do so.
Over the years she has spent with Rick's group, Beth has largely maintained her kind and gentle persona. Following the birth of Judith Grimes, Beth would often volunteer to take care of the baby while Rick was caught up in other events that required his attention. While Beth is arguably the most compassionate member of Rick's group, this does not necessarily make her weak. She has learned to defend herself against zombies and, since Season 4, has avoided becoming too attached to anyone, expecting that any of her friends could die at any given moment.
History[]
Early history[]
Prior to the zombie apocalypse, Beth was an ordinary high school student. When not studying, she spent her days helping her family as a farmhand. When the outbreak occurred, the farm's relative isolation from any population centre kept the Greene family safe for several months, but as time went on, more zombies would wander onto the farmland. Hershel initially believed that the undead were merely sick and convinced his family of this, even as some of them became zombies themselves.
Season 2[]
Beth is introduced along with the rest of her family after Rick Grimes arrives on their doorstep cradling his wounded son Carl in his arms. As Hershel tries to heal Carl with his veterinary skills, the rest of the Greene family introduce themselves to Rick and the other members of his group. As Carl recovers, Rick asks Hershel if he and his group can stay as there is nowhere else that is safe. Hershel is reluctant to allow this, but agrees on the condition that everyone stays away from the barn. However, Glenn Rhee later discovers that the barn is full of walkers, including members of the Greene family. This later leads to a confrontation and Shane Walsh releases the undead from the barn, demonstrating to Hershel that they are not simply sick as they survive gunshot wounds and keep attacking until shot in the brain. Beth is horrified by this revelation and seems to lose all hope, deciding that she would rather die than endure a living nightmare any longer. She locks herself in her room and breaks a mirror, intent on cutting her wrists with the glass. She cannot bring herself to cut all the way, though, indicating that she still wants to live.
After the barn debacle, Beth starts learning how to defend herself as Andrea and Daryl teach her how to use knives and guns. She is later forced to put these skills to the test when a giant herd of zombies attacks the farm, forcing the survivors to flee into the wilderness.
Season 3[]
After ten agonizing months of scavenging and surviving on the move, Rick and the others discover the West Georgia Correctional Facility and decide to make it their permanent home. The group must face harsh trials as they claim the prison, clearing it of walkers and a band of violent inmates. During this period, T-Dog is killed by the undead and Lori Grimes dies after giving birth to a daughter, which Carl names Judith.
While the group have established the prison as their home, Beth contributes to the group's functionality by carrying out household chores such as cooking and laundry. She is also commonly seen taking care of Judith while Rick is otherwise occupied with leadership duties and working to keep his people safe from The Governor, a ruthless man who rules the small town of Woodbury and is threatening to take the prison.
Season 4[]
Following the Governor's defeat, the remaining residents of Woodbury are invited into the prison. Over time, more survivors show up and are allowed to join. For a time, the prison community thrives, but is soon threatened by a deadly flu strain that results in numerous deaths. Though the prison endures through the flu crisis, it soon after comes under attack once again by the Governor who has assumed leadership over another group of survivors. The Governor is determined to take the prison and his new group have a tank. They also have Hershel and Michonne as hostages. Rick tries to reason with the Governor and make peace, but the Governor is fuelled by rage and revenge and refuses to be swayed, leading to a bloody battle that ends with the prison being destroyed and the Governor and his people being massacred.
While most of Rick's people survive the destruction of the prison, they become scattered in all directions. Beth makes it out with Daryl Dixon and the two survive together for some time. They take up temporary refuge in a run-down house and during this time Beth tries to get to know Daryl better, though Daryl is hesitant to talk about his past as he lived a rough life even before the apocalypse. Seeing the house as a reminder of their past pain, Beth and Daryl decide to soak the place in moonshine and burn it down before moving on.
Beth and Daryl later arrive at a classy funeral parlour which someone has gone to great lengths to keep it clean and stocked. The building is vacant when Beth and Daryl arrive, but they find a generous amount of food still left in the kitchen pantry and help themselves to half of it. After spending a night in the parlour, Beth and Daryl are awoken by the sound of cans rattling, the early-warning system they had set up at the door. They find a one-eyed dog outside wanting to get in, but not far behind is a horde of walkers. The two survivors are forced to flee from the funeral parlour with Daryl holding the zombies back while Beth gets out through a window. However, when Daryl gets out, Beth is gone and Daryl spots a Sedan with a white cross on its back window driving away.
Season 5[]
Beth first re-appears in the episode "Slabtown", waking up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta with a broken wrist bound in a cast. She is greeted by Dr. Stephen Edwards and a cop called Dawn Lerner, who is in charge of the place. Dawn makes it clear that Beth owes her and her people as resources were used to treat her and she must pay them back. She tries to pay off her "debts" by doing general chores around the hospital and assisting Dr. Edwards on his rounds, but as time goes on she notices that the infrastructure established there is dangerously fragile. Dawn cannot seem to keep all her officers in line and feels forced to make allowances to keep them happy, including letting them get away with abusing the wards.
While working at the hospital, Beth meets and befriends a fellow ward called Noah. Like Beth, Noah was roped into service at the hospital after the people there saved his life, but he has endured continuous abuse at the hands of the officers and Dawn has done nothing to stop it. Together, Beth and Noah devise a plan to escape from the hospital; after Beth steals the elevator key from Dawn's office, she and Noah use a rope made from tied-together sheets to scale down the elevator shaft. They manage to get outside, but Beth is recaptured while Noah escapes.
Not long after Noah's escape, Beth is shocked to find that Carol Peletier, another member of Rick's group, has been brought to Grady Memorial after one of Dawn's patrol cars accidentally ran her over. Carol is alive but in critical condition, and Beth tries to negotiate with Dawn and Dr. Edwards to get her the help she needs.
Death[]
In the episode "Coda", Rick and the other members of his group arrive at Grady Memorial to deal with Dawn. Having captured two of Dawn's officers with help from Noah, Rick attempts to exchange them for Beth and Carol. The exchange goes ahead peacefully enough until Dawn demands to have Noah back as well. This appears to anger Beth and she turns to Dawn, saying "she gets it now" before drawing a pair of scissors hidden in her cast. She futilely stabs Dawn who reacts by drawing her gun and shooting Beth through the head, killing her instantly. Dawn appears shocked and claims that she fired by accident, but Daryl doesn't listen and responds by shooting Dawn too. After the shooting, Rick's group are allowed to leave without further violence. Daryl carries Beth's body out of the hospital just as the other half of the group, including Beth's older half-sister Maggie, arrive. Maggie breaks down in tears at the sight of her sister's lifeless body. With Beth's death, Maggie is now the last surviving member of the Greene family.