Beth Killed Someone On 'The Walking Dead'

From the taut opening sequence that showed Officer Lamson's demise to Father Gabriel's race to escape a cluster of walkers, the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead has kept the adrenaline flowing, and a giant pit in my stomach, since it started. The hits just kept coming when Beth Greene (meek, mild, "let me sing you a folk song" Beth), showed just how tough the zombie apocalypse has made her. In a tense scene back at Grady Memorial hospital, Beth killed someone, but it wasn't Officer Dawn, though Dawn is kind of the worst and I kind of expected Beth to take her down. Instead, Beth gave skeevy Officer O'Donnell a warm introduction to the hospital's empty elevator shaft with a horde of hungry walkers lying in wait at the bottom of it.

Ouch.

The scene started off with a dramatic fight between Officer Dawn and Officer O'Donnell, who was accusing her of getting too soft like her predecessor, and threatening to convince the other officers to join in a mutiny of sorts. Did Dawn take that lying down? Um, no. Obviously. Naturally she whipped out some intense fighting moves and a scuffle broke out, which Beth helped end by shoving a stunned Officer O'Donnell down the elevator shaft.

Feel free to file this under: Bad Ass Beth.

It was so, so nice to see her really come into her own (not that I necessarily judge maturity based on someone's capacity to murder, but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN), and really take charge of a situation. Season 5 has seen pretty much non-stop personal strength from Beth, which has been a great change from previous seasons. Unfortunately, helping Dawn take down O'Donnell wasn't the only Beth-centric moment of this episode - her role on The Walking Dead was cut tragically short when Dawn (accidentally?) shot her through the head in a heart-wrenching final moment. Dawn barely had time to figure out what had just happened before Daryl whipped out a gun and took her down as well.

Where do we go from here, Walking Dead fans? I don't know about you, but this is already starting to feel like one long, long mid-season break.

Image: Gene Page/AMC; Giphy