"The Walking Dead" aired its season 5 midseason finale on Sunday night, ending with the shocking death of Beth Greene, an event that Daryl Dixon will not be taking lightly, Wet Paint reported.
"Coda" was the eighth episode of the fifth season and it followed Rick, Daryl and the gang's efforts to save Beth and Carol from Dawn at the Grady Memorial Hospital, according to Entertainment Weekly.
However, things took a turn for the worst when the hostage exchange went wrong and Beth attempted to stab Dawn with a pair of scissors just seconds before reuniting with the gang. Dawn's sidearm went off and ended up shooting Beth through the head, killing her instantly.
The others were seen devastated by the news, more so Beth's older sister Maggie when she saw her dead sister being carried out of the hospital in Daryl's arms.
The episode was emotional not just for the characters, but for the actors and actresses themselves.
Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl, admitted to shedding tears before they filmed the episode, according to his interview with TV Guide. He described the feeling as "devastating" to the point that he sat on an apple box, "bawled for an hour" and "cried and cried and cried."
The same went for Emily Kinney, who plays Beth. She also choked up during her interview with TV Line, saying that she initially didn't feel like reading the script. She admitted that she wasn't ready for her run on the show to be over and that she did not see that particular ending coming for Beth.
"The Walking Dead" executive producer Gale Anne Hurd talked about Beth's death and Daryl's upcoming emotional turmoil during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
Hurd praised Beth's character arc, saying that the girl grew a lot during her run in the show and found the strength to act against Dawn to save her friend Noah instead of being a bystander. She also claimed that with Beth gone, it will "significantly affect" Daryl, with whom she had become close.
"She was one of the few characters who was the least uncorrupted," Hurd said. "The fact that the zombie apocalypse even got to her, it's going to be a long road back for Daryl."
Showrunner Scott Gimple also made claims of his own during an interview with Yahoo TV, saying that the characters will be dealing with darkness after Beth's death, such as Daryl, Maggie and Rick.
"How do they deal with the fact that they got so close to everything working out, and then it was all snatched away from them so quickly and so definitively, in such an awful way?" he said.
Gimple also teased that Eugene will be playing a significant part when the show returns, that Rick will have a new "no-nonsense, take-no-chances" take on people and situations after Beth's death and that Morgan will continue on tailing the group.
To tide fans over for the meanwhile, a trailer and an episode sneak peek have been uploaded on YouTube before the show returns on Feb. 8, 2015 on AMC.
