We need to talk about Alicia Clark…
First of all she was never a “whiny” or “spoiled” or “annoying” teenager, as people like to say. At the start of the show, even before things truly went to shit:
1. Her father had committed suicide.
2. Her mother was cold and aloof.
3. Her older brother was a childish, unstable drug addict.
Yet she was somehow still a decent, hard-working, mature young woman. And then, as the world went nuts around her, on top of all the above…
6. Any life plans and dreams disappeared.
7. Her step brother became a sociopath and tried to murder her.
8. She lost her step father.
9. Her family went through constant hell to survive, and many times she was the sole moral compass and level head.
10. She had to start killing living people in self defense before she was even an adult.
12. She lost another boyfriend.
13. As barely an adult, she had to mercy kill dozens of innocent people because no one else could handle it.
14. She was trapped alone in a bunker with a zombie hoard of her former people, and survived.
16. She lost her brother.
And these are just things I’m remembering off the top of my head. And they all happened between the age of what… 17-19. Maybe 20. I mean… wow.
I’ll honestly never understand how people could view her badly, including at the beginning of the show. She’d already been through a LOT even before the outbreak. And when the apocalypse hit, she had to adopt an entirely new set of skills, learn from a couple youthful mistakes, and grow up fast. And she did. And she actually became rather heroic. Then she became someone brutal who avenges her losses, yet still tries to do the right thing - even though she has every reason in the world not to.
Alicia Clark is by far the character who’s seen the most evolution in the series, and has also received the most unfounded hate and judgment every step of the way. She’s also now arguably the biggest badass and most capable person on the show at this point, and she’s more than earned that position.
And for that matter, Alycia Debnam-Carey deserves mad props for putting up with so much and hangin’ in there for so long to now have this lead (co-lead technically - though should be lead) role. Her character has, at various times, been unfairly hated on, neglected and underestimated. For the longest time it’s like she was a day player on her own show, consistently sidelined and given limited screen time and story arcs in favor of guest stars and glorified extras, yet she always did the best and most she could out of what little she was given to do.
And now here we are. Now she’s a leader. Now she’s a huge focus. Now she’s the haunted badass she always was deep down - the same badass who could survive the suicide of a father and addiction of a brother and abandonment of a mother… now just with a bit more maturity and blood lust added. ;)
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