What Happened to Beth's Sweater? (TD)
I decided to write this post in response to a recent post I saw in the Team Delusional tag by @rose-andthe-thorn. You can read it here. The post wonders whether any more research has been done on the subject of the flash, and so, even as this is quite an OG discussion for TD, I want to go over the basics of the flash, as I see it, plus some new trajectories on the topic, and a great deal of symbolism, which have been explored semi-recently.
Context: Though it's been quite a long time, a lot of ppl have essentially used the flash to try and understand what happened to Beth after Grady. It seems to show her running for her life amidst a flurry of walkers, wearing her yellow polo, with a great deal of blood on her right arm. It looks as if she might have something wrapped around her arm, as the blood seems to stop abruptly, in a straight line, just above the elbow, and below the sleeve. Whatever this is, it seems drenched with blood, but it's really hard to tell what's going on. Lots and lots of ppl have written about this way before I came along, and so I'll leave some links that the end of this post for some foundational perspectives on the issue. Ultimately, we think the flash is just a snippet of what might have happened to Beth, at some point, during the Missing 17 Days, or the time period between "Coda" and "What Happened and What's Going on," which we never see.
Where is Beth's sweater?: One really important aspect of the flash that has been discussed in detail recently is the fact that, in the flash, Beth is without her sweater. I've written recently about Beth's sweater, and its relationship to Wizard of Oz symbolism surrounding her characterization. You can find that here.
Re: the flash. There's been some semi-recent discussion of Beth's "sweaterless" disposition, ie: the fact that Beth also doesn't have her sweater on in Rick's hallucination in 9.4.
This is weird, as it suggests that Rick must somehow know that Beth was wearing a short-sleeved yellow polo under the sweater that he saw her get shot in. Beth's sweater is a contentious piece in "Coda." She is not wearing it in the hospital room when we see her tuck the scissors into her cast before the confrontation; however, she is wearing it during the confrontation.
This tension shows up again, via a popularly circulated picture of what is *apparently* some behind-the-scenes footage from "Coda." In some of these pictures, Beth is wearing her sweater, while in some, she's not. These pictures are odd, as many have noted that Beth doesn't have an entry wound prosthetic on her forehead, along with some other potent observations. But what I want to focus on here, is the fact that, without her sweater, in this very nicely posed hug with Lauren Cohan, we can see exactly what is hidden BENEATH Beth's sweater when she gets shot, something that we can't *really* see that well in the episode: a cross.
Why hide this? But then show it later? Well, probably because, at the time, they didn't want it to be too obvious that Beth was a Christ figure. That's something they would have wanted us to figure out over time, and out of order. What fun is a puzzle if you get the pieces all at once, and pre-organized for your convenience?
Re: the yellow polo. It's almost as if they would like us to remember *exactly* what Beth was wearing beneath her sweater, and to use it as a way of spotting or defining her character immediately. Remember, that while lots of us have watched and rewatched these episodes like a dozen times or more, and we've come to associate it as a defining feature of Beth, back in 2014, it would have been MONTHS since the GA would have seen Beth in her yellow polo, and before "Coda," in season 5, she is seen exclusively in hospital scrubs. "Coda" was aired on November 30, 2014. The last time the audience would have seen Beth in her yellow polo all by itself, without the sweater, would have been on March 2nd, 2014, in "Still."
Assuming that, while writing and filming "What Comes After," Scott Gimple didn't just "forget" what Beth was wearing the last time we saw her in "Coda" (highly unlikely lol), her missing sweater in Rick's hallucination suggests one of two possibilities:
1. The last time Rick saw Beth, it was without her sweater. This would be odd, considering the fact that she was wearing her sweater during the shooting in "Coda." This seems to suggest that Team Family took it off of her at some point, which is possible. Perhaps it was too bloodied up, so they took it off before they set off to bury her? This, of course, doesn't explain the appearance of blood all over Beth's arm in Rick's hallucination, just the absence of the sweater. So here's another possibility:
2. The other possibility is that Daryl told Rick what Beth was wearing under her sweater. Why would he do this? Most TDers believe that after Grady, the group was ambushed by a large horde of walkers while moving to bury Beth at a white church. They had to stash Beth's body, likely in the backseat or trunk of a car, in order to escape, with plans to go back later to get her. When they went back, she was gone. The group would have then assumed she'd turned and stumbled away and conducted a thorough search of the area. If they found her sweater, at any point during the search, then Daryl would tell the group what Beth was wearing under the sweater so they could more easily spot her: a yellow, short-sleeved polo. Hence, Rick's knowledge.
Beth's sweater being lost or *missing*, as a theory and in Rick's hallucination, is consistent with what we see in the flash: Beth, without her sweater, on the run. In fact, the very notion of Beth taking off her sweater to reveal the yellow polo underneath is foreshadowed directly in "Still," when Daryl covers her in blood spatter after beating a walker to death with a golf club. Beth, having just put on a new white cardigan, takes it off quickly when he does this, as if she is embarrassed. It's almost like they want us, very clearly, to remember her this way, ie: the way she's dressed at the moonshine shack during this very intense and emotional scene with Daryl.
It also seems as if they want us to understand that Beth, as she likes to dress in light colors, is sensitive to being covered in blood. One can imagine that her sweater was probably covered in quite a lot of blood after she was shot in the head. I'll come back to this, ie: what might have happened to Beth after Grady.
But for now, back to "What Comes After." Just like in the flash, Beth is shown in Rick's hallucination with blood all over her right arm.
Coincidence? Lol. Many ppl have pointed out that this is greatly bizarre. Even though Beth was shot in the head, there's no blood shown in her hair, or on her shirt in Rick's hallucination, just a bunch all over her right arm, which is also absent her cast. We obviously have no explanation for why there would be blood splattered on her upper arm like that, or why her cast is missing. Is it possible a walker bit her cast off? And that they found it, as well as the sweater? I don't know! It's headcanon from here.
There IS an explanation, however, for why there's no blood on her shirt in Rick's memory. She was wearing her sweater when she got shot, which would have absorbed most of it. But then why isn't she wearing the sweater in the memory? This is the magic question. I doubt it was to spare the audience the appearance of blood and guts. We've seen much, much worse over the years.
In any case, despite the fact that we have no idea why there would be blood all over Beth's arm, or what actually happened to Beth's sweater (or her cast), we now have two different visual examples which suggest that, at some point after being shot, Beth hurt her right arm and had to remove her sweater.
Theories for what happened: I have speculated that when TF found Beth's sweater, either one sleeve was missing or terribly bloodied, which would explain the picture Rick's subconscious conjured, with blood all over Beth's right arm, as well as the bloody appearance of Beth's right arm in the flash. Along with @twdmusicboxmystery and @wdway, we've come up with all sorts of scenarios which could result in this, ie: the sleeve was snagged on something in the car during her escape (or removal) and had to be cut off. Or it was cut off to staunch the bleeding on her arm. She may have been shot, cut, or bitten. We believe Beth may have some immunity to Wildfire, based on the cure theory, which holds that Edwards was conducting cure research at Grady, using radiation therapy to help patients survive the virus and to develop antibodies (similar to what happens to Alicia in Fear, who is bitten on the wrist and survives the fever).
Christ symbolism: I've also drawn a possible connection between Beth's sweater and the mythical Shroud of Turin, which is mythologized as the shroud that Christ was buried in, in his resurrection tomb. In the Gospel of John, we learn that it was Mary Magdalene who first discovered that the tomb was empty, and that Christ wasn't there, though there were linens left behind:
20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
There are a couple versions of the language used, in different Biblical accounts, but each holds that the door to the tomb was essentially open, ie: the "stone was rolled away" or "the stone had been removed." Christ was gone, but linens remained.
After her discovery, Mary Magdalene "stood outside the tomb crying" (John 20:11). This imagery, as well as the chaos which seemed to have ensued after the discovery of Christ's empty tomb, feels consistent with what we *feel* happened, and what we see only in flashes in the opening sequence of "What Happened and What's Going On."
We can see Daryl running here, toward the car, but he's not holding Beth. What happened to her? Where did she go?
The following shot, in particularly, of Maggie crying outside the open car door, also greatly conjures popular imagery of Christ's empty tomb, and Mary Magdalene crying outside the open door, with the "stone rolled away."
You can see how, despite the fact that it's all circumstantial, we have managed to piece together a rough puzzle of what might have happened that day: Beth's body was preserved in a tomb (the trunk or backseat of a car). When Mary Magdalene (Daryl and/or Maggie) went to check on Jesus's (Beth's) body on the third day, Jesus (Beth) was gone, and only the shroud (Beth's sweater) remained.
It's also widely speculated that Beth might, at some point, have visited Terminus while tracking Daryl and found his poncho, a garment which has specific ties to Daryl and Maggie.
This is obviously pure speculation, but it would be a quaint parallel to Daryl finding her sweater during his search. Something else to consider from season 4 is that Mary from Terminus wore her own sweater which featured a prominent chevron pattern.
Beth's sweater also has a very prominent chevron pattern, as well as a herringbone stitch, which is chevron-shaped.
There is also a reminder of "Mary" in the opening sequence of "Coda," in which Father Gabriel finds a Bible near the spot where Bob's leg was amputated by the Termites. The Bible belongs to a "Mary B."
Also, if you look closely at the watercolor landscape of the house featured in the beginning of WHAWGO, you can see that the first name of the painter seems to be "Mary Frances." This is quite a few Marys for it to be "coincidence." Three to be exact. Remember that at the crucifixion of Christ in the Bible, there were three Marys.
Several years ago, @wdway drew a connection between the chevron pattern and the imagery of the Holy Grail, which is heavily featured in the Dan Brown novel The DaVinci Code. *Not* coincidentally, Scott Gimple used to write for the TV spin-off to the franchise called "DaVinci's Demons" and has claimed inspiration from the books in the past. We have paid close attention too to The DaVinci Code as it takes place largely in Paris, with many great revelations taking place in the Louvre, what we know to be an upcoming setting for Daryl Dixon season 2. @frangipanilove has also done an excellent series on Daryl as a Mary Magdalene figure, with symbolic ties to The DaVinci Code. Everyone should read it!!
Back to the sweater and the Missing 17 Days: A lot of ppl also believe that it may have been Morgan who found Beth, alive, and brought her back to Grady. Though we have no real evidence for this at all, the speculation comes from the fact that Morgan shows up in the coda to "Coda," that he seems to have been tracking Rick and his people, and he seemingly knows something we don't, re: his wise yet inexplicable laughter, while praying at the altar at the end, which seems to come as the result of an epiphany (Christ has risen again?)
Morgan (or, of course, whoever found Beth) may have removed her sweater if she was burning a fever, or again, if the sleeve was caught on something, and he was in a hurry to get her out of there. The sweater may have also been removed to staunch the bleeding from a head wound.
Tyreese being bitten on the arm and having his arm amputated in WHAWGO could also be commentary on what happened to Beth and/or her sweater. In Tyreese's hallucination, however, note that Beth IS wearing her sweater. My guess is that this is because Tyreese didn't search for Beth, and so he didn't have that information, about her short-sleeved polo. He most likely stayed behind to look after Judith and Carol, who was still badly injured from being hit by a car. It's also entirely possible that Gimple hadn't devised the exact details yet of the Missing 17 Days, though I find that hard to believe.
We might also return to the episode 5.15 "Try," in which Daryl and Aaron find a blond walker, tied to a tree, naked.
When Daryl approaches the walker to look at her face, he seems greatly distressed. The fact that the walker is naked, or missing all of her clothes, while it's most definitely commentary on Daryl's greatest fears, could also be commentary on Beth's missing sweater. If she was missing her sweater, what else could have happened? Daryl's subconscious in those weeks following Grady is a scary place to try and explore.
I also want to quickly comment on the imagery of Beth and Lizzy/Mica from Tyreese's hallucination in WHAWGO. Beth is at the helm of the hallucination, holding her guitar, or an instrument of joy. At her feet are Lizzy and Mica.
It's interesting to me that the three of them are grouped together in this vision. Though it's a bit of a stretch, it reminds me of further imagery from the Gospel of John, in which we get the story of Mary Magdalene's discovery of Christ's empty tomb. After Mary realized that Christ's body was gone, she started to cry, and she saw "two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot." The imagery of Beth and the girls, as well as Bob, "driving" Tyreese home to heaven, has always reminded me of angelic intervention.
All of this discussion, of course, hinges with the flash, which was one of TD's first and more important major bits of evidence that Beth survived the gunshot. With the revelation that Beth is missing her sweater in both the flash AND Rick's hallucination, we have new indication that Beth may have lost her sweater at some point after she was shot, a question that, despite all the speculation in the world, we still don't have an answer for. And yet, Gimple asks it. Why??
Obviously these are all just theories, or "highly informed speculation," as I like to call it lol. But it's a pretty fun bunch of theories to entertain!! To learn whether there is a shred of truth to ANY of this, of course, we'll just have to wait and see. 💫
***For more reading on the flash, check out this extremely helpful tag at @bethgreeneishopeunseen's blog and this video from @twdmusicboxmystery
Thank you so much! I’ve always viewed the flash as pivotal towards Beth surviving and wanted to explain it to my husband but was unsure if it was necessarily relevant anymore. Absolutely amazing analysis, hubby even agreed that it would make most sense for Beth to appear in DDS2.
