Here’s how the events of The Walking Dead season 10 episode 6 signified a major villain first for the zombie apocalypse show. Since The Walking Dead started back in 2010, Rick Grimes and his allies have come up against a number of different villains. In the early seasons there was Rick’s BFF-turned-enemy Shane Walsh, the megalomaniacal Governor or the cannibals of Terminus who would’ve made mincemeat (quite literally) out of Rick and company if Carol hadn’t saved the day. More recently, there was the nihilistic Wolves, bat-wielding psychopath Negan and his not-so-merry band of Saviors and the skin-wearing Whisperers.
The Walking Dead villains have often overlapped too. Season 4, for example, introduced three new groups of antagonists – the Claimers, the Terminus cannibals and the Grady Memorial Hospital gang – who shared the same stomping ground in Georgia. Similarly, both the Wolves and Saviors appeared in The Walking Dead’s sixth season and roamed the same areas in Virginia, although their paths never crossed. While the Saviors formed (or rather coerced) alliances with other antagonists like the Scavengers or Hilltop leader Gregory, the show has rarely seen two primary villains teaming up – until The Walking Dead season 10 episode 6, that is.
Titled “Bonds”, The Walking Dead season 10 episode 6 saw the worlds of two villains collide when Negan sought out Whisperer leader Alpha after he escaped from Alexandria's jail a couple of episodes earlier. Alpha’s second-in-command Beta wasn’t too impressed with Negan wanting to join their ranks but by the end of “Bonds”, the former Savior had seemingly won Alpha over. Perhaps it was Negan’s assertion the Whisperers would have to bust out an extra-long tape measure for his skinsuit on account of his “humongous b***s," or maybe it was how he willingly submitted to her in the closing scenes. Either way, the episode marked a major villain first by uniting two of The Walking Dead’s main villains.
In the episodes that followed The Walking Dead season 10 episode 6, Alpha and Negan got a lot closer too. They consummated their newfound alliance in “Squeeze” with a rather creepy sexual encounter during which Alpha kept her walker mask on the whole time, while “Morning Star” saw the pair engage in a spot of light BDSM before joining the Whisperers and leading a zombie horde to attack Hilltop. Hashtag couple goals indeed.
However, subsequent episodes of The Walking Dead season 10 would prove Negan’s supposed alliance with Alpha wasn’t all it seemed. It soon turned out Negan was in cahoots with Carol to bring down the Whisperers, which he helped along by killing Alpha and chopping off her head. Despite looking like he was about to return to his villainous ways with Alpha in tow, it seems Negan’s redemption arc was for real after all.