Throughout the course of ten seasons of The Walking Dead, the main group of characters has come up against a lot of intimidating, unexpected, and downright strange enemies that have posed a serious threat to their way of life and survival. But the newest adversary that the group finds themselves up against may just be the strangest and most dangerous of all: the Whisperers.
The Whisperers are a group of human survivors who seem to be barely human. Their survival philosophy seems to be that abandoning everything about themselves that seemed human is the only way to stay alive in the long-term, and they use the walkers to their own advantage. Instead of running from zombies, they skin the faces off of walkers, wear them as masks, and walk among the walkers to keep themselves safe. Although they are a unique and intimidating threat, some things about their existence and way of life just don't make any sense. Here are the most obvious examples.
Their Food Sources
Now it's always possible that the Whisperers have all gone vegetarian, but something that doesn't make any sense about their continued survival is the fact that they likely need to eat some sort of meat and yet are constantly surrounded by dozens, hundreds, or thousands of walkers. Moving in a horde of walkers could work in the short-term, but how do they ever come across any living animals that haven't been devoured by the walkers before they even arrive? And if they are subsisting on plants, how easy is it to come across enough food to survive when they're nomadic and not farming?
Breaking Character
It seems to be incredibly convenient for the Whisperers to walk within a herd of zombies when they're trying to travel, but when they're not moving it's hard to understand how they still manage all of their zombies.
Theoretically, they could have people who are always in character and on watch at different times of the day, but as we've already seen in the few episodes where the Whisperers have been present, there are always moments in which they can't keep acting like walkers and they have to act like normal people. It's hard to believe that this lifestyle is one that can be constantly maintained.
Their Recruitment Strategy
It's not hard to believe that some people may have gone straight feral in the zombie apocalypse, but the vast majority of people that seem to exist now also seem to want to retain some semblance of human life, only turning to animalistic behavior in response to some serious trauma. Perhaps everyone in the Whisperers has been traumatized into accepting this kind of existence, but there simply isn't a lot of appeal to the life that Alpha and the rest of the Whisperers want to live. Survival can only get you so far, and when remaining part of the group requires things like letting your own child die, it seems like it'd be hard to maintain unity.
Maintaining Their Herd
As Alpha demonstrated to Daryl, the herd of walkers that the Whisperers have under their control looks to be in the thousands. While it's believable that they may be able to wrangle that number of zombies for a certain amount of time, it's difficult to buy that the Whisperers could control that many walkers indefinitely. Walkers are mindless beings that are drawn to anything that could possibly get their attention, so it's hard to believe that in a world where satellites are crashing from the sky, there aren't significant distractions that have caused the Whisperers to lose control of their herd.
Their Endgame
The endgame of the Whisperers doesn't seem to make any sense, because they don't seem to have any endgame in mind at all. Granted, their whole philosophy is returning back to humanity's greatest animal impulses, but what exactly is the point of their existence beyond that?
Even the most psychotic villains in TWD history like Negan and the Governor had specific goals that they wanted to achieve beyond just staying alive. It seems like it would be very hard for Alpha to manage such a large group of people without giving them anything to look forward to or aspire to in life.
Whisperer Territory
Clearly Alpha and the rest of the Whisperers are extremely possessive over their territory, and it seems like the main TWD group ran afoul of the Whisperers because they unknowingly crossed into Whisperer land. However, it's hard to understand how that whole scenario is possible. The Whisperers may have been traveling for most of their existence and acquired territory as they've moved, but if that's the case, then how have they maintained possession of the land they've left behind? Or on the other hand, if they were always in possession of this particular land, then how is it that the group has never crossed paths with them before now?
Double Standards
One can only assume that this is a problem that will only grow as time goes on, but one of the clearest issues with the Whisperers, and more importantly with Alpha's leadership, is that Alpha seems to employ some very significant double standards when it comes to herself versus the rest of the group. Alpha was more than happy to tell one of her own followers to leave her baby to die when the baby couldn't stop crying, but Alpha's obsession with reclaiming Lydia or even just keeping Lydia alive has led her to make a lot of decisions that don't seem to gel with her alleged personal philosophy. It's strange that this hasn't caused more unrest within the group.
Attacking Civilization
After a lot of mystery surrounding the bad luck that seems to be striking all of the communities in The Walking Dead, it was finally officially confirmed that the Whisperers are the ones causing all of these issues in the civilizations that they've been having conflict with. However, that seems to be an incredibly senseless, risky strategy.
All of the communities were already following the rules of the Whisperers. Although Alpha appears to be interested in completely overtaking them, it seems like this plan could very easily backfire because if they are continually attacking the communities anyway. The remaining people might as well just declare all-out war on the Whisperers.
Psychotic Leadership
Again, this is something that isn't entirely impossible to believe, but it does seem to stretch the boundaries of believability. That is to say, the people who lead the Whisperers, namely Alpha and Beta, seem to have no appealing qualities as people and act like downright psychopaths. It is possible that they have gotten people to follow them through fear, but that seems like a pretty unstable societal structure, and it seems unlikely that a situation like that would last for a very long time. So it's hard to believe that hundreds of normal people would just roll with this, or even worse, embrace this inhuman philosophy.
Sitting On A Nuclear Bomb
The survival strategy of the Whisperers rests almost entirely on their ability to manage large groups of walkers, and while it is an idea that makes sense on some level, it just doesn't seem like a viable long-term means of survival. Yes, they can intimidate other groups and likely destroy them by overrunning them with walkers, but they are effectively sitting on top of their own nuclear bomb all day, every day. They can lob that bomb in the direction of others, but it's difficult to buy that it won't accidentally blow up in their faces at some point. It's really a surprise that it hasn't already.