Ten people died during The Walking Dead’s fair in the season 9 episode, “The Calm Before”, and it will eventually become the impetus for the Whisperer War. After Andrew Lincoln exited The Walking Dead as Rick Grimes, the Saviors’ story and role as the series’ villains had come to an end. And in order to really show that The Walking Dead had moved on, a six-year time jump occurred that set every character and every community on a new path.

Part of that new path meant coming in contact with another adversarial group — the Whisperers, who were led by the sadistic and psychotic Alpha. After the Whisperers’ first altercation with The Walking Dead’s core characters in the season 9 midseason finale, a string of events — namely Lydia’s capture, release, and escape — culminated in the Whisperers secretly attacking the Kingdom during the first-ever inter-community fair. And that, unfortunately, led to several major deaths in The Walking Dead season 9 episode, “The Calm Before”.

Everyone Who Died In “The Calm Before”

The Whisperers Killed 10 TWD Characters – Including Some Major Ones

In The Walking Dead fair, during season 9’s, “The Calm Before”, 10 characters were killed off, including multiple big names that have been a part of the show for many years. While more than 10 characters from The Walking Dead died throughout the episode (namely the people from Hilltop attending the fair), Alpha and her Whisperers ensured that 10 key deaths were incredibly shocking.

Not only did Alpha and the Whisperers kill them, but they decapitated them too and placed their reanimated heads on pikes to send a message to the other communities. Plus, in order to retain the shock-factor, instead of killing off Ezekiel (which was teased when Alpha/Debra found him at the fair), fan-favorite Henry was killed off instead.

Ozzy (Highwaymen)

Ozzy (Angus Sampson) was one of the characters Alpha killed in The Walking Dead who hadn’t been around that long before they became a victim of the massacre at the fair. A member of the Highwaymen, Ozzy first appeared in season 9, episode 13, “Chokepoint”, and was the leader of his group. It was Ozzy who was pivotal in the Highwaymen becoming allies with the Kingdom and, later, the Coalition.

The loss of Ozzy may not have been the most emotional for viewers, but it was shocking. As the leader of the Highwaymen, it seemed likely that Ozzy would be around in TWD much longer, and his execution showed that Alpha was out to create as much discord in the Coalition as possible. Ozzy was killed alongside Alek and D.J. while trying to save a group of Coalition citizens the Whisperers were holding captive in a barn.

Alek (Highwaymen)

Like Ozzy, Alek (Jason Kirkpatrick) was a short-lived character in The Walking Dead, and only appeared in “The Calm Before” prior to being decapitated by Alpha and the Whisperers. Alek is one of the Highwaymen alongside Ozzy and D.J., and he was clearly quite a capable survivor and ally. He’s seen helping clear the roads prior to the fair, and doesn’t hesitate to take the fight to the Whisperers when he, Ozzy, and D.J. discover a group of kidnapped survivors in a barn.

Alek was the only character Alpha killed at the fair who died during the same episode they were introduced, and is perhaps the most minor TWD character to have his head on one of Alpha’s pikes. As an interesting bit of trivia, Alek is also the only member of the Highwaymen who never appeared in the show as an antagonist, and actor Jason Kirkpatrick originally auditioned for the role of Ozzy.

D.J. (Alexandria)

D.J. (played by Matt Mangum) had appeared in 16 episodes of The Walking Dead before being killed by Alpha, and this meant he was one of the more shocking victims of the massacre at the fair. D.J.’s death was especially surprising given that his character had gone through something of a redemption arc during his time on TWD. D.J. was first introduced as one of the central members of the Saviors, and was Jed’s right hand man during the internal Savior rebellion.

By the time the fair arrived, D.J. was an incredibly important member of the community in Alexandria. His narrative arc seemed to be cementing his place as one of the new central characters in The Walking Dead, which made it all the more shocking when his head appeared among the 10 that Alpha and the Whisperers beheaded to send a message.

Frankie (Alexandria)

Of all the characters Alpha kills at the fair in The Walking Dead, Frankie (Elyse Nicole DuFour) is perhaps the one with the most tragic run on the show overall. Appearing in 7 episodes of The Walking Dead after she first appeared in season 7, episode 7, “Sing Me A Song”, Frankie was one of Negan Smith’s “wives” while he was in charge of the Saviors.

Frankie had appeared to find some happiness as the show went on though, moving to Alexandria and adopting a daughter. This made her death in “The Calm Before” all the more emotional, as she’d worked incredibly hard to move past the trauma left both by the apocalypse and being used by Negan. Frankie was one of the Coalition citizens kidnapped by Alpha and held in a barn to be slaughtered by the Whisperers — though she did manage to take out a handful of her captors before Alpha beheaded her.

Tammy Rose (Hilltop)

Tammy Rose Sutton (Brett Butler) appeared in six episodes of The Walking Dead prior to her death, and was first seen in the season 9 episode “A New Beginning”. She resided in Hilltop with her husband and son, and also adopted on of the orphaned babies abandoned by the Whisperers. She was the eldest of all the characters Alpha beheaded in “The Calm Before”, and was among those the Whisperers kidnapped and held hostage in the barn.

Despite her age, Tammy managed to kill several walkers and a few Whisperers during the struggle in the barn, though she mainly focused on keeping Rodney safe. Like Frankie, Tammy’s death was particularly emotional due to the journey she’d already had on the show. A motherly and maternal figure, Tammy was an incredibly likeable presence on TWD, so seeing her head on one of Alpha’s pikes was definitely a jarring moment.

Adeline (Hilltop)

Adeline, or as she was known to friends, Addy (Kelley Mack), was one of the younger characters killed by the Whisperers in the fair episode of The Walking Dead. Given her youth, it was a guarantee her death would shock audiences, and also showed that Alpha and her group wanted to send a message rather than simply eliminate members of the Coalition who could be a problem for the Whisperer’s down the line.

Adeline first appeared in the season 9 episode “Stradivarius”, and was one of several Hilltop residents among Alpha’s victims. While only appearing in 5 episodes, Addy had several interactions with main characters and a few sub-plots of her own, which seemed to be establishing her as a recurring presence in The Walking Dead. Unfortunately though, this screen time was simply a plot by the creative team to add to the impact of the moment viewers saw her severed head.

Rodney (Hilltop)

Rodney (Joe Ando Hirsh) was another Hilltop resident killed by Alpha who was among those the Whisperer’s had kidnapped and held in a barn. He only appeared in 3 episodes of The Walking Dead, making his debut in season 9’s “Evolution”. Like Adline, Rodney was involved in a few narrative threads that seemed to be setting him up as a recurring character on the show.

While Rodney’s death wasn’t the most shocking among the 10 characters Alpha killed in The Walking Dead fair episode, seeing his head on a pike still hit home for many viewers. This was especially true given that, during their final moments, Tammy had gone out of her way to protect Rodney. Rodney went into a full panic when the fate of the kidnapped group became apparent, which made him an incredibly relatable character.

Tara (Hilltop)

Of all the characters Alpha killed in The Walking Dead, none were more shocking to long-term fans of the show than Tara (Alanna Masterson). Tara had been a recurring character in The Walking Dead since season 4, first appearing in episode 6, “Live Bait”. She eventually became an incredibly prominent member of the Hilltop community, and even became Jesus’ second in command. There was nothing to suggest Tara was at risk of being written out of the show, and it’s perhaps her most of all that reinforced the idea to viewers that nobody was safe while Alpha was the main antagonist.

Considering that Tara was present for the war against the Saviors, and had survived living under the tyrannical thumb of the Governer, her death spoke volumes for just how dangerous Alpha and the Whisperers truly were. What’s more, her final moments prior to the kidnapping included a conversation with Gabriel where they discussed the fact she’d make a good leader, gearing viewers up for Tara taking over from Jesus — which, of course, never happened.

Enid (Hilltop)

Much like Tara, Enid was arguably one of the most surprising characters for Alpha to kill among the 10 victims of The Walking Dead fair episode. Enid (played by Katelyn Nacon) had featured in 38 episodes of the show prior to her final appearance, first debuting in season 5’s “Remember”. She was also, at one point, the girlfriend of Carl Grimes, which, of course, meant she had plenty of screen time and viewers got to know her incredibly well.

However, her romantic entanglement with Carl wasn’t the only reason she felt like a safe character in The Walking Dead. By the time the fair episode arrived, Enid had been undergoing medical training with Siddiq and was operating as the resident doctor for Hilltop. Again like Tara, the show seemed to be setting up new narrative arcs for Enid, all of which came to an abrupt end when she was kidnapped and then beheaded by Alpha.

Henry (Kingdom)

The final longstanding character killed by Alpha in The Walking Dead’s fair episode is Henry (Matt Lintz), a Hilltop resident who was the adopted son of Ezekiel. Henry had been present in 24 episodes of TWD, and dires appeared in season 7’s “The Well”. Of all the victims of Alpha, Henry may have been one of the few ones that was actually personal, since he was the boyfriend of Alpha’s estranged daughter, Lydia, at the time of his death.

Henry’s death was an emotional one for several reasons, including that he was incredibly young (being only 17 at the time), and he was a character viewers had followed since he was a child, since he was only 11 when he debuted. He’d also made arrangements for a date with Lydia after the pair had shared their first kiss earlier on in the fair.

Did Any Other Walking Dead Episode Kill Off So Many Characters?

The Midseason Finale Of Season 9 Remains The Most Decimating To The Cast List

“The Calm Before” remains one of the most brutal and heartbreaking episodes of The Walking Dead to date, and with 10 characters killed by the Whisperers, it also remains one with the highest total deaths. As far as the deaths of named characters goes, it remains the most deadly, as no other episode in the show killed off as many known names in a single sitting. However, there were many episodes of The Walking Dead where far more unnamed background characters were killed to drive the storyline.

There are also many events that took place prior to the start of The Walking Dead timeline as seen on-screen, and these reveal that — as strange as it seems — the characters in the show got off quite lucky. In the season 2 episode “Nebraska”, for example, it’s mentioned that when Fort Benning was overrun during the initial outbreak over 119,000 people were consumed by a herd of walkers. There’s also the case of the Vatos gang, who appeared in season 1 and consisted of over 40 people, later confirmed to have all been killed off-screen (likely by The Governor).

So, while “The Calm Before” was far from the most deadly event in the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead, the episode was unbeaten when it came to the number of named characters being killed off in one go. Their deaths were also among the most shocking on the show, especially due to Alpha’s defilement of their bodies by sticking them on spikes.