[Major Plot Spoilers for The Walking Dead]

If you don’t watch the Walking Dead or aren’t caught up to the end of the third season, stop right here.

But if you are caught, you probably hate the character Andrea.

Personally, I didn’t like her on the Walking Dead. She was always making decisions that seemed to be stupid and counterproductive to the group. She was abrasive and combative. She whined about not having her gun. She was headstrong and even had a brief relationship with the antagonist of the first few seasons, Shane.

Meme by grey56



But Andrea was one of the most realistic characters in the show. She reacted like any normal person would.





The Death of Her Sister:

I was shocked when Amy, Andrea’s sister, died in the first season. She was a promising character. She was attractive, a decent actor and the writers built up a relationship with between her and Andrea.

And then with a simple trip to the bathroom, Amy was bit by a walker and died in Andrea’s arms. That was the first major character death in the series and it hit Andrea hard.

Andrea lay with her sister all night long, grieving at her loss. Sad that she didn’t get to know her as well as she might have. Amy was taken from her just as they were beginning to get to know each other.

The others in the group immediately wanted to put a pickaxe through her head and bury her with the rest of their fallen friends. Andrea refused to let them until Amy rose from the dead and Andrea put a bullet through walker Amy head.

Think about how you would feel had your mom, dad or sibling been killed so suddenly. Could you get over it in a night. Would you grieve just as Andrea had? Could you move on from your family member’s death that quickly. Would you let someone put a spike through the head of someone you loved?

Andrea wasn’t acting rationally and the audience was annoyed. But these characters are going through an incredible amount of intense drama. Can you blame her character?





Insistence on Having Her Gun:

Following the first season, Andrea was adamant about having her pistol that her father gave her. The viewers of the show saw that she was untrained and panicked easily but she completely focused on holding onto her gun no matter what. She didn’t know how to use it. She easily panicked and she tried to kill herself at the CDC in Atlanta. Her and Dale had a major confrontation over this issue.

But this is a perfectly reasonable response. Andrea was scared. She saw her sister die in her arms. She had been surrounded by walkers in Atlanta and narrowly escaped. Her gun was her only connection to her past. It had sentimental value and possibly could have saved her dead sister had she acted.

But Andrea represents how most of us would have reacted. We would have been scared. We would have wanted to hold onto whatever form of power we could. We would try and be in control. Even if we didn’t know how to use a complex firearm, we would want it to feel safe.





Helping Beth Choose Life…

Before Beth became a real multidimensional character later in the series, she tried to kill herself at the farm. Andrea left while she was supposed to watch Beth to let Beth try.

Andrea had seen the horrors beyond the farm. She had experience the loss of many friends and her sister already. She knew that to survive this world you had to want to survive. No one can be babysat in this new harsh world.

So Beth cuts herself and she immediately realizes what she’s done. She doesn’t want to die any more. She comes out of the situation harder, willing to live and ready to fight the world.

Again, this is another reason to not like Andrea. But from her personality you can see that she was doing what she thought was best for Beth. Especially since Beth is so young and childlike, we want to protect her. But she can only protect herself.





Voice of Reason for Not Killing a Stranger…

Randall, was morally ambiguous character introduced in the second season. He was part of a very nasty group that left Randall to die, impaled upon a spike in Hershel’s local town. His true character (until the end of the season) was left uncertain. Was he a good person? Would he return with his buddies to the farm?

The second season’s theme was about the loss of humanity within the group. How would the group would come to terms with their new world. Would they kill people who posed a threat? How do you deal with people you’ve just met?

So when the question of whether to execute the other group member, in the end only Andrea and Dale stood behind not killing Randall.

During the debate, Andrea is initially for killing Randall, a huge threat. Again, Andrea is scared and has gone along with the group to eliminate the threat. Only with an impassioned speech from Dale did Andrea switch her opinion.

An extremely realistic portrayal of how someone may react at the end of the world. Initially Andrea gave into her fear instinct. She went along with the group and gave up her pre-dead-rising morals. But after careful thought she switched her mind to side with Dale.

Andrea reacted like a real person. She switched sides instead of becoming set on her goal. As the viewer, we knew that Randall was a bad guy. He hinted he had done some bad things. But Andrea only saw a hurt boy. She reacted with a very human emotion, sympathy.

But viewers of the show react negatively to Andrea’s decisions because we know they are wrong. In the world of The Walking Dead, you kill anyone you don’t know or who hasn’t proven themselves above the badness that people must do to survive.

The Governor:

Andrea fell for the Governor. He helped rescue her at her lowest point. He provided comfort and shelter after a terrible winter. Andrea was on death’s door when she arrived at Woodbury.

From the outset, fans of the comics knew the governor was no good. He is a dark character with a flawed personality. He is a psychopath. He kept walkers heads in fish tanks.

But Andrea didn’t know this. She only saw the charismatic side to the governor. Sure, he could be cold and crass at times, but he put on the air of someone in charge. He was able to bring together a bunch of survivors and keep them safe. Only a select few knew about some of the darker things he did. And Andrea only saw the good side of him.

As before, Andrea was scared and saw someone who she was both attracted to and could help her regain some semblance of her life. After the farm, she had lost everyone, and once Michonne left Woodbury, she was once again alone. All her friends she presumed were dead. She saw the Governor as a leader, someone to help rebuild the world and her life after the dead came back.





Preventing a War:

Which brings me to the most realistic reaction to an impending war, the battle between Woodbury and the Prison.

Most leaders are not psychopaths, and Andrea did what any rational person would do, attempt to stop a war through diplomacy. Throughout history, many conflicts have been solved through hard negotiations between parties. The Camp David Accords ended hostilities between two countries for over 30 years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords). Egypt and Israel had been bitter enemies for centuries, yet after enough negotiations they were able to make a deal and maintain peace.

And if the Governor had been a rational person, willing to co-survive and hammer out a deal, to continue to live peacefully, it would have been the right move.

But Andrea was flawed in her judgement. She did not realize that the governor was a psychopath. She could not see what we the audience saw. The audience saw his zombie daughter locked away, the heads in fish tank, the abuses that he authorized on Glenn and Maggie. What his military crew did to keep supplies coming in.

She wanted so badly to prevent more deaths and live on in a new world.

And Andrea made the right choice based on what she knew.

Andrea saw both Rick and the Governor in the same light. Willing to do what they needed to do to survive, but actually good on the inside. Rick had seen some shit, but he would have negotiated had he the chance.

But the Governor wasn’t that person. He was a psychopath. He killed people who stood in his way or had wronged him. Andrea’s lack of understanding of the Governor ultimately ended her.





She represented all the dumb things we would do if given the choice…



Andrea represented in the audience what we fear the most, being weak or making wrong decisions in the world. The audience was mad that Andrea constantly did the wrong thing, made the wrong choices. But she was human, she couldn’t see the future and she couldn’t see what the show watchers saw. She did the best she could with what she knew.

And those choices were the end of her.

