Rachel Ward (TV Series)

This article is about the TV Series character. You may be looking for the Comic Series character or the unseen TV Series character.

Rachel Ward
Actor	Mimi Kirkland (S7-S9) Avianna Mynhier (S9-S10)
Gender	Female
Hair	Brown
Age	10-12 (Season 7) 11-13 ("A New Beginning") 17-19 ("Who Are You Now?") 18-20 (Season 10)
Occupation	Student (Pre-Apocalypse) Former Member of the Militia (Post-Apocalypse) Fisher for Oceanside (Post-Apocalypse) Soldier for the Coalition (Post-Apocalypse)
Family	Unknown
Ethnicity	Caucasian-American
Status	Alive
First Appearance	"Swear"

“

I was gonna kill you on sight when you washed up on our shore. ―Rachel to Tara.

”

Rachel Ward is a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's The Walking Dead. During the fair, she becomes the representative of the Oceanside community due to their leader's absence and signed the allied pact between the communities to form the Coalition.

Overview

Rachel is introduced as a cunning, somewhat cruel and formidable girl who is a very strong and determined survivor. Like a majority of her fellow Oceanside survivors following their enslavement and punishment at the hands of the Saviors, Rachel has become a battle hardened survivor willing to do whatever it takes in order to protect herself and those she cares about from harm. She is shown to be very capable of cold blooded murder as she suggested killing both Tara and Aaron and appears to be very enthusiastic about removing anything she perceives as a threat and is very untrustworthy towards strangers to her group. Even at an early age she is very formidable and effective in combat, being able to take Walkers down herself and also helping to kill an entire group of Saviors with Molotov cocktails. She is somewhat rude as well as seen when she spits at Tara's feet while the latter was being escorted out of Oceanside.

Even after the end of the war against the Saviors, Rachel is still shown to be bloodthirsty and fully agrees with her group members taking revenge against members of the Saviors, notably Justin and Arat, who were responsible for slaughtering their people following their failed rebellion, proving that Rachel deeply hates the Saviors and will never forgive nor forget their atrocities and even tried to help Maggie take her revenge on Negan by lying to Rick about passing along a message forbidding Maggie from entering Alexandria.

6 years later, Rachel is shown to have matured into an intelligent young woman and an effective group leader and does not appear to be as bloodthirsty anymore due to the Saviors being completely disbanded though she is still willing to provide combat training to help fight back against the Whisperers, showing she is still willing to protect against and neutralize threats. She is shown to want to maintain strong relationships with her allies and work together closely again in order to ensure a prosperous future.

Pre-Apocalypse

Location Unknown

Nothing is known about Rachel's life prior to or as the outbreak began.

Post-Apocalypse

Virginia

Rachel survived the early stages of the outbreak and eventually found herself as a member of a large group of survivors led by a woman named Natania. Unfortunately, her group would be discovered by a large, hostile organization of survivors led by Simon (who later became Negan's ruthless and sadistic second-in-command) and under his orders, Rachel and her people were forced to gather and provide supplies for them under threat of death. Eventually, under Natiana's orders, the group initiated a rebellion to fight back against their oppressors. However, due to being outgunned and outnumbered, their group was defeated. As punishment for their defiance and to deter any further resistance, Simon had his group murder every male survivor above the age of 10 in Rachel's group. It is unknown if any of Rachel's family were among the casualties of the rebellion or subsequent massacre.

Following this and being unwilling to continue working for Simon and his group, Rachel and her group, consisting mainly of females now, fled their community and established a new home at a location called Oceanside and reestablished their community hidden from them. In order to prevent Simon and his group from finding them again, Natania ordered any survivor who happened upon the community to be immediately killed in order to maintain the secrecy of their new home. Rachel overtime developed into a bloodthirsty killer willing to slaughter any outside survivor of her group.

Season 7

"Swear"

Rachel is walking along the shoreline with Cyndie and puts down a walker with her spear. She soon spots an unconscious woman and is about to stab her in the head but Cyndie stops her, despite Rachel stating that they must kill anyone they come across. After promising not to snitch on Cyndie, she walks away.

When Tara follows Cyndie back to Oceanside, Rachel stops her from fleeing and raises her gun at her face. Once again, Cyndie steps in and tells Rachel to lower her weapon. The next morning, Rachel is at the outdoor tables with the other residents when she spits at Tara's feet as she leaves the community to provoke her but Tara gives her the middle finger.

"Something They Need"

In the following weeks, Tara leads her group to Oceanside to gather guns from the community's armory. When bombs begin to go off in the outskirts of Oceanside, Rachel flees with most of the other women and children, until they are stopped by a few Alexandrians. She sits with the fellow residents in the woods with their hands behind their heads.

When Natania and Cyndie talk about fighting the Saviors, Rachel seems somewhat interested in joining the battle. Shortly after, she is among the survivors to help defend the Oceanside residents from walkers. After the deal is over, Rachel watches as the Alexandrians take the guns. She also asks Tara why they're not leaving them with any but Tara responds telling her sorry and giving her the middle finger, once again.

Season 8

"The Lost and the Plunderers"

When Cyndie must decide whether to kill Aaron and Enid or not, Rachel suggests that they kill them on the shore for their actions. However, Cyndie lets them live, but refuses to join the fight against the Saviors, and warns them never to come back to their community.

"Worth"

Upon returning from fishing, Rachel and some Oceansiders watch as an emaciated and weak Aaron kills a walker nearby before collapsing. Having been spotted in the area often by the women, Aaron is ignored except for Beatrice to tell him to find something to drink. Later that day, Rachel and the residents find an exhausted Aaron, begging them to join the fight against the Saviors as they would otherwise continue to be fearful of the outside world.

"Wrath"

Just as the Saviors arrived at the Hilltop to slaughter the people inside, Rachel, along with Kathy, Cyndie, and several Oceanside warriors, ambush the bandits with Molotov cocktails, effectively wiping them out and saving the town.

Season 9

"Warning Signs"

Rachel is present at her former community and watches on as Arat is set to be executed for her heinous involvement in the murder and execution of the people of Oceanside, especially Cyndie's younger brother.

"The Obliged"

Rachel is one of the relays between the communities and work camp, passing along messages between the groups. She receives a message from Rick stating that Maggie is not to be let into Alexandria without an escort and Rachel replies that she will pass along the message. However, she was lying and proceeds to ignore Rick's request and resumes reading her magazine, believing that Maggie deserves her own personal revenge on the Saviors just as the Oceanside women got their revenge on the Saviors.

"The Calm Before"

In the years following Rick's presumed death, Rachel spent much of her adolescence in her community and eventually became Cyndie's right-hand woman. Six years later, Rachel is among the Hilltop residents that assist the fair in the Kingdom. She watches from the crowd as Ezekiel declares they’ve finally accomplished Rick, Carl, and Jesus' dreams of reuniting the communities. “Let the fair of a new beginning begin!” Ezekiel says as everyone celebrates and applauds.

When the communities leaders reunite inside the theather, Rachel and the representatives discuss the Whisperers situation and she reminds Tara that she was gonna kill her when they first met. Eventually, they decide to grant asylum to Lydia in Alexandria, send some soldiers to Hilltop to guard against any potential attacks from the Whisperers and to re-establish the charter. Rachel then signs as a representative of Oceanside. Later that day, she talks with Tara and Gabriel about looking for areas for the residents to train in case of a fight, and proposes the beach.

The next day, Rachel listens from the crowd as Siddiq delivers the tragic news about the fate of the missing fair attendees, tells them how brave the victims were in their final moments and how he was intentionally kept alive to tell this very story. He encourages everyone to remember the fallen as brave heroes and to honor them. 

Season 10

"Lines We Cross"

Some months after the blizzard, Rachel and the Coalition form a militia in order to train the several residents of the communities to face any future treats. She takes part in a training exercise on the Oceanside beach. As Ezekiel and Jerry methodically release walkers from a shipwrecked boat, Rachel and the other militia work together as a unit to take out the walker threat.

Later that day, Rachel helps the Oceanside residents pull some fishing nets from the sea. She tries to warn Kelly of stepping on some shells but is unsuccessful due to Kelly's increasing hearing loss. When a satellite falls from the sky, Rachel is radioed by Eugene and immediately informs Michonne he needs to talk to her.

That night, Rachel and the others decide to cross Alpha's border to put out the fire and avoid it burning down Oceanside. They discover the remains of the satellite and start combating the fire. Some use water while others dig a means to prevent the fire from spreading until the morning arrives. The group runs out of water as a herd of walkers approaches the group. With their backs to the fire, the group prepares for a fight.

Rachel and the group take their formations and start fighting off the herd. As they keep killing the walkers, Daryl tosses an axe to cut a tree down and have it fall onto some walkers. Later, the fire is put out and everyone recovers.  

"Silence the Whisperers"

Rachel radios Hilltop and informs Michonne that there has been some sighting of possible Whisperer activity around Oceanside and asks for assistance in case of a possible attack against the community.

"The World Before"

When Michonne and a group arrive at Oceanside, Rachel is informed about Siddiq's death and that Dante was an undercover Whisperer. Upon being asked about the arrival of newcomers, she says that they had been welcoming people since before the satellite crashed. As Michonne suggests they use another system to vet newcomers, Rachel witnesses as her fellow residents bring a man to the camp and accuse him of trying to steal one of the boats as well as being the Whisperer who was spying on them before.  

While the stranger begs he simply wants to get back to his family, Rachel threatens to kill him for messing with the security system, claiming they had killed other men in the past for less than that. When walkers suddenly invade, she helps take out the threat and secure the community. The next day, Rachel accepts Michonne's deal with Virgil of bringing back weapons to pay off his debts in exchange for one of the boats. 

Killed Victims

This list shows the victims Rachel has killed:

• At least 18 unnamed Saviors (Alongside her fellow Oceansiders)
• Numerous counts of zombies

Appearances

TV Series Season 7 "Swear" "Something They Need" Season 8 "The Lost and the Plunderers" "Worth" "Wrath" (No Lines) Season 9 "Warning Signs" (No Lines) "The Obliged" "The Calm Before" Season 10 "Lines We Cross" "Silence the Whisperers" (Voice Only) "The World Before"

Trivia

• Rachel's last name, Ward, was not revealed until "The Calm Before" as she signed the community charter.
• With the deaths of Henry, Addy, and Rodney in "The Calm Before", Rachel is now one of only four surviving, named teenage characters, the others being Lydia, Gage, and Alice.
  • She also is one of nine characters introduced in Season 7 that are confirmed to be alive, the others being Ezekiel, Jerry, Dianne, Laura, Cyndie, Quan, Nabila, and Oscar.