Why Did ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ Hate the Best City in Pennsylvania?

My hometown spirit only really comes out when we’re winning in a sporting event or when someone tries to tell me it is not a great city. So here I am, mad at characters in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live for shaming the greatest city in Pennsylvania.

I am talking about Pittsburgh, of course, my beloved place of birth. For some reason, this show really has it out for Pittsburgh. People may not be as tuned into the Steel City, but hearing someone say, “I saved Philadelphia by sacrificing Pittsburgh,” made my Pennsylvania blood run cold. The story that Beale (Terry O’Quinn) is telling Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is that he realized that the Second Civil War in the state of Pennsylvania would destroy it, so he chose to save Philadelphia and leave his hometown of Pittsburgh for ruin.

Literally could not be me.

I probably would have never let this go anyway if this show did not bring up pierogies the episode before! In “Become,” Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira) stumble upon three people who try to attack them for their goods after Rick and Michonne help save their lives. Dalton (Will Brill) makes a joke about how the walkers they encountered are boiled or baked like a pierogi and then said, “I lived in Pittsburgh for a bit.”

Okay, we deserve that one, we literally have pierogies racing at the Pirates baseball games as a bit. But then it goes back to Beale being from Pittsburgh and willingly letting it fall to save Philly. I am sorry, but no one from Pittsburgh would let the Steel City fall for PHILLY.

Maybe it is because only the bad guys hated it?

Personally, I think our downfall as Pittsburghians is that we love this city too much. Everything about Pittsburgh is wild, and it is gray most of the year, but we love it unconditionally because it is our home. If someone else tried to talk down on Pittsburgh, we would not let it stand. So, it just feels not very Pittsburgh of Beale to say, “Well, let me let Pennsylvania win by giving it all up for Philly.”

Sorry but the very Pennsylvania thing to do is to defend your city even when you probably shouldn’t. I have to just believe that is the bad guy energy that Beale is putting out into the world—that even his hometown isn’t safe from his wrath. Every other person from Pittsburgh would go down with the bridges.

Does this all make me sad since I know that we won’t get to see our favorite characters rolling up to a run-down Primanti Bros? Yes, I wish they could go spend a season in the Rivers casino and look at one of the most beautiful skylines to ever exist.

But alas, I have to blame Terry O’Quinn yet again for taking down a good thing when he had the chance. I am just mad my fellow Pittsburghians let him get away with it!

(featured image: AMC)