I think she consciously made the sacrifice. She knew if she got rid of Dawn [whether she missed the throat or not, she figured Dawn would shoot her and then Dawn was toast], then Noah could leave. She sacrificed herself for Noah.

Would it have gone down that nicely in the real world? Perhaps not. But I think that was her thought process.

 

well she couldnt go for a standard prison shanking style because it wouldnt kill Dawn so she went for the throat and Dawn was too quick. i agree tho even if you kill Dawn you risk a shoot off

 

I like this theory^

I thought she was going to give Dawn a hug then make her move knowing she had the scissors/hemostats.

 

Actually, she saw a loose thread on Dawn's shirt and was just trying to snip it off when Dawn shot her.

 

I think that Dawn was manipulative enough that Beth thought they had a slim chance at a relationship. When she (Beth), realized that Dawn was going to make demands, she decided to become the agressor. It's so regrettable. So sad. What if she had felt like she could just trust Rick? Different result?

 

On TD Emily made it sound like she was trying to kill her and was not trying to sacrifice herself. Which makes it much more sad...

 

if she were trying to sacrifice herself, why didn't she offer to stay in lieu of Noah. She would still be alive and always have a chance to escape. I think Dawn would have agreed with that bargain.

 

I seriously thought she was gonna hug her too. Then BLAMMO....FAARRRKKK!

 

Exactly! The whole thing was just downright stupid.

You can't explain it, because the only explanation is that the writers are damn stupid and gave her a stupid shitty ending that was lame and without reason. Pathetic. I'm honestly pretty pissed, and I don't even like Beth that much.

 

Me, too. I thought it'd be a fake hug, so she could put this scissors into the base of her head.

 

Possibly because she understood Dawn very well, and knew that Dawn allowing Beth to set the terms for rearranging the negotiation would have made Dawn look even weaker, thus Dawn probably wouldn't have agreed to it. So she just took the more direct route? I honestly think Dawn would have turned down that deal, because nothing makes you look less in control than allowing one of your hostages to set the terms.

 

EK said on TTD that Beth got overconfident in herself, I think she thought she could pull off killing her, and when she hugged Noah and looked over at Dawn I think she just saw red and went for it.

 

Then that's incredibly stupid. Dawn is a trained cop for years, whatever training Beth had came after the ZA. I think she knew there wouldn't be a showdown with the other cops once she killed Dawn because they wanted her gone, but still that risk with a scissors was just stupid. I don't know how the writers would justify that. I really thought it was going to go down with her offering to stay rather than Noah since Dawn said she had replaced him. And then when she goes over to Dawn, Dawn kills her as a way of trying to regain respect from the cops/showing them she doesn't accept the ward's terms and then Daryl kills Dawn.

 

The gun accidentally went off...

 

No, no, I know that. I'm just saying it would have made more sense for Dawn to intentionally kill her just because they were trying to do the whole good cop/bad cop throughout the season and to make it switch back and forth so much in the finale made little sense. If they wanted Dawn to be the bad cop after all then they should have made her intentionally kill Beth. By Beth stupidly trying to kill Dawn who had more training just means that she wouldn't have succeeded coming at her with a scissors just because with Dawn's training she should have a pretty quick reaction to avoid that and Beth should have known better.

 

I'm not sure I'd quite go that far. It went off because Dawn pulled the trigger in the heat of the moment, because her person was being threatened. Then later she regretted it.

 

yes, like a complete imbecile. All Beth did was put everyone else in danger With her silly move..

 

Reflex made Dawn pull the trigger. And I don't really think she was a villain. Definitely a threat that needed to be dealt with, but not an all out villain. Just a broken person that wanted to do good but lost who they were. Writers should've let Beth get her in the throat right before getting blown away. Then everyone on both sides should've stood around Dawn and watched her die. Would've been better in my opinion.