Fear the Walking Dead's decision to cut the cord after eight seasons was one met with relief, considering the past few seasons haven't been well-received. Still, there is worry that the show will end on a bad note, even if it promises otherwise. But Fear the Walking Dead does have a secret weapon, as long as they use her to their full advantage.
Premiering in 2015, the first spinoff to The Walking Dead has been a bumpy road throughout its course. The first three seasons started out strong -- even being a worthy competitor to its parent series in its third season -- but fell off the wagon pretty quickly afterward. The reason for the fast decline was startlingly apparent: the series was killing off the Clarks one by one in favor of new characters that didn't fit Fear the Walking Dead's mold. The Clarks were the core of Fear the Walking Dead; the dysfunctional family coming together to survive the apocalypse is what set it apart from The Walking Dead's found family appeal. Now that only one of the Clarks is carrying the torch, it needs another to bring the show back to its roots, and that person is Alicia.
How Alicia Departed Fear the Walking Dead
Much like the rest of Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, Alicia left Fear the Walking Dead in a rather confusing fashion. The youngest Clark oddly spent the majority of Season 7 as a side character in her own story, and when she was on-screen, she was battling a fever set on by a walker bite. Alicia managed to delay her own death by pretending to be a savior for the group -- a great metaphor for the torturous lifespan of Fear the Walking Dead. It wasn't until Season 7, Episode 15, "Amina," that she finally said her goodbyes.
What's strange about this episode is that no one knew beforehand that it would be her last episode. This would be fine if she had died -- which never happened -- but she just strutted off-screen after her fever just magically disappeared after a well-needed nap. The credits rolled, and showrunner Andrew Chambliss announced during the Episode Insider that it was Debnam-Carey's last episode of the series. Her departure could not have come at the worst moment, as it was only the next episode her mother Madison returns after being absent for three seasons. The loyal anticipation for a Madison and Alicia reunion never paid off and was frankly an insult to fans who have stuck around since the beginning.
Alicia Is the Only One Who Can Save the Series Finale
With Alicia gone and Madison back in the picture, there are so few characters to care about in Season 8. Despite a phenomenal performance by Lennie James, Morgan has proven to be a poor lead with wishy-washy motivations. Even more indecisive is Strand, whose character took a turn for the worst in Season 7, but at least has the charm of being a Season 1 original. The other side characters -- June, Charlie, Dwight, Sherry, etc. -- unfortunately suffered from Season 6 and Season 7's anthology format, and were never given proper time to flesh out their storylines. Truthfully, the only hope left for the series is exposing PADRE's inner workings and an Alicia and Madison reunion.
Fear the Walking Dead missed the biggest window possible to reunite the mother-daughter duo, making fans believe that the only reason Madison returned was to replace Alicia. But since Alicia is still alive in The Walking Dead universe, saving people one day at a time in a nuclear warzone, she's not technically out of the picture. The possibility of throwing Alicia back in the mix may be a little difficult to achieve, considering Debnam-Carey left to work on other projects, but even a five-minute hug between the Clarks would suffice.
Alicia's return is a far-fetched chance, but one that could remind viewers what the show intentionally built itself to be. Fear the Walking Dead was never going to be The Walking Dead, so it forged a smaller scale to focus on a singular family and their allies along the way. Down the line, this sentiment gets lost in translation as the family members die off and strangers take their place. Found family works in some scenarios, but in Fear the Walking Dead's instance, the intimate connection between strangers was never made. It's why Alicia and Madison's reunion is so crucial to end the series, allowing just a spark of nostalgia to stay lit.
To see if Alicia makes a comeback, watch Fear the Walking Dead Season 8, which premieres on May 14 on AMC and AMC+.