The following contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 9, "Follow Me," which aired Sunday, April 17, on AMC.
Like its flagship series, Fear the Walking Dead has always been about finding a way to survive. However, life became much more difficult after Teddy set off the nuclear blast at the end of Season 6. Most of the main characters were separated for the first part of Season 7 as everyone tried to shelter from the fallout. Yet one common theme that connected the hodgepodge of episodes: the continued mention of a place called Padre.
Similar to Terminus from The Walking Dead's Season 5, Padre was a mysterious promise of something better... but for most of the season, no one knew exactly what or where it was. Alicia (who will reunite with her mother Madison) gave some vague explanations in the episode called "Padre," but there was still plenty of mystery surrounding the place. However, "Follow Me" completely changed the game in regard to this long-running plot point.
The midseason opener started with Alicia in a fog. As she slowly came to, she found out that a deaf man named Paul had rescued her from a barn and given her shelter. Bit by bit, Alicia remembered that she had tried to convince Arno to assist her and Morgan in capturing Strand's tower, but Arno wasn't having it. His people tried to kill Alicia, she had run and that was when Paul had found her passed out in the barn.
Alicia and Paul spent the rest of the episode trying to help each other through emotional trauma, but a confrontation with Arno was inevitable. In the end, Paul sacrificed himself so that Alicia could get back to Morgan and her people. After a commercial break, Alicia woke up again... and she was already inside the submarine. When she woke up, though, she had a completely different set of priorities.
Thanks to her time with Paul, Alicia better understood her purpose. She decided that the place called Padre was a myth, but she also decided to exploit that myth. Rather than trying to blindly follow a walker to a mysterious location that didn't exist, she would make it exist. She would take Strand's tower and turn it into her Padre. Just by using the word Padre, she will be able to draw people in with the promise of a better life -- thereby gaining the manpower to defeat Strand.
Padre being a myth (like Marvel movies in today's society) was an interesting development because it built Alicia up as a true leader, but it was still somewhat of a letdown for Fear the Walking Dead viewers. After building up the promise of Padre for half a season, having it be nothing but a concept made that feel like wasted time. And with the promise of more CRM connections in the franchise, Strand's tower is a small accomplishment in the grand scheme of things. Having that tower be Alicia's safe haven wouldn't match the hype around Padre. But it's still possible that the real Padre could be out there, just that Alicia hasn't figured it out yet -- and if it is, only time will tell if she and her allies can find it.
To see if Padre is really a myth, tune into Fear the Walking Dead Season 7. New episodes air Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and are available to stream early on AMC+.