Victor Strand has a very, very long day to look forward to in his near future. Next week sees the conman with a heart of Fool's Gold reunite with his former friend-turned-nemesis Daniel Salazar for the first time since the end of Fear the Walking Dead Season 3. Fans will recall the two didn't part on good terms, as Strand double-crossed Salazar and shot the former Salvadoran intelligence officer in the face before the Gonzalez Dam exploded and separated everyone.
Season 3 saw the Clark family and some of their friends settle in Tijuana for a brief spell. Most of the action revolved around the Gonzalez Dam, who controlled it and, thus, the town water supply. Because resources are currency in a post-apocalyptic world, fights over control of the dam got predictably bloody. After the death of his daughter, a rootless, directionless Salazar lends his services to Dante Esquivel, former Municipal President of the city, and now the leader of the Gonzalez Dam community. Dante is less than well-liked, though, and Salazar winds up murdering him and installing Lola Guerrero, a former utility officer, in his place.
Strand had a professional relationship with Esquivel before the fall, but Esquivel rejects him when Strand comes looking for a place in his current organization. This leads him to start working for another dam-interested party: The Proctors. After Esquivel is killed and Guerrero takes over, Strand continues working for the Proctors, thus becoming a threat to Lola and Salazar. Things come to a head in the season finale, when Salazar and Strand face-off as the dam is about to be blown up. Strand shoots Daniel, runs away and that, as they say, was that.
Now the two are back in each other's lives, and rarely has there been so tense a reunion seen on the show. They might only be second to Charlie and Nick at the beginning of Season 4, but there's certainly more than enough reason to believe Strand capable of killing Strand on the spot and not dwelling on it a second longer. But as we've seen in the teaser for next week's "The Hurt That Will Happen," Salazar doesn't immediately murder Strand as payback for Victor's bullet. Instead, the two exchange pleasantries before Strand presumably asks Daniel for a very specific piece of machinery.
In his own words about his character's reappearance, actor Rubén Blades admitted that, despite how they'd left things in Season 3, the years have somewhat mellowed Salazar. He spoke at WonderCon 2019 about the teaser clip of he and Strand meeting and the progress it represented for Daniel. "...The clip, the relationship, again you see it, we both have changed, because he put himself in danger by going there, he doesn’t know what I’m gonna do. And I, I’m glad to see him in a way! I see him in a way. I see him and it’s '[You] still talk to much, Victor,' but I’m happy to see him, I don’t shoot him! I kinda missed him, I think. That’s how lonely I’ve been or how I’ve changed.”
It's also worth mentioning that Fear is a very different show in Season 5 than it was in Season 3. The tone has shifted dramatically toward the positive, so bleak predictions for Salazar's relationship with Strand that would've made sense then aren't going to make sense now. The reunion will be fraught no matter what, but if Blades has planned to return to the show full-time, it's possible he'll join Morgan's band of helpers. Or at least help the helpers from time to time. He has his own sins to atone for, and if Morgan can convince him to embrace what the old Daniel probably would've considered hippie B.S., Salazar could add an interesting new dynamic to the group just as actor Austin Amelio promises to when he joins the show as Dwight. Either way, Strand has a very long day ahead of him soon.
Airing Sundays at 9 PM ET on AMC, Fear the Walking Dead stars Lennie James, Colman Domingo, Alexa Nisenson, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman, Austin Amelio and Karen David.