The following contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 13, "The Raft," which aired Sunday, May 15 on AMC.
Alycia Debnam-Carey is the biggest name Fear the Walking Dead has -- or let's face it, she's the only thing Fear the Walking Dead has left to keep viewers even slightly interested. But recent casting news about another TV show might solidify fan theories that her character Alicia Clark is biting the dust during Season 7. Is this the end for both character and actress?
Since its soft reboot back in Season 4, Fear the Walking Dead has been on an unnervingly slow path to redemption. It's unlikely that the show will ever reach the high it met in Season 3, mainly because it keeps ignoring Alicia. The reboot pretty much confirmed that the new showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg despise the Clark family by killing off two of its members and making Fear the Walking Dead "The Morgan and Friends Show." Three seasons later, Alycia Debnam-Carey seems to finally be catching up to her poor luck.
Debnam-Carey has replaced You's Victoria Pedretti as the lead in Hulu's upcoming series Saint X, as reported by Deadline earlier this month. The casting news raises questions about Debnam-Carey's future on Fear the Walking Dead. She was notably absent for multiple episodes despite being one of the "leads" on the show. Her return was only met with theories that Alicia might be dying after amputating her arm following a walker bite.
The idea of Debnam-Carey leaving Fear the Walking Dead isn't exactly cheerful, but it is satisfying. Alicia being sidelined to make for Morgan's undesirable introduction to The Walking Dead's spin-off series has been an insulting joke for far too long, and it blatantly feels as though Chambliss and Goldberg are using Debnam-Carey's dedicated fan base from The 100 to manipulate viewers to tune in. Alicia is barely ever around, and it's hard to tell what her story is at this point or whether she even adds anything to the show.
Once the duo replaced Dave Erickson as showrunner, the depth and quantity of its female characters was thrown out the window. Alicia's mom Madison Clark was "killed off" for reasons beyond comprehension -- and while she's returning in what seems to be another reboot, it's probable that they'll end up doing her character more injustice by sucking her into the show's complicated and confusing storyline. Once Madison was gone, fans expected Alicia to take her place as the rightful lead, but that was undeservedly handed over to Morgan... the most boring and hypocritical character on television.
It seems awfully coincidental that the female characters were thrown into the garbage once Chambliss and Goldberg showed up. Alicia is no longer the badass character she once was; frankly she's a sloppy mess who shows up like a special guest star. All she does in Season 7 is talk about leading the leftovers from Teddy's cult to fight for a Tower that will end up collapsing because that's just the Fear the Walking Dead way.
If Alicia does end up dying or departing from the show temporarily -- as Lauren Ridloff and Lauren Cohan did on The Walking Dead -- it's for the better. Debnam-Carey doesn't deserve to be sidelined every single week for the laughably terrible writing and another character who is as interesting as The Walking Dead's Reaper storyline. At this point, it's merciful to just kill Alicia off and let Fear the Walking Dead become beyond salvageable.
New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead air Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and are available to stream a week early on AMC+.