‘Fear’ the undead: ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ returns with final episodes
It’s the beginning of the end of the trail for some apocalypse survivors in the return of the final season of “Fear the Walking Dead.” The “Walking Dead” spinoff series’ midseason premiere airs on AMC Sunday, Oct. 22, just in time for an early celebration of the eeriest holiday of the year. Kim Dickens (“Friday Night Lights”) stars as Madison Clark, a high school guidance counsellor before the outbreak who now oversees the reconstruction of a survivors’ island colony.
“Fear the Walking Dead” closes out an impressive eight-season run with six episodes to go before the big, two-part series finale set to air Sunday, Nov. 19. The first of now six spinoffs of the original series, “Fear the Walking Dead” premiered in 2015 and followed an extended family as they tried to survive in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. The series detailed the survivors’ journey as they travelled and settled in California, Mexico and now an island off the Georgia coast.
The island, known as PADRE, was constructed after the walker outbreak as a military operation intended to distribute supplies to new communities of survivors. A tragic walker invasion decimated PADRE, and since then, desperate survivors have used the island’s resources that once represented a more hopeful future.
In the first half of the final season of “Fear the Walking Dead,” Madison landed on PADRE after a hard-fought journey to find the island with Morgan Jones (Lennie James, “Save Me”). The pair reunited Morgan with his daughter, Mo (Zoey Merchant, “The Price of Fame”), by force at PADRE before the show leaps seven years into the future. Madison is imprisoned on PADRE while Morgan spends most of the first six episodes of the season on his own mission, trying to save Grace Mukherjee (Karen David, “Legacies”) from radiation sickness before sadly losing her and setting off to Alexandria.
With the dangerous former co-leaders of PADRE no longer a problem, Madison attempts to reinvigorate the spirit of PADRE and the island with the remaining resources available to them. While the final episodes of “Fear the Walking Dead” could certainly detail the establishment of a post-apocalyptic paradise, this is the Walking Dead universe after all, so there will undoubtedly be danger lurking in the shadows of PADRE.
This season also stars Rubén Blades (“The Counselor,” 2013) as resistance leader Daniel Salazar; Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing,” 2023) as antihero Victor Strand; Danay Garcia (“Prison Break”) as survivor Luciana Galvez; Austin Amelio (“Hit Man,” 2023) as PADRE member Dwight; Christine Evangelista (“Mrs. Fletcher”) as Dwight’s wife, Sherry; Jenna Elfman (“The Twilight Zone”) as nurse June Dorie, who is on the run from PADRE; and one former cast member whose appearance in a trailer for the upcoming return of the series may have come as a surprise to “Fear the Walking Dead” fans.
Daniel Sharman (“A Town Called Malice”) returns as Troy Otto, a member of the Broke Jaw Ranch community who last appeared in the third season of “Fear the Walking Dead.” It seemed unlikely that Troy would make any sort of comeback after he was bludgeoned, but leave it to the Walking Dead universe to bring someone back from the dead. In an official trailer for the upcoming season, Troy spits, “Madison, been a while,” before removing his sunglasses, revealing his chilling new appearance. Though one icy-white iris doesn’t seem too bad for having survived a hammer attack.
The trailer also teases, in addition to some gruesome walker kills, a sword-wielding Victor teaming up with Madison to “save PADRE”; Daniel, Luciana and June all preparing for battle; nearly everyone staring down the barrel of a gun; explosions, car flips and muddy battles.