‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Reveals The Survivors’ Fates

Jacob Bryant
TV The Walking Dead
TV The Walking Dead

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from the Fear the Walking Dead episode “Another Day in the Diamond.”

Last week’s Fear the Walking Dead Season 4 premiere quickly shuffled The Walking Dead character Morgan (Lennie James) into the mix. His journey from Virginia to Texas was covered in about the first 10 minutes of the episode. That wasn’t quite the case when it came to explaining how Madison (Kim Dickens) and her family got to the Lone Star state.

The last we saw of the Fear the Walking Dead cast Nick (Frank Dillane) had just blown the water dam on the California/Mexico border, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Strand (Colman Domingo) were in the wind, and Madison had managed to pull herself from the wreckage and onto land. The second episode of Season 4 picks up after the four were reunited, traveled to Texas, and has been living in a repurposed baseball field – called The Diamond – for the last year.

Meet Naomi

Fear the Walking Dead Naomi

That’s not to say the events of the Season 3 finale go unmentioned — though it would have been years ago for these characters. Nick is clearly still suffering from PTSD after making the choice to blow the dam, which would have been a death sentence, and refuses to leave the confines of The Diamond. Strand carries a small piece of the dam in his pocket at all times, and remains confused why when Madison found him — how that happened is still a mystery — she spared him after he betrayed them. Madison seems to carry a larger penchant for life in the apocalypse, for everyone and not just her family. “No one is gone until they’re gone,” she reminds Strand in the episode.

There isn’t much time to dwell on the past, or celebrate the first year of living in The Diamond, as Madison, Alicia, Strand, and Luci head out to look for the parents of the latest member of their community – a girl named Charlie. The four enter a deserted town, but stumble across survivor Naomi (Jenna Elfman). Naomi is your typical “lone wolf of the apocalypse type,” but agrees to join the group back to their camp after the four save her from an oil drum full of zombies.

The Vultures Descend

Fear the Walking Dead

If the apocalypse ever does come around, let it be known that camps should increase security any time they celebrate another year of peaceful living. The night of their first year living in The Diamond, and after the scavenging party returns with Naomi, the camp is surrounded by a new group – later called The Vultures. This new group knows a lot about The Diamond thanks to the girl Charlie who – to the surprise of no one – was spying on the community. Mel, the leader of the Vultures, isn’t interested in an aggressive attack on the camp. He’s fully content with putting Madison and the other 47 people in The Diamond under siege until they starve out. It’s a new approach to a Walking Dead villain and I’m here for it.

The episode ends with a cut back to where we left the characters last week. Althea (Maggie Grace) convinces Nick – who seems to have gotten over his fear of leaving The Diamond, Luci, Alicia, and Strand that they aren’t a part of The Vultures and they’re packed into her SWAT van and driven off.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what happened to the core group of Fear the Walking Dead characters between Seasons 3 and 4. Some of the biggest include: how the four were reunited? What happened to Nick after leaving the dam that messed with his head? Madison confrontation with Strand. How did Luci reunite with the group? And what happened to Salazar (Ruben Blades)? This season seems prepared to parcel these answers out slowly over time.

Fear the Walking Dead currently airs Sundays on AMC.

Jacob Bryant
Jacob Bryant is a writer-for-hire with a penchant for the gory and caped shows. He thinks Jericho is the greatest television achievement of all-time.