Is 'Fear the Walking Dead' Secretly Pulling a 'Lost'?

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 30, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 30, 2023 |

The problem that many fans of Lost had with its conclusion was not the way it ended, necessarily, but that viewers had predicted the ending and Damon Lindelof had told them they were wrong. It was a double whammy; viewers were not only upset they had figured it out but had also been lied to.

But what would be completely unexpected? If we were to find out that Fear the Walking Dead has been pulling a Lost the whole time and that these characters are actually in purgatory. Does that sound far-fetched? Yes! That’s precisely why no one would predict it.

And yet, look closely, and the tea leaves are there. In this week’s episode, for instance, almost every major character in it has died at some point. To wit: The big reveal in the episode is that Charlie is alive. Viewers of Fear may recall that Charlie was diagnosed last season with terminal radiation poisoning. “Terminal” means she’s going to die. In fact, the showrunners even confirmed her death. She was last seen on her deathbed moments away from expiring.

No one is more surprised to see Charlie in this week’s episode than Madison. Madison died in season four. She was surrounded by a mob of zombies in a stadium that was on fire. Kim Dickens, who plays Madison, even publicly expressed frustration with the fact that her character was written off. And yet, here she is, being surprised to see Charlie, who Madison — because she’s been dead for four seasons — is only now discovering killed her son, Nick. When Madison finds out that Charlie killed her boy, she’s furious. Enraged. She wants to kill Charlie.

Madison, however, decides to forgive Charlie, but only if she agrees to kill Troy. Troy died at the end of season three. Madison smashed his head in repeatedly with a hammer, and Troy was left unconscious in a flood zone seconds before a damn broke open and wiped away the entire area.

Nevertheless, Troy is “alive” and searching for PADRE. PADRE is an organization that Madison is in charge of. Before Madison took over, however, apparently, PADRE rescued Charlie and nursed her back to health from her “terminal radiation poisoning.” Troy wants to know the whereabouts of PADRE because he wants to take it away from Madison. After all, Madison, back in season three, took everything away from Troy.

Troy says he will kill Charlie unless Charlie tells him where PADRE is. Instead of telling him, Charlie kills herself. She shoots herself in the head. They brought Charlie back from the dead so that they could kill her again in the very same episode. Charlie has died twice. We didn’t see her kill herself this time; we only heard the gunshot, so she may only be temporarily dead again.

Daniel is distraught with Madison over this turn of events and decides to break with Madison and leave with Luciana (Luciana is not dead, but she also hasn’t been since last season). Daniel has died in Fear the Walking Dead twice. Once, he lit himself on fire in the basement of a building that burned down around him. Another time, Strand shot him in the face, and he was left for dead in the same dam break that killed Troy. Last season, Daniel didn’t die, but he did have severe dementia, which was cured by his love for Charlie, whom Daniel watched die.

So upset with this turn of events, Madison decides to break from the group, as well, and spend the rest of her days searching for the zombified version of her daughter, Alicia, who died at the end of last season, so that Madison can put her zombie daughter out of her misery. Have we seen the dead body of Alicia? We have not. Could she still be alive? Absolutely. She survived a zombie bite for weeks or months thanks to antibiotics. There’s no reason to believe she succumbed to the virus, not until we’ve seen her corpse.

That leaves Strand. Had Strand died on the show before? That’s unclear. At the end of season six, however, he supposedly survived a nuclear blast that wiped out the entire area around him that he watched from his window only a few miles away.

Is that likely?

The point is: Most of these characters have died on Fear the Walking Dead at least once, and as we head toward the final four episodes of the series, it’s hard not to wonder: Are all of these people actually in purgatory? Did Charlie finally pass on to the other side because Madison eventually forgave her for killing Nick? Once Madison kills her zombified daughter, will she pass on through? Daniel has been using Charlie and Luciana to make up for his failures as a father to Ofelia. Once he saves Luciana, can Daniel pass on through? Does Troy need to find a home for himself to finally pass through, too? Is Victor the Devil? Did Morgan and Dwight actually die on The Walking Dead and only reappear in Fear the Walking Dead because they, too, are in purgatory?

At this point, it’s the only ending that makes sense.