(WARNING: Huge spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead's Season 4 midseason finale below!)
Fear the Walking Dead's Season 4 reboot reached its endgame in the midseason finale with the death of the series' protagonist Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), a high school guidance counselor turned survivor by any means necessary turned open-hearted leader of an optimistic community. She died sacrificing herself to save her family from a walker horde. As walkers released by the Vultures surrounded the car where her kids Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) were taking shelter, Madison lit a flare and drew the walkers away from the car and into the stadium. She dropped the flare and set the whole place ablaze, allowing her family to escape.
Some fans are in denial, saying that since they didn't see her body, Madison might still be alive. But no, she's really dead, and her death closes the book on creator Dave Erickson's version of Fear the Walking Dead. The show has transformed from a moody family drama into a plot-driven western with zombies. It hasn't felt like the show it used to be for eight episodes, but there were still lingering threads from the first three seasons that had to be tied up. Now that this transitional eight-episode run is complete, Fear the Walking Dead is set up for an entirely new story. There are now only two main cast members remaining from Season 1, Alicia and Strand (Colman Domingo), though Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) is still alive and will probably return at some point, though not in Season 4.
Why Fear the Walking Dead's Crossover/Reboot Was a Brilliant Decision By AMC
Fear is an ensemble show, but we experienced the story primarily through Madison's perspective, like Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) on The Walking Dead. With her death, that means the perspective will have to shift to someone else. There are probably two options for what will happen to Fear's version of the lead role. One is that the primary POV will be shared between Morgan (Lennie James) and Alicia, depending on what the episode calls for. The other is that it will be from Alicia's POV. In both cases, the thematic conflict will be Alicia's internal struggle between keeping up the hard shell that's allowed her to survive this long and accepting Morgan's "all life is precious" philosophy.
As for the story itself, that very much remains to be seen. It could be the merged group of survivors searching for a new place to rebuild a community in Madison and Nick's image, encountering bad guys and zombie threats along the way. It seems like it will continue on a single timeline.
And it's an odd coincidence more than anything that FTWD and The Walking Dead will be losing their protagonists at around the same time. Andrew Lincoln is leaving The Walking Dead in Season 9, as is Lauren Cohan, who's sort of like The Walking Dead's equivalent of Nick in that they're both pivotally important secondary characters who seemed like the show's future. Fear is in a better position to thrive post-protagonist than The Walking Dead, since it had more of an opportunity to plan for survival (Dickens' exit was producers' idea, whereas Lincoln wanted out). It did a whole half-season building to her death. Plus it's added several compelling characters like Morgan and John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt) to keep it interesting.
But we won't know for sure until we see it, so we'll just have to stay tuned.
Fear the Walking Dead returns for Season 4B in August.
Other Links From TVGuide.com Fear the Walking DeadKim DickensAlycia Debnam-CareyLennie James