What Fear the Walking Dead Could Have Been

You can't recapture lightning in a bottle

[Warning: This essay contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead seasons 1-7 and season 8, episode 1]

"The thing that’s interesting to me, and one of the questions I asked myself and asked Robert Kirkman very [early] on was of the people in our group, who do you see becoming the Governor? Of our group, who could become a Negan? That’s interesting to me, to watch an evolution of a character and start with them as a hero, and bleed that into antihero, and bleed that into full-on villain. It would have been interesting."

- Dave Erickson, co-creator of Fear the Walking Dead

***

The most interesting part of Fear the Walking Dead is what the show could have been.

Beginning in August 2015 at the height of The Walking Dead's popularity, Fear the Walking Dead was set before the zombie apocalypse that ravaged the world in the universe's alternate 2010. Instead of taking viewers to a familiar location like Georgian or Virginian forests, Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 was primarily set in a suburb of Los Angeles, California. The story focused on a dysfunctional family, the Clarks, and their survival in the first days of the zombie apocalypse. While the show seemingly had no central protagonist, the ensemble cast consisted of parents Travis and Madison, daughter Alicia, son Nick, and Travis' son Chris and ex-wife Elizabeth. Also in the mix is another family that helps Travis early in Season 1: The Salazars, consisting of Daniel, his wife Griselda, and his daughter Ofelia.

The first season was a strong start to the show, but it was clear the series wasn't what was advertised. While Fear the Walking Dead delivered on its promise of showing a family surviving in the early days of the apocalypse, it soon showed this wasn't going to be a one-and-done deal. While Season 1 absolutely embodied the notion of the early days of the zombie apocalypse, the short, six-episode stint felt like setup for something bigger. Even though Fear the Walking Dead's main selling point was seeing the world of The Walking Dead in its earliest days, that was only the focus of Season 1. And even then, it was obvious Season 1 was just setup for a series following the Clark family as the apocalypse grew ever more brutal.

This wasn't a bad thing. In fact, I liked the idea. Many strong, multi-season stories typically present Season 1 as a prologue of sorts to the main conflicts and dramas ahead. It establishes characters, deals with early developments, but ultimately sets up Season 2 onward to be larger, more established entries in the series that use Season 1 as a springboard. Ultimately, there are very few shows that feel the same in Season 2 onward as they do in Season 1. And Fear the Walking Dead is no exception. Sure, it would have been neat if the series stuck with the idea of presenting stories in the early days of the apocalypse. But the first six episodes establish the Clark family so well, that to negate their storyline and stay true to the show's advertised premise wouldn't have worked. Fear the Walking Dead worked as a story about the Clark family.

Which is where Season 2 takes off. While it's not perfect, and a bit of a step down from Season 1, the second season of Fear the Walking Dead further develops the surviving members of the Clarks, the Salazars, and their possibly untrustworthy companion Victor Strand. The start of Season 2 sees Strand allowing the group to come with him on a boat, which he is secretly charting to the town where his boyfriend, Thomas Abigail, is waiting for him. However, Season 2 stands out because of how it manages to progress in unexpected ways. Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead has the tightest writing of the series, comparable to the more eventful seasons of The Walking Dead. While Season 2 is advertised as the group surviving on the water, its massive 15-episode order and quick-as-lightning pace suggests early on that a sea-faring adventure won't be the only thing the core survivors encounter in the season.

And it's true. From the boat, to an untrustworthy community, to getting separated, to trying to build back the world in new, unique ways, Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 is continually unexpected. While it falters occasionally by having very slow episodes littered throughout the excitement, Season 2 is still a strong entry in the series.

Part of why it's a step down from Season 1, though, is that it sometimes loses its core as a story about families surviving in the apocalypse. The show sometimes gets lost at certain points, focusing more on the world or communities instead of the interpersonal relationships that made Season 1 so unique and interesting. What made Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 weaker was how it felt more like The Walking Dead. By comparison, Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 felt like its own, uniquely-presented bubble of The Walking Dead universe. However, this is very personal taste. And, to be fair to Season 2, it managed to bring everything it was going for full circle by the season finale. That the world is bigger than the Clark family and the people they care about, and they need to realize that all it takes is one bad judgement call for terrible things to transpire.

And then? Then the series peaked.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 3 was an astonishing turn into high-quality, high-stakes storytelling the likes of which are only succeeded by The Walking Dead Seasons 5 and 6. By now, every character has become a seasoned survivor in their own way, having to bear the brunt of the first two months of the apocalypse in multiple different locations across California and Mexico. While the group remains separated for much of the season, Season 3 is unique in that all of their stories are tied together somehow. While at first Daniel and Strand's storyline at the dam seems like it has nothing to do with Madison and her kids' time on Broke Jaw Ranch, the storylines from both locations weave together by around the halfway point of the season. Nothing in Fear the Walking Dead season 3 feels like a waste of time. Everything circles back around to the story and the ever-growing darkness within the group.

Because that's really where all of this seemed to be headed. The idea that even the worst people in the apocalypse still have their reasons for doing the terrible things they do. And, no matter how much one side of a conflict tries to vilify another, the truth is that sometimes the goal of survival can be obscured by both sides doing bad things to each other.

I think the conflict between the Otto family at Broke Jaw Ranch and the Native Americans of Black Hat Reservation do a good job illustrating the ideas Fear the Walking Dead Season 3 tackles. Madison, Nick, and Alicia become members of the Ranch, despite not putting all their trust in Jeremiah Otto and his family. However, the group manages to find some semblance of normalcy there. Alicia begins a romantic relationship with Jake Otto, while his antagonistic brother Troy develops a strange friendship with Nick. It's a layered experience that shows viewers that, while some like Troy or Jeremiah aren’t good people, it doesn't mean the survivors can't rely on the group they’re part of to...well, survive. This is reflected with Jeremiah in particular, as he reveals the apocalypse has influenced the Black Hat Reservation to begin using violent tactics to bring the Ranch's land back under their control. This is all part of a long-standing feud between them and Ottos of many generations. One that is built on pride and bloodshed.

However, it soon becomes clear the Black Hat's leader, Qaletaqa Walker, does not have anything against the people of the Ranch overall. Despite using scare tactics like scalping to try and get Jeremiah to move his group off the land, Walker eventually decides he wants the conflict between the groups to end. Yet he wants this done through extreme measures, hoping to drive out or kill Jeremiah. When Nick eventually shoots Jeremiah in the Season 3 mid-season finale, Walker brings his people into the Ranch. While he tries to declare the conflict between both groups is over, the tension that's been building throughout Season 3 can't just fizzle out. Walker's idealism rubs off on Madison, who never trusted the Ottos in the first place. But it doesn't make him a good person, nor a competent leader, to expect the death of one group's leader to suddenly result in peace.

I could write as many essays about Fear the Walking Dead Season 3 as I do about Warrior Nun. The intersecting characters, the dynamic of the group and the people they meet, and the evolution of most group members into hardened survivors with skewed worldviews was interesting. It was compelling, not because the characters were relatable or always realistic, but because they had come so far from who they'd been at the start of the series. What Fear the Walking Dead Season 3 did well was offer up a story where there were no heroes or villains. Instead, it was people simply vying for power or trying to survive, all in very twisted, grim ways. Fear the Walking Dead set itself apart from The Walking Dead this way, having protagonists that, over the course of the series, were becoming morally ambiguous.

And no better was this illustrated than with Madison's character arc in the second half of Season 3. Despite treading down a darker path in the first half of the season, Madison still held out hope that somehow she could help Walker find the resources they needed for their new, merged group to ensure people didn't start killing one another. However, everything soon slips through her fingers as the group is forced to fend for themselves without Madison and Walker for multiple episodes. While the pair are running to Daniel at the dam or going to the baseball diamond to trade supplies, Troy decides to get revenge on the Ranch's people for allowing him to be cast out. He lures a horde of Walkers into the camp, killing countless people and making the location unlivable. Only through Nick's interference and oddball friendship does Troy get away with it and Alicia is saved. However, the string of events results in Jake's death, Ofelia getting bit, and almost everyone at the Ranch becoming Walkers.

Unable to save all of her people, Madison takes her family and Troy to the dam, where she tries to strike a deal with Daniel. Little does she realize that men led by a new figure, Proctor John, are on their way to the dam, following a deal with Strand who tells them about the water supply there. However, before the Proctor, his men, and a displaced Alicia can arrive, Madison learns the truth about the Walker horde from Troy. He was the one who destroyed their sanctuary, crumbling any bit of goodwill the Ranch and Reservation could have made to dust. He also doesn't seem remorseful about it, nor about the dozens of lives he ended by doing something so awful yet so petty. In response, Madison snaps. She bludgeons Troy to death with a hammer. It's sudden. It's in the middle of an episode. But just like that, a key antagonist throughout Fear the Walking Dead season 3 is gone.

Madison is done trusting anyone she doesn't already.

This is reflected in her efforts to save her children from John and his people. While Troy was the first time Madison killed someone, she doesn't hesitate to do so again when her children are threatened. This is despite Nick berating his mother for killing Troy, believing that, despite his bad actions, he could still somehow be redeemed. Or, at the very least, they could have learned to live with the demons he was harboring. However, Madison is no longer willing to risk any dangers to the people she cares about. This underscores a schism in her and Nick's relationship, perfectly setting up what could be a massive inter-family conflict as the series continues. And most of this has to do with Madison's development as a character. She doesn't want to trust anyone anymore, willing to do whatever it takes to ensure her family's survival. To an extent, Madison started her evolution into Season 5 Rick Grimes by the end of Season 3 of Fear the Walking Dead.

All of which was intentional.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter on October 15, 2017, former showrunner and co-creator of Fear the Walking Dead Dave Erickson explained that he had a roadmap for the Clark's journey in the apocalypse that would likely take the show up through Season 7. Part of that was laying the groundwork for Madison and Nick's conflict. "I wanted Madison to return to herself," Erickson says. "I wanted to create this very defined chasm between Nick and Madison, because I think the long-term arc of that story would have ended in a confrontation between mother and son." When asked who would survive until the end of the show in his final vision for it, Erickson had this to say:

"For me, Madison. The thing that’s interesting to me, and one of the questions I asked myself and asked Robert Kirkman very on was of the people in our group, who do you see becoming the Governor? Of our group, who could become a Negan? That’s interesting to me, to watch an evolution of a character and start with them as a hero, and bleed that into antihero, and bleed that into full-on villain. It would have been interesting. In terms of the final conflict within the family, it would have been key. For me, there’s a lot left for Madison specifically."

It's clear from his statements what Erickson's intentions were with Fear the Walking Dead. While the show began as a story about a family and the people they meet surviving in the early days of the zombie apocalypse, it was supposed to slowly morph into a much darker series. The show would center around Madison's evolution from a survivor doing everything she possibly could to protect her family, to a much more sinister character akin to the Governor or Negan. This would have pit her children, specifically Nick, against her, making for a tragic storyline where a son and a mother would become enemies in a world ravaged by the dead. It sounds almost Shakespearian, if Erickson's story ended with Madison and Nick at odds with each other. It feels like the series would have come full circle if this had been the continuation from Season 3 the series received.

But that's not what happened. Instead, AMC decided things on Fear the Walking Dead had to change.

Looking back, it feels like an inexplicable decision. Fear the Walking Dead may not have been as monstrously popular as The Walking Dead, sure. But the original zombie series was always going to be lightning in a bottle. There isn't a single zombie protagonist like Rick Grimes, nor is there a long-standing family within zombie media as memorable as his group. Because of its status as a spinoff series—and maybe because of how much Season 2 reflected The Walking Dead's premise—Fear the Walking Dead was never going to get as popular as the flagship series. And yet, for some reason, changes were made seemingly to try and boost the series' already decent 2.2 million live viewers per night.

This came in the form of a creative shakeup behind the scenes. Erikson was no longer the showrunner, instead replaced by the duo of Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg. The show was also "soft rebooted" in Season 4. That is to say, the premiere of Season 4 was created to be a jumping-on point for new viewers who had never seen Fear the Walking Dead before. This was done by making the events of the Season 4 premiere line up with The Walking Dead Season 8 finale. The final episode of The Walking Dead season 8 sees a veteran character from the show, Morgan Jones, decide to isolate himself in the Scavengers’ dump following the end of the war against the Saviors. The first episode of Fear the Walking Dead season 4 sees Morgan set off on a journey to get away from people, which leads him to Texas.

Once in Texas, Morgan has a short adventure with John Dorie and Al, two new characters in The Walking Dead universe. By the end of the episode, Morgan and his group are held at gunpoint by familiar faces: Characters from the first three seasons of Fear the Walking Dead. What follows is a season of flashbacks, some gunfire, meandering, splitting up, and more conversations on walkie talkies than had ever been featured in all 8 seasons of The Walking Dead. Gone was Erickson's plan of crafting a neatly-woven, seven-season story about a family torn apart in a world that forced them to become the coldest versions of themselves. Instead, Season 4 ends with the new premise of Fear the Walking Dead: Morgan and his new friends helping survivors in Texas...well, survive. A far cry from the darker tone and storyline the first three seasons set up.

Fear the Walking Dead had become a different show.

***

I am both caught up and not caught up on Fear the Walking Dead.

I know what happens in the show. I even know what’s going on in Season 8, which appears to be telling a standalone final story using the show’s characters. Despite having finished watching Season 5, Episode 6 at the time of writing (this paragraph anyway; once you see this essay I'll be done with Episode 7), I know what's going to happen throughout the series. I've kept up with the big moments despite dropping the show back in Season 2 when I was watching week-by-week. I’d stopped because of its slow pacing and too-familiar approach to The Walking Dead's world. However, in November, I decided to give the show another chance. And Seasons 1, 2, and 3 hooked me. Season 3 especially, which offered such a nuanced take on the zombie apocalypse that I'll have to go back and re-watch it for an essay or five sometime in the future. I really enjoyed the first three seasons of this show. It was also clear to me where Erikson wanted to take the series. I was excited for the future of the series and to watch more.

Except there really wasn't any more. Was there?

Fear the Walking Dead has a bit of a reputation within The Walking Dead community for being—and, look, there's no real way to sugarcoat this—bad. Really bad. Bad to the point where people actively watch the series just to make fun of it. And while there's plenty of fingers that can be pointed at plenty of people for the decline in Fear the Walking Dead's popularity and quality, I don't think it would be constructive to just say someone dropped the ball and call them out for it. Instead, it seems like the issue was the general idea of trying to turn Fear the Walking Dead into something it's not.

Chambliss and Goldberg clearly have a vision for this show. With Morgan taking center stage from Season 4 onward, they want to make the series a more optimistic approach to The Walking Dead world. One that involves helping survivors, combating the dead, and trying to make peace in a world that could be too far gone. From Season 4 and what I've seen of Season 5—and of Season 8, I must confess—it seems clear the pair have a specific vision they share for what Fear the Walking Dead should be about. Community. Hope. The kindness of strangers in a world gone mad. The problem isn't what gets presented in Fear the Walking Dead. It's how the new approach to the show simply doesn't fit with how the series was first established.

Fear the Walking Dead seasons 1 through 3 were the beginning of a story about a group of survivors who would become the villains of someone else's story. All the puzzle pieces were laid out for Erikson's original vision. The conflict between Madison and her children was going to be a centerpiece, the foundation laid in the Season 3 finale for plenty of other interesting conflicts to come. But then, Season 4 throws everything out the window, almost rebooting the story with the same characters and previous plot points intact while making Morgan the new face of Fear. There is no easy way to say this, but, it is the truth. Fear the Walking Dead making Morgan the main character was a disservice to its already existing audience.

AMC took a gamble by making Morgan the face of Fear the Walking Dead. A gamble they, sadly, lost. While the inclusion of Morgan seemed to boost viewership to an average of around 3 million for the first five episodes of Season 4, the end of the season saw at least half those viewers vanish. By the end of season 5, half of those viewers were gone, too. And, by Season 7, the series only managed to break 1 million viewers in its first episode. Ironically, its lowest-performing episode was Season 7, Episode 15, "Amina," the 100th episode of the show and a dedicated sendoff to Alicia Clark, the show's most popular original character.

600,000 viewers.

I don't think the issue of Fear the Walking Dead's decline stems from any one source. AMC should have taken a step back and thought about what alienating Fear's small but loyal fanbase would do to the series. Chambliss and Goldberg, for whatever they could do, should have tried to keep Season 4 familiar while steering the show in a new direction slowly. It's hard to say which party is more responsible than the other, which is why it truly seems like an unfortunate circumstance of bad judgement calls from many different sources. Making Morgan the protagonist was like dropping a goldfish into a new bowl without any of the old water. Making the show about saving people instead of the dark storyline viewers had been following for three seasons felt like a weirdly quick turnaround. Fear the Walking Dead was no longer what it was in its early seasons. Is no longer what it was in its early seasons. Instead, it became a vehicle for a new story that simply didn't mesh with the original plan for the series. Which is why the show declined in popularity.

Now, this isn't to say something like Morgan's mission to help people wouldn't have been an interesting story to tell. A simple fix would have been to create a new spinoff, one where Morgan meets people in a new location and begins to help them. Given the sheer popularity of The Walking Dead at the time, AMC likely had the ability to invest in such a show. That would give Fear the Walking Dead room to tell its story while also giving Morgan his own adventure embodying themes as-yet-unexplored in The Walking Dead universe. But by taking that darker story away, reducing the Clark family to Alicia, and veering the show in a direction no one who was watching the series wanted, Fear the Walking Dead became a shell of what it could have been.

Sure, the story can be engaging. Yes, some of the new characters like John Dorie and Al are interesting. But it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, despite some of the positive elements. With half the story happening over radios; with a gray color filter that doesn't seem to have much of a purpose; and with Morgan's wanting to help everyone they come across, no matter who they are...it jut doesn't feel like Fear the Walking Dead anymore.

It feels like a shadow of what it could have been.

***

"I am intrigued to watch as a fan to see how the hell they pull [Morgan] off. (Laughs.) By design, you have two shows that are hopefully very different tonally. That was the intention, coming out of the gate. It’ll be interesting. You have to blend those two tones together in an organic way. And then there are all the reasons we discussed not doing it: the timeline, the geography… so it’s interesting to see how those elements are bridged. I’m sure they have a plan locked in, because I think they’ll start shooting soon. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed to not be part of it, because I think there’s ample story in the Fear world to sustain the show without having to crossover — but it should be interesting…"

- Dave Erikson, co-creator of Fear the Walking Dead

***

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