Fear the Walking Dead: What Happened to Alicia?

This article contains Fear the Walking Dead spoilers through season 8 episode 1.

The eighth and final season of Fear The Walking Dead is now underway, and from the shocking deaths of major characters to nuclear attacks on Texas by a cult, it’s sure been a wild ride. Nowhere is that more true than with Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey), who’s been here since the pilot and has the scars to show it.

Kicking off the final season with an episode title like “Remember What They Took From You” seems to be setting us up for major catharsis by the end of things. For a character like Alicia, who has lost so much but has kept a sense of optimism, the role she plays (if she plays a role at all) may be a key to unlocking the themes of the final season. But first, we’re going to have to figure out where she is.

What Happened to Alicia in Fear the Walking Dead Season 7?

Alicia spent much of the last season at odds with Victor Strand, whose egomaniacal lean took new extremes as he made a bid for dictatorship and fortified his doomed Tower. Their complicated relationship leads to them saving each other even after myriad betrayals, ultimately admitting that they are each other’s family. Alicia’s seventh season arc ends with her alone on a beach, having made the heroic choice to stay behind to avoid hurting others when she inevitably succumbs to the zombie bite that has plagued her throughout the season. Yet, in those final moments, she uses her last bullet on a walker rather than herself, indicating that she may have lived to fight on.

With Alicia’s story apparently concluded, the season 7 finale, “Gone,” brought our former lead protagonist Madison Clark back from apparent death. We learned that she’d been kidnapping children for the shady organization PADRE in hopes of someday seeing her own children again, one of whom, Nick, we know to be deceased. Soon she lost hope, but seeing Morgan give everything to help his daughter, Mo, reignited her sense of justice. She helped him escape PADRE, or so she thought.

Season 8 rockets us seven years into the future from where we last saw the gang in season 7. We learn that, similar to Madison, Morgan’s fear for Mo’s safety has been leveraged against him. While he forced Mo (now called Wren) to return to PADRE, he himself is taken in for being a liability, while Madison is dragged back to the cell where she spent the last several years. We don’t yet know who the mysterious voice of PADRE is, but chances are, we’re soon to find out.

Where is Alicia in Fear the Walking Dead Season 8?

Soon after making her directorial debut with the seventh season episode, “Ofelia,” actor Alycia Debnam-Carey announced that she would be leaving the series with the finale. Not long after, AMC announced that the series overall would be concluding with season 8. Debnam-Carey’s departure occurred after a banger of a season for Alicia, with her capacity for sticking to her beliefs despite incredible hardship at the forefront of her arc. Yet, we have reason to believe that, even after the time jump, Alicia is likely still alive. So, where is she?

With Madison back in the game and her son Nick’s story having wrapped in season 4 with his shocking death at the hands of the child, Charlie, it seems unlikely that she won’t try to reunite with her daughter. Yet, there are many things that could stand in the way of a happy reunion, not the least of which is that Madison’s health issues seem to be leading her toward a heroic end of her own.

PADRE has not yet been explained, but Alicia seemed set on figuring out what they were up to last season. In her delirious dialogue with her younger self, she expressed a need to get to the bottom of things but took a detour to save Strand. She might have made it to PADRE and met her end there, which could be explained through epistolary means such as diary entries or letters, concluding her story while not requiring the presence of the actor that portrayed her for so many years.

It’s possible that Alicia will reappear in the final season for a one-off episode, or that perhaps footage was filmed in the past that will be utilized here via flashback sequences to explain her absence. Indeed, she might have died on that beach, although it would seem a bit anticlimactic for that to have been her last stand. Alicia’s absence also piques our curiosity in regard to Charlie, who Alicia befriended even after the death of Nick. Dying from radiation poisoning the last we saw her, Charlie may very well not have survived the time jump.

Finally, there’s a chance that Alicia might continue her story in one of the many TWD spinoffs series currently in the works. With Dead City set to follow franchise stars Negan and Maggie in search of their own group of kidnapped children, it seems intuitive that they may have a run-in with Alicia along the way, be it in-person or via found footage.

Remember What They Took From You

Regardless of when or if we see Alicia Clark again, the seventh season served as a pretty excellent goodbye to the character overall. Leading with her heart and finding the good in people even after they seem to pass the point of no return, it was easy to see what made her such a fan favorite throughout her time on the series.

By turning its gaze back to Madison and Morgan, the conclusion of Fear the Walking Dead may lead to some kind of relief for these two long-suffering parents, so often separated from their children. While Madison has had to make compromises to survive, she did it all for Alicia and Nick. Even if that didn’t work out as she planned, both her kids lived up to her faith in them, and she should be proud.

New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead season 8 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.