Spoilers Fear the Walking Dead - Season 8 - The Final Season

Fear the Walking Dead's eighth and final season premieres in May. The show runners have already revealed the series will experience a seven-year time jump, which means a number of things for the existing characters, some of which were seen in this teaser--



Trailer breakdown:

0:00 - Seaside base, with solar panels, windmills, working vehicles, what appears to be a graveyard, etc.
0:16 - Walker heads in glass containers.
0:19 - Madison surrounded by oncoming walkers.
0:04 / 0:22 -- Rumor has it that the young girl is the now seven (or eight)-year old Mo, and it makes sense, as she's learned to fight like her father.
0:23 - P.A.D.R.E. has a rather large group of walkers fenced in a containment area.
0:24 - A fresh walker head is carried by someone, but the significance (if any) of the walker is not
known.

Some of the fan chatter believes the final season might end up being a rinse and repeat of the "new, evil group or community" plot which has been seen several times over the life of both Fear and the parent series. What little is revealed in the teaser sparks the same concern, but the story jumping nearly another decade makes me wonder about the fate of Charlie (radiation poisoning) and Daniel (worsening dementia). Technically, Charlie should be dead (with the exception of flashbacks to the "present day"), while Daniel--with no medical treatment available--cannot function even at S7 level some seven years later. Then, there's Sherri, who announced her pregnancy last season, and would be a prime target for P.A.D.R.E., considering the group's mission to steal all children. One can imagine Sherri and Dwight (the latter briefly glimpsed in the teaser) would go down fighting rather than had over their child...

In any case, the series returns May 14th, with the first of two 6 episode blocks.

 

Interesting, this will place the show in essentially the same period as the later seasons of the parent show as well as World Beyond and the upcoming spin-offs. Which I doubt is a coincidence.

Damn, only twelve episodes total? I certainly didn't expect them to go all out like Walking Dead did with an extended length 24 episode final season, but I thought we'd at least get the standard sixteen episodes.

 

..and if its not a coincidence, fans will certainly expect some sort of cameo / crossover with TWD's characters. Since TWD reached its conclusion, any character cameo during FTWD's last season would be fitting--at least for some connection to Morgan.

Perhaps there's not 24 episodes' worth of story? FTWD has not been the most expansive series where arcs were concerned, so it may not need so many stories to wrap up the P.A.D.R.E. arc and/or the fate of "1st generation" characters such as Madison (if she's not devoured "for real" this time) or Alicia (loose rumors that she did overcome the walker virus and is wandering around...).

 

I didn't realize that "Fear" had fallen so far behind chronologically from its parent show. It's is going to be interesting to see how the showrunners fill in that seven year gap.

 

First, thanks for the update... not sure how I feel about the time jump... if the entire season is in the "present" or will we see some build up.... because 7 years seems way too much to start with.

And I wonder how long they have known this as the last. My assumption was Madison was supposed to be another ratings/buzz booster the way Morgan was. Unless her appearance last time failed so bad they decided... screw it.

I hope there is a bit of crossover with Rick and Michonne... will write tomorrow about an idea for Rick and Morgan reuniting

 

One of the most significant changes will be Mo--now an older child who has been trained to fight by her father. That's quite similar to the time-jump with Judith, who wears Carl's hat and carries her father's gun.

No hints about Dwight and Sherry's child just yet, or anything about Althea.

Some rumor mills suggest there will be flashbacks--at least to the period where the survivors (last seen trying to leave the irradiated area) along with Morgan and Madison coming into full contact with P.A.D.R.E.--the latter story finally establishing how long the group had been operating...and why Strand might plan an insurrection.

Frankly, I think another basic zombie apocalypse survival series would run out of gas and/or end up repeating certain tropes from the parent series. A part of me would like to believe the showrunners had shared similar feelings with fans who wanted TWD & FTWD to eventually have plots that would draw the characters together for some sort of finale, but TWD's wrapped up sans a hint of FTWD's characters ever crossing paths with the heroes of the parent series. Then again, there's....

Rick and Morgan are the WD franchise's longest lived characters (if you recall, Morgan was introduced before Carol, Daryl, et al.), and are sort of the opposite side of each other's coin, making their reunion a (potentially) great bookend for both series.

 

I've always been disappointed Rick and Morgan have never had a proper good-bye scene. The last time they interacted was Rick's cameo in Fear's S4 premiere, which is in no way a good-bye between them. So I sure as hell hope they reunite someday, the Rick and Michonne series seems as good a place as any for that reunion.

 

Agreed. I'm not sure how the chronology of the spin-off series play out (meaning, Rick & Michonne / Daryl / Maggie/Negan shows), but Morgan reuniting with Rick would feel like the cap to the entire "Rick-driven" end of the WD franchise, so the other series would need to come before Rick's, or have plots which run into his series.

 

New trailer out for season 8. We're definitely bringing Morgan's story full circle this season.

Also, even though it probably belongs in another thread, here's a teaser for Dead City, the Negan and Maggie spin-off which now as a premiere date of June 18 announced.

 

Fascinating that Morgan and Grace end up in King County--where it all began for Morgan along with name dropping Rick. Although with the dozen-plus years passing between TWD season one and FTWD season 8, one has to wonder how Morgan's home is still standing or does not seem to have been ransacked by scavengers, who did not take Morgan's rifle...

With Morgan back in Georgia, one might believe he's moving closer (state wise) toward Ohio (location of The Commonwealth), which is only 4 states away, or back to Virginia. Either location might be the final destination / end of the Rick plotline.

The trailer sort of clears up that the girl in the prison jumpsuit is Dwight and Sherry's daughter, while the other might be Not-so-little-Mo.

Not much there, other than Maggie yelling for her son, who appears to be aged-up a couple of years.

Daniel and Madison have their reunion after who knows how many years. I guess they'll bond over the fact they are the only surviving members of their families (unless Alicia somehow survived in the irradiated wilderness).

I'm really looking forward to FTWD's final season.

 

If the producers had known that this was the final season before filming, I'm sure they would have found a way to do a one off appearance with the actress who plays Alycia in order to tie up loose ends with Madison. As it is, we might get a name drop or two throughout the season.

 

The Alicia problem is that the finale of her final appearance--"Amina"--had Alicia pass out (shortly after her friends departed on rafts), only to rise in a seemingly clean environment, and fully healed. Initially, I believed she somehow recovered, but some reviewers have written this off as Alicia hallucinating / dreaming as she succumbed to the bite. If they're correct, then viewers should place the character on the back burner as having no chance of returning.

 

Now that Fear is finally coming back... this season's premise just feels so stupid to me. I mean seven years pass with Padre?? Some of the previous situations could have lent to some decent time jumps.... but this just feel so desperate to catch up.

At this point, I am going to watch it, just to finish the series. But it sure feels a lot like season 5 of Andromeda and Earth FInal COnflict.

 

Whatever else this season is, I doubt it will be anywhere near that bad.

 

Fear the Walking Dead
Season 8 premiere - "Remember What They Took From You”

Morgan and Madison: Some unspecified time after being taken prisoner by P.A.D.R.E. henchmen, Morgan finds himself sitting in a dilapidated room with one tow-way window and a mounted speaker; Madison and an armed guard stand nearby. A voice (from the speaker) interrogated Morgan, doubting his interest in joining / understanding the P.A.D.R.E. vision. The voice drops some information designed to elicit a response, such as P.A.D.R.E.'s discovery of the raft Morgan mentioned...only there were not the number of passengers aboard as Morgan claimed. The voice continues, explaining P.A.D.R.E. exists to build a new world different than the one that advocates of the old world destroyed. Obtaining--and driving the emotion from children--is part of the process. The voice asks Morgan to be a "collector".

Another woman (Shrike) enters the room with a walkie emitting the sounds of a child crying; instantly identifying the voice as Baby Mo's, Morgan rises, but is forced back to his seat at gunpoint. Glancing at Madison, he calls the entire situation a set-up, but in an instant, Morgan knocks out the armed guard, while Madison does the same to Shrike. The two try to make their escape...

Time Jump: Seven Years​

P.A.D.R.E.: The once-mysterious community is based on an island, where residents are divided by workers wearing masks and padded clothing designed for combat, and others performing menial and hard labor tasks, all dressed in orange, prison-like jumpsuits. Some residents are training to fight a as-yet-unnamed threat, others forge professional-level rifle bullet jackets.

8-year old Mo: A young girl (Mo--Morgan and Grace's daughter aka the PADRE-named "Wren") suits up in protective gear, carrying a staff, while others lead a walker into a caged area--not before removing its teeth. The girl is watched by a teenager named Dove, as a teacher would watch a student. The girl enters the caged area as the walker is shoved in with her; without effort, she uses the staff to trip the walker, who slams to the ground. Mo seems ready to finish off the creature, when she's distracted by flashes of the walker from another time, allowing the walker to push her to the ground and bite into her shoulder pads. Screaming for help, a disappointed Dove kills the creature.

Dove flatly states Mo should not have been brought into P.A.D.R.E., as she's not ready for the community. Mo argues she is, and requests more training in exchange for taking on Dove's chores for a month.

Later, Mo begins her chores, including hauling oxygen tanks; when one of her tanks rolls down a flight of steps, the girl follows, only to discover an underground prison, with one door at the rear of a single hall. The girl hears a voice and she cautiously approaches, opens the food tray door and is grabbed by an aged Madison. The girl breaks free, with Madison calling after her...

P.A.D.R.E.: and Madison: A depressed Madison scrawls calendar marks on the wall, which indicate she's been in the cell for a number of years. She's visited by Shrike and a guard, noticing Madison has not been eating her meals. Shrike takes blood from Madison near a severely infected, cut area of her arm, coldly telling Madison that they have ways of making her eat. In an instant, Madison knocks both to the ground, and the moment she grabs the guard's pistol, she shoves in in her mouth, pulling the trigger...but there's no shot. Shrike wonders if Madison believed they would ever bring a loaded gun into a cell with her. Madison is drugged into unconsciousness...

8-year old Mo: That night, Mo stares at the shoreline of the Mainland, telling Dove she wanted to continue training in order to go the Mainland to help build their future...and feels there's something "really big is missing" inside of her (SEE NOTES) every time she looks at the location.

Dove admonishes Mo about seeing Madison (named "Lark" by PADRE), info dumping the story of Madison being imprisoned due to her helping some stranger and his baby daughter years ago, also recalling how she took out several guards and the dead with a sledgehammer. The story of a man with a baby daughter and Madison's skills greatly interest Mo...

That evening, Mo returns to the cell, armed with a sledgehammer, asking to be trained how to use it in order to kill "Carrion" (yet another name for walkers); Madison agrees to help--only if she will shut off the oxygen valve to her room, which will kill Madison. Mo reluctantly accepts the offer, and tells the child she's holding incorrectly, and the moment Mo shows the tool to a helpful Madison, the woman grabs it, slamming the cell window--shattering it--so she can use one of the pieces to cut her own throat. Mo breaks in and stops Madison, yelling that she will not get into trouble because of her.

Madison notices a scar on Mo's wrist, and asks where did the girl get it; Mo says she's had it since she was "very young". Madison gasps in shock, recognizing the girl as Mo, who--thanks to Madison's help seven years ago--was supposed to have escaped P.A.D.R.E. island with her father. Mo is confused by this information, and cannot respond--interrupted by two armed guards demanding Madison surrender. The woman grabs Mo, using her as a shield long enough to shove the girl toward one guard, then sweep the legs of both, as their heads strike the walls. Madison collects the weapons and promises to get Mo off of P.A.D.R.E. island...

The next day, Madison--with a resistant Mo--travel across miles of marshland to a makeshift dock; Mo wants no part of this rescue action, and in her attempt to flee, hits Madison's oxygen tank, damaging part of the mouthpiece, while stealing her walkie--alerting PADRE to her status. Madison recovers, telling the girl it will take weeks for PADRE to find them, so they should move toward the marsh, which prevents walkers from following them. Mo insists on fighting off a group of approaching walkers, but freezes, once again having flashbacks to some nighttime struggle with walkers in a body of water. As Madison kills the walker, A man with a covered face emerges from the brush, warning the two to leave the area. Madison identifies him as Mo's father--and sure enough, Morgan removes his wraps, admitting he is the child's father. He reaches out to Mo, but she slaps his hand away, calling herself Wren. Morgan takes that in for a moment, but accepts it, saying he will send Mo back to PADRE.

Forcing Mo and Madison to the long-abandoned remains of "Pip's Pavilion of Wonder", Morgan walkies the PADRE search team (calling himself "Nightingale") with news of Mo's retrieval. Madison mounts a feeble attack against Morgan for accepting Madison's own claims (that children would be better off with PADRE). The PADRE search team tells Morgan that the colony is only interested getting Mo back--not Madison, as she's become a liability. With that, Morgan knows the implication of PADRE rejecting anyone. Asking Mo to move away, Morgan prepares to shoot Madison, but Mo's gaze distracts him long enough for Madison to trip and disarm him. Demanding Morgan lead them out of the area, Morgan hesitates when looking toward the swamp, as it was the same location where he relinquished custody of Mo seven years ago.

Morgan & Madison: That evening, the trio enter the swamp, heading toward a house boat once used by Morgan; the one benefit of the location is that walkers--not being a strong as the living--often find their feet permanently stuck in the muck. Madison explains that she became a collector only because P.A.D.R.E. lied about having Nick and Alicia--using her children to force Madison to work. It was only thanks to Morgan revealing the true fate of her children that convinced her to help Morgan. The log-suffering man argues that P.A.D.R.E. is better for Mo, as they were out of food, and at the mercy of a posse. Their argument ends as flares light up the sky, which Morgan states is P.A.D.R.E.'s way of drawing more walkers toward escapees--the same tactic used against him seven years ago. The trio continue to plow through the swamp until morning, when they arrive at the house boat. Madison tries to pry more information out of Morgan about his beliefs or what he thinks about P.A.D.R.E., but his answers are not exactly informative. He mentions he has not seen several of his companions who were part of the raft party--Luciana, Daniel and Victor among them.

The curious Mo notices the walls are covered in some sort of gunk partially obscuring names written in large print; a tense Morgan tries to pass it off as graffiti, but the child continues wiping away the gunk until a number of names are revealed--including Jenny and Duane--Morgan's late wife and son (SEE NOTES). Mo notices baby toys and a makeshift crib, and when asking about the items, she's met with resistance from her father.

Mo discovers the tape player with Grace's singing, triggering more memories from the night she was separated from her true family. Nearly hyperventilating, Mo panics, saying the dead will bring the boathouse down...as in the past. Panic turns to anger, as she grabs a gun and tries to shoot Madison (for bringing her to a place that dredged up so many bad memories). Morgan prevents the bullet from hitting Madison, but its noise attracts walkers to the house boat's platform.

Eventually, the walkers converge on the house boat--their collective weight pulling the structure under; Morgan urges the others to make their way to the grounds before they sink, and while father & daughter move through the waters, Madison stays on the boat, making noise to use herself as bait.

Morgan and Mo are close to the marsh grounds when Mo's foot becomes trapped in the muck, forcing Morgan to fight off walkers, free the girl and try to aid Madison, but he's barely able to accomplish one of those tasks. Sitting in the boat's doorway, Madison--barely able to breathe--is resigned to her chosen fate, as walkers are able to touch her. Mo has more flashbacks to Morgan asking a P.A.D.R.E. member if she will be safe, then breaks out of it to beg Morgan to help Madison.

Madison is seconds from being bitten, when bullets tear through the heads of her zombie attackers, followed by a boat racing into the scene. It is Grace, and there's no missing the fact she's a far darker person than at any point seen before....though she admits to being Mo's mother.

Back on the dock, and in the company of Morgan and Grace, Mo now realizes the truth of her life: that Morgan--despite the lies of P.A.D.R.E.--did what was best for Mo, and she clearly recalls listening to her mother's signing 7 years prior. She has a change of heart, asking everyone--including Madison--to escape, and/or consider freeing the other kids Madison once collected. Grace echoes Morgan's request for Mo to forget her parents and accept her life at P.A.D.R.E. The child feels betrayed by her parents, but insists that they should be together. In his frustration, Morgan blurts out that Isaac and Rachel were her long-dead biological parents, but he promised to take care of her...which is what he's still doing by sending her back to PADRE.

The PADRE search parties arrive, led by Shrike; despite earlier walkie chatter saying Madison was no longer wanted by the community, she's taken prisoner again, while Mo half-heartedly boards another boat--she and her parents exchanging painful stares. After Morgan and Grace watch their daughter taken away again, they learn PADRE is not finished digging the knife in: because Mo knows Morgan is her father, the community cannot risk another meeting between the two, so Morgan has been stripped of his collector job and is taken prisoner.

Back at the community, Mo is interviewed by PADRE himself, who gives Mo a second chance to prove her trustworthiness (SEE NOTES). Returning to the training cage with Dove, Mo no longer fears killing walkers--only this time, she uses a sledgehammer to do the job, similar to her one-time rescuer.

NOTES:

So begins the final season of Fear the Walking Dead:

• It has been eight years since the season 7 finale.
• PADRE is both the name of the community and the name of its leader--one who Madison attempted to kill seven years ago, an act which--along with helping Morgan escape--led to her imprisonment.
  
• Morgan says Daniel, Luciana and Strand were missing from the raft escapee group and have not been seen since that time. Madison appeared bothered to learn about Strand's disappearance, but that concern might fade if Strand is still playing in villain mode. Morgan did not mention the others, but the teaser clearly shows June, Dwight and Sherry have survived, but its unclear if their scenes are in the "future", or 7 years in the past.
• Morgan says he only collected children of parents who were dead, or voluntarily gave up custody of their kids. Obviously, this was Morgan applying a psychological balm to the thought of separating children from their parents. His adding that he has no idea how PADRE (the man) thinks is another way of saying he was never on the "inside" with the group, no matter how long he's served the community.

Morgan writing names of Jenny and Duane on the walls of house boat (and I believe the line, "They should be here" is scrawled o the wall) sparked notions that he was returning to his state of mind as seen in TWD's S3 episode, "Clear", but its certainly foreshadowing to Morgan's return to King County at some point in the season.

The fact Morgan was thinking about his first family over the course of seven years, and the temperature with Grace suggests they are no longer a couple, and merely cordial to each other. One of the teasers show Grace accompanying Morgan back to King County, so it could be a hint that they resolve issues, or pick up where they left off.

Actress Zoey Merchant makes her debut as 7-year old Mo; as required by the story, she's been a fairly brainwashed child, so she's hostile and trying to earn a place in the defense of the community. Her icy personality did melt (to a degree) in the company of Morgan, so one might suspect her pledge to work for P.A.D.R.E. is not exactly an honest one, and yes, she is not trusted by the PTB.

The one issue I had with this episode was the Plot-Convenient way Mo peeled back the layers of her past (and Morgan's) life at the boat house; a child's natural curiosity is one thing, but taking the time to wipe gunk from the wall (during a tense situation) to reveal the names of Morgan's late family, and zeroing in on the meaning of the crib (in a personal sense) was the writer(s) firing a rocket-powered grappling hook from Mo to the arc of the season, drawing them together at a clip to get things rolling in the premiere, that should have taken a couple of episodes. Then again, this final season only has 11 episodes left, so I can give a pass to the pace at which Mo's realization of her past unfolded.

GRADE: A.

 

Definitely an interesting episode and certainly sets up what is at the moment looking to be a very intriguing season for this show. Not much more to add at the moment, though this was definitely one of the few times in recent years I found myself genuinely curious at the direction a show (any show) would take and couldn't actually predict anything that would happen. PADRE seems to have a bit more depth than the usual "evil community our heroes must take down" and the use of the time jump really gives us a sense of doing the heroes of this show more damage than any of the other evil communities that the casts of this and the other shows have dealt with yet.

Definitely looking forward to see where all this goes.

 

For me, this is just a B

Some things were good... Zoey Merchant as an actress will have a great future, as long as she doesn't have an agent like Chloe Bennett's. My "problem" with her isn't the actress, but rather the age. She is supposed to be 8, but I have a 12 year old, and Zoey was clearly a Tween. And dealing with death is clearly something at a Tween level, not a younger kid. However, I can give it some slack, considering what would actually be needed for it to work.

Morgan was :still Morgan" while working for Padre... interested to see what we learn.

I just don't understand why so many seemed to be excited about Kim Dickens as a actress. Madison was just kinda there for me. I am not understanding her drive or purpose or anything (a 180 of Morgan appearing)

Meanwhile, Karen David was able to show a bond with Morgan while at the same time being in an isolated state (which i assume we will see change later).

Victor was mentioned, but wondering how Madison's reunion will go, and if Victor and Daniel know about Madison being alive, and how such a reunion will work out (hopefully than something small; i wonder how Victor will talk about how he tried to kill ALicia and his war with her cost so much for no reason; hated that character assassination season).

So PADRE is a singular person? It would have been more original if the PADRE leadership was a group of equals, vs. the usual all=powerful dictator.


I wonder if there will be any tie in to the CRM (As VIrginia's arc had alluded to)? If not, i will really question what Scott Gimple's role as "Chief Creative Officer" is.


My wife wasn't too enthralled, so she might not follow this final season..

For a final season, it doesn't feel like it. I hope each of the characters gets an episode to close them out...but with this time jump, it will feel like coming out of nowhere (as opposed to say, Ezekiel on TWD, where his ending seems quite fitting)

 

Psychological damage, perhaps, but until we see something different, I feel Teddy's nuclear missile launch / aftermath was the most devastating event the heroes faced on FTWD.

There's no set age range for comprehending / dealing with death. Some have no choice but to absorb / learn all that it means at an earlier age than the Mo character.

As written in the early seasons of FTW, Madison was largely an irritant, often doing things she had zero experience with, so she should have been killed off within season one or two, IOW, she was no Rick, Daryl or Michonne, especially not in the early seasons of the series. The character became appealing in the very last regular season she appeared in, then--as we all know--supposedly died in the stadium fire / walker attack. I think her current broken down state (and the weight of thinking her kids are dead) is her redemption arc, but it remains to be seen if her exit will involve Strand--the person she's asked about more than once.

 

Eh, it's not the first time a show or movie has cast someone older to play a child or teenager. There are various reasons for this, an older actor has more experience and can deliver a better performance than someone the same age as the character and getting someone older gives more freedom since the production isn't restricted by child labor laws. Granted, that's not applicable in this case since they still have a child actor playing the role, but presumably older children are permitted more acting time than younger children.

 

This description reads so much like portions of George A. Romero's original "Day of the Dead" script, one wonders if Greg Nicotero, who worked/acted on the final version of the film gave the producers George's original script and told them to take what they thought were the best bits and use them for "Fear".