Fear The Walking Dead brought back characters for its final season, adding to the story. However, there’s one it didn’t – and it was for the better.

With eight seasons rounding out Fear The Walking Dead and numerous surprises in the series finale, it’s a good thing one particular past character was not brought back. The final season said goodbye to numerous characters, such as Morgan, Mo, and Troy, and welcomed back Alicia. Choices like these created opportunities for major characters to have more satisfying story ends and tied up overarching plot points. In the finale, Alicia’s return, for instance, confirmed Tracy was not her daughter, concluded her and Madison’s arcs, and reinforced the mission to help others that both Alicia and Madison’s new legacy MADRE practices.

The Walking Dead doesn’t always bring back characters with as much of a successful outcome as Madison’s. For instance, in the main show, Luke, an original member of Magna’s group, returned in the final season for three episodes only to get bitten, have his leg amputated, and die anyway. This suggests it’s not always a brilliant idea to bring back characters into The Walking Dead franchise. Moreover, characters’ legacies can leave a lasting enough impact on others’ development or be kept alive through other means, such as John Dorie’s guns being used by June even in Fear The Walking Dead‘s finale.

Althea’s Fear The Walking Dead Exit Left No Reason To Bring Her Back

Before audiences say goodbye to Althea in Fear The Walking Dead season 7, she and fugitive CRM soldier Isabelle reunited and agreed to stay together even though they’d have to be on the run. While she is alive and has the potential to do more in the franchise because of her connection to the CRM, no real loose ends about any already-started storylines remained when Althea left. Given how far removed from the PADRE storyline Althea is, a cameo in the finale would’ve been hard to explain in a way that served the season’s narrative.

Given how well Fear The Walking Dead set up Althea and Isabelle’s relationship through multiple moments of struggle between maintaining independence and abiding by one’s duty, their departure was more poignant. Althea smashed her video camera, symbolizing her devotion to only Isabelle. As sad as it may seem, their exit also signified a fresh start that allows for more purpose-driven cameos in spinoffs like the upcoming The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Bringing Isabelle and Althea back into Fear The Walking Dead‘s finale, which was heavily focused on Madison’s growth, would have seemed misplaced.

Althea Is Still Present In The FTWD Finale Through Her Tapes

Similarly to Nick’s tinned ashes, Althea’s presence in season 8 involved moments like Alicia’s legacy group using the MRAP and Tracy watching a tape of Alicia. Showrunner Ian Goldberg explained in an interview with EW that Fear The Walking Dead used storytelling to keep Althea present. According to Goldberg, the idea was to tie Madison’s sacrifice to Al.

The way that we’ve honored Al, even if it was in an indirect way, was through the idea of storytelling and how we framed Madison’s sacrifice toward the end of the episode was in the story that Strand was telling Tracy, and the first episode of Fear that we did was called “What’s Your Story?” That was Al’s question.

Madison’s sacrifice was the biggest moment in the Fear The Walking Dead series finale, so honoring Althea there emphasizes her impact. Since Althea’s tapes represent a search for truth, rounding out a season full of twists and red herrings with facts like Alicia being alive and PADRE having no military ties also honors Althea’s goal with her storytelling. By making Althea’s legacy synonymous with the power of storytelling, Fear The Walking Dead included this fan-favorite without forcing a cameo that may have been a disservice to her and the finale.