Fear The Walking Dead’s finale brought the spinoff to a close after eight seasons, and thankfully avoid a recurring issue within the franchise.
Warning: Major spoilers for Fear The Walking Dead’s series finale “The Road Ahead” below!
Summary
- Fear The Walking Dead’s finale breaks the repetitive pattern of set-up for future shows, offering a satisfying and conclusive ending for the show.
- The reunion between Madison and Alicia brings emotional impact – despite being somewhat predictable – and the finale succeeds in delivering real closure for its main characters.
- While Madison and Alicia might not return, other characters from Fear TWD could potentially crossover into future shows.
With Fear The Walking Dead’s finale, the franchise is breaking out of a bad pattern it has developed in recent years. The Walking Dead franchise has been a very reliable brand for AMC for over a decade now. There was even concern the first major spinoff Fear The Walking Dead would kill interest in the saga, but not only did the latter last eight seasons itself, some viewers even preferred it. The series morphed in major ways since its first season, but with its finale “The Road Ahead,” it felt like it came somewhat full circle.
A major part of that feeling of closure was the ending reuniting Madison (Kim Dickens) with her daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) for the first time since season 4. The show’s plotting could indeed be messy (and sometimes downright bizarre), but in saying goodbye to Fear The Walking Dead’s surviving cast of characters, it stuck the landing. While leaving viewers on a hopeful note, the spinoff also avoided an ongoing issue within the wider universe.
Fear The Walking Dead’s Series Finale Sets Nothing Up For The Future
In an almost refreshing turn of events, Fear The Walking Dead’s ending does nothing to set up future shows. All the main characters break off into smaller groups and head towards their own destinations, such as Madison and Alicia heading back to Los Angeles to rebuild the home they abandoned years before. On the flip side, when The Walking Dead ended or other offshoots like Dead City or World Beyond came to a close, they always had cliffhangers or left plot threads open for future shows to pick up.
These Walking Dead offshoots may have closed the book on certain characters, but they never felt like true finales. Of course, the franchise is ongoing, so it makes sense to tease what’s next for key characters like Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), but the lack of real finality to most of these shows has become an issue. The ending of the original series itself was particularly guilty of this since it left breadcrumbs for every major spinoff that followed, including Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) big return in The Ones Who Live.
Breaking TWD’s Finale Pattern Makes Fear’s Ending Better
Plot contrivances aside, “The Road Ahead” is a satisfying finale. It could have easily left the door open for characters to crossover on other shows or suggested further spinoffs. Instead, Fear has broken Walking Dead’s repetitive ending cycle of teasing what’s next and only focused on bringing the show itself to a worthy ending. Madison’s reunion with Alicia was worth the long wait because while it might have been predictable they would eventually find each other, that did little to lessen the emotional impact.
Likewise, Strand (Colman Domingo) somehow managed to live to the end too, having been redeemed for his various misdeeds. The episode itself isn’t perfect and stretched logic to breaking point in some instances – such as Madison miraculously surviving another huge explosion but keeping her escape a secret from the others – but it succeeded in one thing the franchise has failed at with many of its shows: having a proper ending.
Fear TWD’s Characters Still Have A Franchise Future (Despite No Finale Setup)
Given how their story plays out, it feels like Madison and Alicia won’t be returning for future shows set in the universe. That said, nothing is stopping many of the other characters from reappearing again. Of course, Fear The Walking Dead mainstay Morgan (Lennie James) already exited earlier in season 8 on a quest to find Rick, but while the finale scatters the main players to different parts of the U.S., a few of them could cross over with the other Walking Dead spinoffs.
There are currently seven shows set in The Walking Dead universe, including the upcoming The Ones Who Live.
Daniel (Rubén Blades) and Luciana (Danay Garcia), for example, are headed for parts unknown so they could easily wander into a future season of Dead City or Daryl Dixon. In reality, these plans have likely already been mapped out, and since the franchise seems to be putting the pieces together for some kind of epic finale – especially with the upcoming return of Rick – viewers will have to wait and see how things fit together. For now, at least, it feels like Fear the Walking Dead got to sign off with some dignity.
