The Sanctuary was abandoned after Negan’s defeat in The Walking Dead, but Fear TWD explores its fate in future years, revealing who dwells there.

Warning: spoilers ahead for Fear The Walking Dead season 8, episode 9, “Sanctuary.”

Fear The Walking Dead season 8, episode 9 takes place largely at the Sanctuary, revealing what became of the settlement after Negan’s downfall. As the stronghold of Negan’s Saviors, the Sanctuary played a major role in The Walking Dead between seasons 7 and 8. An abandoned factory transformed into a hardy post-apocalyptic compound, the Saviors attempted to keep the Sanctuary running after Negan’s defeat, but ultimately gave up. By the time Negan made his solo return there in The Walking Dead season 9, the Sanctuary was utterly abandoned, a shell of its former glory.

Fear The Walking Dead season 8, episode 9, “Sanctuary,” takes place seven years on from Negan’s visit. Following his departure from the group in Fear The Walking Dead season 7’s ending, Dwight unintentionally finds himself in familiar haunts, pulled back to the Sanctuary by a well-meaning stranger. While returning to Negan’s old stomping ground brings back memories of the past for both Dwight and Sherry, the episode also highlights the Sanctuary’s status in The Walking Dead‘s present-day timeline, introducing new occupants as successors to the Saviors.

The Sanctuary Has Been Renamed “The Factory”

One immediate change Fear The Walking Dead makes is renaming the Sanctuary “the Factory.” More than just proving the new occupants are significantly less imaginative than Negan, this alteration confirms an important detail – the villains introduced in Fear The Walking Dead are not remnants of the Saviors. After Rick defeated Negan, the remaining Saviors either died, drifted away, or assimilated into other communities. One might imagine that a group of wayward ex-Saviors would take refuge within the ruins of their old home, similar to the Whisperer survivors that formed following Beta’s defeat.

The fact that Fear The Walking Dead‘s villains refer to the Sanctuary as “the Factory,” however, proves they are entirely separate from Negan’s old group, coming across this old location by chance and making it their new home. Additional proof comes when Dwight mentions the Factory’s murky past to Jay, who looks bewildered by the name “Sanctuary.” All signs point toward the Sanctuary’s new residents, and their victims, being blissfully unaware of the building’s storied history in The Walking Dead.

A New Group Of Villains Has Moved Into The Sanctuary

Something about the Sanctuary’s looming walls and grungy exterior appears to attract the wrong sort of folk to the neighborhood. After being abandoned by Negan’s evil Saviors, Fear The Walking Dead reveals that the new residents are just as wicked. From stealing insulin to shooting teenagers, the Sanctuary’s current crowd has few ethical lines, creating a close parallel to the Saviors. Both Sanctuary communities may be walking on the wrong side of morality, but Fear The Walking Dead highlights one big difference between the Saviors and their successors.

Negan, for all his faults, was incredibly ambitious, dominating the local area for a long time before Rick Grimes came along. Fear The Walking Dead‘s new villains are small-time in comparison, as well as woefully inept. Not only does Dwight sneak into their Factory, he would have escaped had the furnace not sent him into a reverie. Rather than dominating entire communities and demanding tribute, the villains Dwight encounters conduct ad-hoc raids on vehicles or small, defenseless communities. Most of them eventually get dispatched rather easily by an undead horde, or the trio of Dwight, June and Sherry.

To underline how much of a downgrade these villains are compared to Negan’s Saviors, it’s worth noting that Fear The Walking Dead‘s timeline is currently more or less parallel to The Walking Dead season 11. At no point during The Walking Dead‘s final episodes was Alexandria or its allies ever bothered by the bad group seen in Fear The Walking Dead season 8, meaning their reach never extended far enough, and was never strong enough, to overtake those larger settlements as Negan once did.

The Sanctuary Is Finally Destroyed In Fear The Walking Dead Season 8

By the end of Fear The Walking Dead season 8, episode 9, the Sanctuary is in a state of utter destruction. A horde of metal-coated zombies colliding with the Sanctuary’s already-creaking foundations, mixed with some untimely gunfire, results in the entire factory crumbling to the ground. Only the metal furnace inside remains intact. Negan’s former HQ is no more, bringing a permanent end to the Sanctuary’s role in The Walking Dead‘s story.

The downfall of the Sanctuary also closes the chapter on Negan’s time as a villain. Both The Walking Dead season 11 and The Walking Dead: Dead City‘s ending worked hard to redeem Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character, but Fear The Walking Dead season 8’s “Sanctuary” is all about Dwight and Sherry finding closure. The Sanctuary’s destruction allows them to finally lay the trauma of the Saviors’ tyranny to rest, further consigning the “naughty Negan” era of The Walking Dead to the history books.