'Fear The Walking Dead': [SPOILER] Wasn't Originally Going To Die In The Finale

As fans expected, Sunday's Fear the Walking Dead season finale included its fair share of fatalities, but at least one of those deaths wasn't in the show's original plan.

SPOILERS for the Fear the Walking Dead Season Three finale follow.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, outgoing Fear the Walking Dead showrunner Dave Erickson revealed that he originally planned for Troy to survive the finale.

"Jeremiah was always going to go," Erickson says. "Troy was a hard one because I actually had a conversation with Daniel [Sharman] earlier in the season where I said that at that moment my intention was to not kill Troy. And then when we got to a place where I realized I had to have a bit more closure than I had originally intended, I had another conversation with Daniel where I said, 'You know how I said I wasn't going to kill you? Well, unfortunately, now I am.'

"From a story perspective, it made sense and it actually worked with the narrative. And the truth of the matter is he deserved it. I mean, if anybody on our show deserved to go it was Troy — just based on the place where we met him, based on the things we've seen him do, and frankly, the things that Madison's abided by."

Erickson believes Troy's death is a key moment for both Madison and Nick.

"I think it was in that moment [where she kills him] she realizes that I tried to do the right thing, I tried to offer charity and I tried to offer kindness and I let him go and now because of that the ranch is gone, the dam is compromised, and I think that's the moment where Madison comes full circle," Erickson says. "That's the moment where she realizes, this is who I am. Nick's not wrong. That violence is ingrained in her and what she realizes is that she deviated from that course. She wasn't true to herself and people suffered because of it, and so in that instance, she decides to put him down. And that has a direct impact on Nick as Nick moves into the last episode because he wants to reject that and find another way.

Fear the Walking Dead will return for a fourth season on AMC. The Walking Dead returns to AMC for its sixth season on October 22nd.