‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Showrunners On Naomi’s Heartbreaking Revelation

Fear The Walking Dead revealed Sunday the guarded Laura-slash-Naomi (Jenna Elfman) suffered a traumatic loss when she told John, "I lost my child."

Those four fleeting words were all Naomi offered before fleeing the scene, with John mindful enough not to press for more.

The decision to tuck that major bombshell within an otherwise uneventful scene "really came from us really thinking about who Naomi was," co-showrunner Andrew Chambliss told EW.

"She's this character who has been very closed off and really does not open up to people, is not someone who unburdens herself," Chambliss said.

"And I think it was in that moment, John Dorie has just done this very kind act for her. They're watching a movie, and he makes brittle for her, and she's let her guard down and allowed herself to feel a little bit of a connection to him. And I think what she says, 'I lost a child,' there's a ton of pain behind that. We don't know what the specifics are about it, but that is her opening herself up to John in a pretty big way. But because it's not something she's used to doing, she ends it at that and gets up and leaves."

Naomi might be dead in the 'now' timeline — Luciana told John Naomi "didn't make it out" of the baseball stadium — but Naomi's tragic reveal about her dead child will continue to play out past the couch.

"And I think John, in his limited experience with her, has seen just how guarded Naomi is, and I think he's smart enough to know that that, in and of itself, was a huge admission for her," Chambliss said. "And he's not going to press her to reveal any more about that. But that definitely will play into who she is as a person, and we will learn a little bit more about that during the course of the season."

Naomi is always looking for an exit: viewers saw her try to run out on Alicia at the water park some time after she abandoned new lover John at the end of 4x05.

There's a good reason for Naomi being a runner, said co-showrunner Ian Goldberg, to be revealed "very soon."

"We've seen that from Naomi before. When we first met her at the oil tanks, in episode 402, she was very hesitant to be around Madison and her crew," Goldberg said.

"She was just on her own and looking to stay on her own. And yeah, we see her that way in this episode as well. We don't want to give away exactly why she is that way, but we can just say that if you keep watching, that's an answer that we're going to give very soon."

Fear The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.