‘Fear The Walking Dead’s Shocking Crossover Ending Explained

The launch of Fear the Walking Dead‘s crossover with The Walking Dead had a shocking start when the sibling series’ Season Four premiere kicked off.

Spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead‘s Season Four premiere follow!

As Morgan Jones (Lennie James) commanded the screen for Fear the Walking Dead‘s returning episode, along with new faces like John (Garret Dillahunt) and Althea (Maggie Grace), the original characters made a surprising return to their show in its final moments. As the trio of newcomers rolled down the street in a setting beyond that of The Walking Dead Season Eight’s timeline, they came across a young woman in the street clamoring for help. She insisted there were “bad people here” but ultimately proved herself to be the people she was describing.

When the girl’s hair flipped up and out of the way of her face, fans recognized her as Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey). She wasn’t alone, either. As Morgan, Althea, and John were taken out of Althea’s impressively equipped truck, Nick (Frank Dillane), Strand (Colman Domingo), and Luciana (Danay Garcia) emerged from the side of the street to take the trio hostage. Making matters worse, they were carrying the flag of each group’s common enemy: a mysterious bunch of men who mark their territory with white banners numbered for each location.

“When I read that, particularly when we get to the end of the first episode and the two worlds properly collide, I have to say that it was one of the moments where I went,’”Okay, we’re going to be okay. If that’s where we’re starting, we’re going to be okay,’” James told ComicBook.com. “I think we’ve given ourselves a really good springboard to make the season that we want to make here in Austin. It gave me real confidence, it took the edge off and made me feel that I’ve made the right decision to continue telling the story of Morgan over here at Fear.”

The merging of the groups is taking place about “six or seven months” beyond the time of The Walking Dead Season eight finale, meaning it has been an uncertain amount of years since the dam collapsed in the Fear the Walking Dead Season Three finale. Since that time, the group established themselves in a fortified baseball stadium which will be explored in Fear the Walking Dead Episode 4×02 and beyond. Whether or not their baseball stadium home is still standing, however, is a mystery as the group seems to be dirtied by some time on the road in a group of only four revealed so far.

As it turns out, though, the conclusion of Episode 4×01 was the first scene shot during production of Fear the Walking Dead Season Four. “The first scene we ever shot was the scene on the road that’s end at the end of the first episode,” Althea actress Grace told ComicBook.com. “Which, as you can imagine, is a colorful first scene to do with all these new people coming in. Handshake. ‘How do you do?’ ‘On the ground!’ It was kind of wild and an interesting first day.”

The Walking Dead will return for its ninth season in the fall. Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.