Fear the Walking Dead Midseason Premiere Makes a Major Change to Alicia

Fear the Walking Dead returned Sunday with its midseason 5 premiere, which revealed Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) has adopted more of the peaceful philosophy exhibited by Morgan (Lennie James).

In an admission made during a video interview with Al (Maggie Grace), Alicia says she hasn't killed anyone — or anything, including already-dead walkers — since her scary incident at the tree fort, where she was directly exposed to irradiated walker blood. Her inability to bring herself to slay walkers is a duty instead handed off to Strand (Colman Domingo), who has inherited Alicia's sharpened pipe weapon.

Under Morgan's teachings, Alicia has adopted the ways of Aikido, and is seen practicing with her own makeshift bō. Alicia's new aversion to any kinds of violence comes as she declares she's determined to learn who is behind the mysterious line of trees decorated with inspirational messages.

"We've seen her in a really really dark place in the first half, and I can just say it's only going to get worse. She's the only remaining Clark. She's the only person from the pilot still here," Debnam-Carey told ET in July.

"She, I think, has had one of the biggest transformations out of anyone. She's gone from a teenage girl, just a regular teenage girl, to now — her entire family is gone and she's a warrior in the apocalypse. There's some interesting stuff for her coming up, but we really just get to see her on her own completely."

James previously cited Star Wars' Luke Skywalker when characterizing Morgan's mentor role with Alicia, who Morgan sees as the future of the group now fostering goodwill by helping any and all strangers in need throughout the west.

"One description you could have of him is that he's a reluctant leader, and he's a guy who's been maneuvered into this position because of his life experience," James told SYFY WIRE. "So you have a reluctant leader who has recognized who should be the leader, and he's helping her to realize that she's the future of this group. Part of his role at this particular moment is to 'Skywalker' her and get her to realize her full potential and what she's capable of."

New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 premiere Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.