Fear the Walking Dead: Alicia's Fate Revealed

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday's "Amina" episode of Fear the Walking Dead. "I don't know how much longer I have left." The fate of Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) has been up in the irradiated air of Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 since she survived a walker's bite and amputation in the midseason finale, titled "PADRE," named after the mythical safe place she's determined to find — or die trying. Suffering from infection and a fever that won't break, Alicia declared war against Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) to take Strand's Tower and make PADRE a real place for the survivors still searching for somewhere safe from radioactive fallout. 

Alicia broadcast a radio message telling survivors looking for PADRE to find the Tower, only for a fight with Strand to spark a fire drawing radioactive walkers towards the burning Tower. With Morgan Jones (Lennie James) on a raft at sea with his infant daughter on a quest for someplace safe, Alicia's people must evacuate the area by raft before the irradiated dead burn and release radiation into the air. 

Experiencing visions and dreaming of turning into a walker, the fever-stricken Alicia follows a masked girl (Anniston Almond) who heard the transmission. Revealing a healed bite on her arm, the masked girl tells Alicia she needs to get to the Tower so she can make contact with a friend who can save her and lead them to PADRE.

Outside the burning Tower overrun by the dead, Alicia passes out before she can get inside and warn others who heard her message. After Luciana (Danay Garcia), Daniel (Ruben Blades), June (Jenna Elfman), Sarah (Mo Collins), and Josiah (Demetrius Grosse) answer an S.O.S. and save Alicia from the horde, doubting the girl — and PADRE — are real.

"I'm not leaving without her," Alicia says. "It's how I'm going to save you. But something tells me it's how I'm going to save myself." Telling the group the girl survived a bite with help from her friend, Alicia confesses, "I've been dreaming about dying for months. About turning into one of them. I don't want to die. I don't want to turn. She can help me live." 

A little bird leads Alicia to the roof of the burning Tower, where the masked girl reveals the name of her friend trapped inside: Victor Strand. Alicia has to help him "because he's your family," the girl says. "He can save you. He can save us." Alicia refuses to save Strand, even if he's her salvation: "He took everything from me." 

"Then don't let him take your life, too," the girl tells Alicia. "If you leave him here, he'll die." As Alicia collapses, she hears the girl's words: "It's not about Strand. It's about you." 

Alicia wakes up and follows the bird to Strand, too weak to help him escape. When Strand asks if this is about her mother, Madison (Kim Dickens), Alicia responds, "It's about so much more than that. This is about making what she gave us mean something. To do what she didn't get to. To make this place a place that would last." 

Alicia loads her gun with her final bullet, turning it towards her head. The bird lands nearby, reminding Alicia of Madison's taped interview about Amina, a bird she nursed back to health as a child. She hears her mother's words. "My daughter, she just decided that bird was gonna live." Summoning the last of her strength, Alicia goes to save the trapped bird. "She lived because my kids didn't give up on her." 

"Maybe this is the last thing I need to do," realizes Alicia, too weak to smash the window. The girl appears and breaks the window, allowing Alicia to set the bird free. 

Unmasking herself, the girl reveals her face: the young Alicia who saved Amina. "Your mom didn't die so you could build something like this," she says. "She died so that the part of you that didn't give up on people would live." 

Even if Alicia dies, if she saves Strand, "You can make sure people remember this part of you." As the group prepares to shove off at the beach before the irradiated walkers burn, Alicia returns with Strand and reveals why she saved him: "So you can do what I don't have time left to do. So you can find a place for everyone to be safe." With Grace (Karen David) warning of spiking radiation levels, Alicia radios Morgan, who reports PADRE might be real: "I think we might actually have someplace to go." 

Fearing she won't survive the voyage, Alicia takes a raft alone. Strand is willing to take the risk, but Alicia says it's too dangerous. "I don't know how fast I'll turn. I don't know how much longer I have left," she tells him. "It's up to you to make sure everything we've been through means something. You have to go." 

From the beach, Alicia orders Strand to leave without her. People who heard her message may be heading for the Tower, and she has to save them. "You did make it mean something," a tearful Strand says. "You saved all of them. You saved me." 

Alicia shoves the raft off. "Victor, I didn't just save you so you could live to do what I couldn't. I did it because I love you, too." 

The rafts sail away. Strand and Alicia wave goodbye as the survivors disappear into the fog. She's just strong enough to keep standing until they've gone, falling to her knees and blacking out. From the darkness, Alicia awakes on the sunny, sandy beach. Above her, birds chirp. The water is still, and serene, the rafts long departed. She feels her head — the fever is gone. 

Alicia appears healthy, as if this is another dream, or the afterlife. She smiles at young Alicia, who reveals her arm: the bite is gone. "I think it means you saved me." Asked how she's feeling, Alicia answers, "I feel like I haven't felt in a while. Like myself." 

In the distance, black smoke rises from the Tower. Dead or alive, Alicia knows her fate: "To find the people who heard my message. To spend whatever time I have left making sure they have someplace safe to go." She dons her mask and steps into the fog, firing her final bullet at a burned walker. The young girl stays behind. You can't save everyone, but Alicia Clark will die trying. 

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