Fear the Walking Dead has told its final story with Althea (Maggie Grace) for the “foreseeable future,” confirms co-showrunner Ian Goldberg. Season 7 episode “Reclamation” reunites Al and her flighty love interest — AWOL Civic Republic Military pilot Isabelle (Sydney Lemmon) —when the CRM sends a Reclamation Team to eliminate a threat to operational security: Isabelle and Al. Morgan Jones (Lennie James) puts a target on his back to help his friend track down Isabelle at a cabin in the Smoky Mountains, where Al gets something rarely heard of in The Walking Dead Universe: a happy ending to her story.
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“The episode that we saw her in with Isabelle, [‘Reclamation’], is the last time we’re going to see Al on Fear for the foreseeable future. We really wanted to give her that rarest of things in the Walking Dead Universe, which is a happy ending,” Goldberg said on Talking Dead. “So we got very excited and were just thrilled with how the episode turned out and her reunion with Isabelle, and then just sort of deciding to throw caution to the wind and embrace their love for each other and hit the wild blue yonder of whatever comes next.”
“But they’re out there, and we hope — there is more story to tell with them and we hope we get to see more of them,” added Goldberg. “But for now that’s Al’s goodbye.”
Fear hinted at an early exit for Al when Grace, who joined the Walking Dead spinoff as a series regular in Season 4, was removed from the opening credits in Season 7. Grace received a guest-starring credit for her two appearances this season.
The former LOST star is a new mom and welcomed her first child with husband Brent Bushnell last year. Season 6 wrote Al out temporarily when she set off alone to find Isabelle, who piloted the helicopter that airlifted Al’s friends to safety from nuclear warheads in last season’s finale “The Beginning.”
“So grateful for this dynamic character, this close-knit cast, and grateful as hell for the hardest working crew in the business,” Grace wrote with a behind-the-scenes photo from her Fear finale shared to Instagram.
Season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead returns in April with new episodes pitting an ailing Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) against friend-turned-foe Victor Strand (Colman Domingo). Producers have confirmed Kim Dickens, who played Madison Clark until her apparent death in Season 4, will reprise her role in Season 7 before returning as a series regular in Season 8.
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