Fear the Walking Dead Teases Return to Where Madison Clark Died

Fear the Walking Dead's midseason finale teases a return to the burned-up baseball stadium where Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) seemingly died when Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) maps out an escape route in "Damage From the Inside." When Ranger Strand (Colman Domingo) sends Alicia and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) in search of Dakota (Zoe Colletti) — the younger sister of settlements leader Virginia (Colby Minifie) — Alicia agrees to trade Dakota in exchange for a fresh start with Charlie at a secret location. After abandoning her deal with Virginia, Alicia reveals she planned to return to the Dell Diamond Baseball Stadium.

Alicia confesses she's been tracking the best way to get to the stadium, telling Charlie "it's not as far as you think." When Charlie points out that the stadium is overrun, she realizes that's the reason Alicia was training her to kill walkers during their six-week stint at a remote watchtower.

She's been "holding onto something that's gone," Alicia says, meaning the Dell Diamond community founded by her mother after a life-changing interview with Althea (Maggie Grace). By the time of Fear season 6, roughly ten months have passed since Madison's death and the fall of the stadium.

When Morgan (Lennie James) reveals he intends to trade Dakota to Virginia in exchange for the safe release of Grace (Karen David), Alicia steps in and tells Charlie to take her to "the place we talked about up north." She's ready to leave with the girls until Morgan relents and welcomes the three of them to the hidden spot discovered by ex-Ranger Isaac (Michael Abbott Jr.) and wife Rachel (Brigitte Kali Canales).

The Dell Diamond Baseball Stadium last appeared in the season 4 midseason finale, "No One's Gone," where it's left in partial ruin after Madison immolates a herd of oil-covered walkers. Madison appears to die in the white-hot blaze but saves the lives of her children, Alicia and Nick (Frank Dillane), as well as Strand and Luciana (Danay Garcia).

Alicia referencing the stadium, as well as the three-click trick used by Madison when communicating over walkie talkie, comes after an official survey sent out by AMC in October asked viewers if they're watching Fear's sixth season to see if Madison returns. These callbacks to Madison's final season also come as the half-season rules out Dakota and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) as the mystery person who saved Morgan after Virginia shot him point-blank and left him for dead at Humbug's Gulch.

That person's identity will be revealed in episode 608 when Fear returns with the second half of the season early next year. Episode 608 was to be the midseason finale before being delayed to 2021, the result of a March production shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some questioned if marketing for Fear's sixth season was referencing Madison when a trailer released in April asked: "Who will rise from the ashes?" Fire and phoenix imagery also appeared during the fifth season, where John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt) and Dwight (Austin Amelio) came across a painted tree depicting a ladder rising from flames.

When The Hollywood Reporter asked showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg if Madison might be the one to save Morgan, Chambliss said it was a "fascinating theory" before adding: "We'll just have to wait for season 6 to see how things go." Last month, when EW asked the showrunners if we would learn who saved Morgan, Goldberg was tight-lipped: "Yes, absolutely," he answered. "That's about all I can say."

"I think fans are still upset about it at times. I don't know," Dickens told Access when asked about a potential return to Fear. "That's the nature of the genre, though. You can be gone like that. And you can also pop up at some time, at any time."

Asked to explain how her character might have escaped, Dickens said Madison "would have scurried up that wall like nobody's business. She had kids on the other side of that wall, she's gonna go get them."

Fear the Walking Dead season 6 returns with new episodes in 2021. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.