Fear the Walking Dead's Strand War Claims First Victim

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday's "Mourning Cloak" episode of Fear the Walking Dead. "We're going to war," declared Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) to end the first half of Fear the Walking Dead Season 7. Determined to take the Tower from Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) and lead Teddy's (John Glover) former followers to PADRE, a supposed safe haven spared the fallout of nuclear blasts, the war against Strand claims its first victim when Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) arrives at the Tower in "Mourning Cloak."

In Sunday's episode, Strand loyalist Howard (Omid Abtahi) tasks ambitious 15-year-old Ranger in training Ali (Ashton Arbab) with finding the Mourning Cloak: an extremely rare butterfly with a lifespan of a year. Like the caterpillar's metamorphosis into the butterfly, Howard tells Ali, "They started as one thing and became something else. Something better. And that's what Victor did. That's how he survived. Show Victor what you're capable of, that you can be something greater. Then you'll be ready." 

But when Ali catches Charlie trying to sneak into the Tower while Strand is away, she denies she's a spy for Morgan (Lennie James). On the eve of her 13th birthday, Charlie claims she wants to live a normal life and volunteers for a dangerous mission to secure her place in Strand's Tower.

After Strand's Rangers return from a scout with radiation burns, Charlie offers to find the parts needed to repair the elevators damaged when Arno (Spenser Granese) and the Stalkers attacked the Tower. Suspicious of Charlie's motives, Howard sends Ali along to learn why she's really at the Tower: "It's what separates the caterpillars from the butterflies. You said you wanted to be a Ranger. This is what Rangers do."

After Stalkers ambush Ali as Charlie is off in a building searching for the elevator parts, she confesses Morgan sent her to the Tower to deactivate the rooftop beacon attracting walkers towards the fortress, where Grace (Karen David) and Baby Mo are Strand's prisoners.

"I didn't lie about everything. All of those things I said I wanted, a life like I was supposed to have, I still want that," Charlie tells Ali. "And I thought that I was gonna find that with Morgan, but not if I have to put you in danger to get it." 

Ali locks Charlie inside a broken elevator, leaving her behind as the building fills with walkers. Guiltridden over abandoning his father as he succumbed to radiation poisoning from the blasts, Ali returns to free Charlie, and the two teens decide to run away together instead of getting caught in the crossfire of Morgan and Strand's war.

After a kiss, Charlie collapses. Back at the Tower, nurse June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) confirms Charlie was exposed to radiation and doesn't have long to live. Because she's a danger to the Tower, Howard decides to renege on the deal and cast out the sick Charlie.

Promoted to Ranger, Ali sneaks to the roof to carry out Charlie's mission to disarm the light. Caught redhanded by Howard, Ali tells him Morgan's people "want this place to change, and that can't happen with Strand."

"Well, that's where you're wrong, Ali. It's the only way," Howard says, choking Ali before throwing him from the Tower's roof. Charlie hears Ali's scream as she watches his body fall to Strand's walker moat below.

"No matter how much time you have left, you will live to see Strand go down," June promises the dying Charlie. "I will do everything I can to make sure that happens." A Mourning Cloak butterfly lands near Charlie and the episode ends. 

"This is a conflict that is gonna start to brew. We know that there's one coming from outside the tower, but now there's one inside," showrunner Ian Goldberg said on Fear the Walking Dead: Episode Insider. "Charlie seeing the Mourning Cloak is very bittersweet. It's a symbol of Ali. It's a symbol of her feelings for Ali."

Goldberg continued, "She has felt this connection with someone who was cut tragically short. But like Ali said, something that beautiful should get the chance to live, even if just for a little while."

New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 air Sundays on AMC and AMC+. Follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter and @NewsOfTheDead for TWD Universe coverage all season long.