Fear the Walking Dead Refresher: Alicia Clark and Victor Strand

No one’s gone until they’re gone… and it seems Alicia Clark is gone. The midseason premiere of Fear the Walking Dead season 8 revealed that Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) is alive and that Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is dead, killed by Troy as revenge for Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) bludgeoning him with a hammer and leaving him to die back in season 3. Troy then handed over the skeletal remains of Alicia’s severed arm, and claimed he took it off her corpse when he left her to roam as a walker. “Maybe one day you’ll find her,” Troy told Madison, “or maybe she’ll find you, or maybe not, and finish the job.”

The last time we saw Alicia in season 7, she was suffering from a fever after amputating her zombie-bitten arm. It seemed that Alicia didn’t stop the infection in time, so she decided to spend whatever time she had left helping people trapped in the radioactive fallout off the coast of Galveston, Texas. First, Alicia saved her people and her old friend Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) when the Tower he lorded over as a tyrant went up in flames and was overrun by walkers. Then she entrusted him with making sure that everything they’ve been through meant something.

“You did make it mean something. You saved all of them. You saved me,” Strand told Alicia. “You did what I asked you to do back at Lawton.” In season 6, when Strand and Alicia were at the Lawton settlement controlled by Virginia (Colby Minifie), Strand handed down the Saint Christopher’s medallion that a seemingly amnesiac Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) gave him to help “bear heavy burdens.” Strand then sent Alicia far away so he could get his hands dirty without dragging Alicia down with him.

Alicia later gave the medallion to Will (Gus Halper), who was present when Alicia was forced to amputate her arm after being bitten while searching for PADRE. She eventually took the medallion off a zombified Will’s body when Strand threw her friend off the Tower roof, murdering him to keep Alicia away. The next time they met, it was as enemies: Alicia vowed to take Strand’s Tower and turn it into PADRE, transmitting a message to bring stranded survivors to the safe haven… only to watch the Tower fall. Meanwhile, Morgan Jones (Lennie James) wound up at the real PADRE after crossing paths with Madison in Louisiana and informing her that her children were gone.

“I didn’t just save you so you could live to do what I couldn’t,” Alicia told Strand. “I did it because I love you, too.” It was the last time Strand saw Alicia alive. She gave her old friend a second chance, which he used to become the benevolent leader of the Emissary Suites Hotel after washing ashore in Georgia. Seven years later, Madison turned up at Strand’s community, only for it to be taken over by Troy, who wants somewhere safe for his daughter Tracy (Antonella Rose). Strand relocated his family — his husband, Frank (Isha Blaaker), and their son Klaus (Julian Grey) — to the island, determined to help Madison build PADRE into what Alicia wanted it to be.

As it turned out, Troy tracked down Alicia and took his revenge on Madison by murdering her daughter. But whether Alicia is dead or alive is a question that will be answered in the two-episode Fear the Walking Dead series finale.

“Whether Troy is telling the truth [about Alicia’s death] is something that you’re just goingto have to watch the rest of the season to find out,” Ian Goldberg, who serves as showrunner with Andrew Chambliss, told ComicBook. Added Chambliss: “We will definitely find out whether or not Troy’s story is true, and what actually went down between Troy and Alicia.”

Madison’s mission now is to find Alicia and lay her to rest with Nick. But first, she needs to save PADRE from Troy and build the island settlement into what it was supposed to be for her children. After all, no one’s gone until they’re gone.

Fear the Walking Dead‘s “Keeping Her Alive” episode premieres Sunday, November 12, on AMC and AMC+.

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