Why Fear the Walking Dead Brought Back That Unexpected Character

Fear the Walking Dead on Sunday unexpectedly revealed a masked man to be a returning character, and in another surprise twist, turned an old enemy into a new ally for Dwight (Austin Amelio). When the recently reunited Dwight and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) plot to take down Virginia (Colby Minifie) against Morgan's (Lennie James) wishes, they do so with the help of Sherry's new crew of outcasts led by Rollie (Cory Hart) and an ornery Oswald (Andre Munar). Rollie rolled with Logan (Matt Frewer) and his gang of bandits but changed course when Dwight — showing the same mercy that Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) showed him on The Walking Dead — gave him a second chance in season 5.

"Rollie in season 5 had a very important storyline with Dwight, where Dwight in episode 510, basically gave Rollie a choice. It started on a very adversarial place between the two of them, but Dwight had the chance to kill Rollie and he didn't, he let him go," showrunner Ian Goldberg explained to EW. "And he told him, 'Today's the day that you can stop being an a--hole, should you so choose.' We left Rollie in that position, and we thought it would be interesting to bring him back and see how Dwight's decision to spare him and give him another chance has paid off for him."

Goldberg continued, "Of course, the karmic beauty of it is that he's ended up with Sherry in this band of Outlaws that are trying to take down Virginia. And of course, Rollie's motivated to take down Virginia because she killed his old buddy Logan in season 5. Just a lot of factors, and also seeing how Rollie and Sherry now have come together, and Dwight has come into the fold."

Showrunner Andrew Chambliss adds Sherry's group are not behind the spray-painted messages popping up throughout season 6 ominously warning that "the end is the beginning." This so-far unnamed group, which is targeting Virginia and her plans to build the future, unleashed a swarm of bubonic plague-infected rats in "Alaska" before two of its members ambushed Morgan in "The Key."

"I will say, definitively, they do not [have a connection]," Chambliss said of that emerging threat and Sherry's group of masked misfits. "These really are the island of misfit toys — the rejects that Virginia has cast out, the people who weren't good enough for her communities. But yeah, they have nothing to do with the graffiti artists."

More about this mysterious new enemy group comes into focus in the explosive episode 606, "Bury Her Next to Jasper's Leg," premiering Sunday, November 15.

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead premiere Sundays at 9 pm ET/8c on AMC.