Fear the Walking Dead Series Finale Recap: "The Road Ahead"

"There are certain things you always remember about your kids. No matter how old they get. No matter how much things change." So said Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) on the "No One's Gone" episode of Fear the Walking Dead, the spinoff series that's spanned Los Angeles, Mexico, Texas, and Georgia. Eight seasons and 113 episodes since Madison and her children — her drug addict son Nick (Frank Dillane) and her daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) —first escaped zombie-plagued LA, this is the end of Fear the Walking Dead. But the end is the beginning, and that's where "The Road Ahead" series finale opens: the beginning. 

Madison has visions of Nick and Alicia from before the fall. They're happy. They're smiling. They're alive. And Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) is dead, killed by Madison's hand. And Alicia's hand: Madison stabbed Troy to death with the skeletal remains of Alicia's severed arm, avenging the daughter he killed. "You have to fight for Tracy like you fought for Nick and Alicia," Troy told Madison with his dying words, revealing a bombshell: Tracy (Antonella Rose) isn't his daughter. She's Alicia's daughter, and she's the only family Madison has left.

Tracy has escaped into the woods with the St. Christopher medallion that was handed down from Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) to Alicia, and then from Alicia to Serena Otto. The necklace is supposed to bring luck and protection, and she'll need it: Madison and the others have fanned out to find Tracy after Troy's death. Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) have captured Troy's right-hand man Russell (Randy Bernales) and report that the herd he was leading toward PADRE has dispersed. Daniel (Rubén Blades), fearing what Troy's fanatics will do to help his daughter, wants to get as far away from PADRE as possible to protect Luciana (Danay García).

Madison saves Tracy from walkers and justifies killing Troy as something that had to be done to protect PADRE. Tracy rejects the claim that Alicia was her mother and pushes Madison away, but with an injured ankle and the rest of Troy's zombie herd still out there, Madison is Tracy's only hope of survival. They're going to go to Fort Worth, Texas, to find Alicia and put her to rest. Tracy tells Madison that Troy thought she would change, so she counters that he was right about one thing: "Pretending the world's different than it is, that's what gets people killed. And the sooner you realize that, the better. That's how you're gonna survive. I figured that out too late to save my own kids. I'm not gonna make the same mistake with you." 

At an auto restoration shop located on "Polar Bear's" road network, Madison turns her gun on Luciana and demands she take them to Fort Worth. She can't risk Luciana taking Tracy back to the island, and she needs her granddaughter to understand that living the way Strand wants to — the way she used to think they could live — is going to get Tracy killed. Luciana agrees to help Madison lay Alicia to rest and suggests that burying her daughter will help her see that "there is something more to fight for." Madison killing Troy may seem unforgivable, she tells Tracy, "but at least this way, you're gonna live long enough to understand why I did it." Tracy relinquishes the St. Christopher medallion — if what Troy said is true, it belonged to Alicia. And it didn't work, anyway. It didn't keep her dad safe. "Guess it didn't keep Alicia safe, either," Madison responds, just as Tracy goes for her holster and turns Madison's gun against her. But the magazine is empty. "You think I'd risk pointing a loaded gun at my daughter's kid?" Madison removes the empty magazine and places the medallion inside. It may not work, but it's all she has left of Alicia.

Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) arrives at the auto shop with Daniel and Ada (Nona Parker Johnson), Della (Julia Wackenheim-Gimple), and Sara (Sasha An), the three women who are carrying on Alicia's legacy by helping people. Strand wants to take Tracy and Madison back to PADRE, explaining it's the safest place for them, but Madison now believes that building it into what he wants it to be — and what Alicia wanted it to be, and what Madison wanted it to be — will only get Tracy killed. Alicia gave Troy a second chance... and in turn, he murdered her and stole her child. Madison holds her old friends at gunpoint, firing three shots into the air to keep them at bay. Unfortunately, this draws walkers from the herd, forcing everyone to hunker down inside the garage as they're swarmed by the dead. They're trapped with no way out.

Strand reaches his husband, Frank (Isha Blaaker), over walkie-talkie for help... only to find out that PADRE has their own problem with the dead. The rest of Troy's men have rounded up the dispersed dead and herded the walkers onto the barge that Crane (Daniel Rashid) docked off shore. "They're gonna overrun this place," Russell snickers, "and there's not a damn thing you or anyone else can do about it." June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) tells him they called a truce with Troy to call off the herd, but then Madison killed him. There's no stopping the herd now. The walkers shamble off the boat, into the water, and onto the island's shore, forcing Dwight to order PADRE's people to retreat inside the camp's gates. The fort should withstand the mass of dead... as long as the walls hold against the thousands of zombies forcing their way inside.

Back at the auto shop, Daniel says their lack of ammo means they have to wait until the pack of walkers outside tire themselves out. The repeater network allows Frank to report that the walls are holding — for now — but the dead have flooded PADRE. It will be overrun if they can't draw the walkers away. Russell offers a deal: if they hand over Tracy, his men will lead the herd away from PADRE. He made a promise to Troy to keep her safe. Madison points out that Troy asked the same of her. "She's all I have left," Madison says. 

Then Russell reveals the truth: Troy stabbed Alicia and left her for dead, but he didn't see her die. Troy told Madison that Alicia turned, but as it turns out, that's not the whole truth. Russell lied to Troy, telling him that Alicia succumbed to her wounds after Troy "cut her up pretty good." She hurt him, too, and nearly drove her bladed arm clean through his stomach. ("Just like mother, like daughter.") That explains how Troy got Alicia's arm. He limped home with her arm prosthetic stuck in his stomach, and a few days after Troy's fight with Alicia, he dispatched Russell and some men to make sure she was dead. They found a mattress soaked in blood, the knife Troy stabbed Alicia with on the floor... and bloody footprints heading out the door.

Strand notes that doesn't mean that Alicia's alive — but she could be, says Madison, who is desperately hoping against hope. Fearing what might happen if Troy found out he didn't kill Alicia, Russell lied. If they hand over Tracy, he'll herd the dead away from PADRE and Madison can go find Alicia. It's not a deal Madison is willing to accept. If Alicia is alive out there, she wouldn't want Madison to give up her daughter. It's decided, then. Russell's men will take the island, firing grenade launchers to blast holes in the 10-foot-thick walls of the fort. The dead don't have to get in — they just have to get the living out.

With PADRE under attack from Russell's army and their zombie legion, Strand decides they can't wait out the walkers pinning them inside the auto shop. He breaks the chains, sending the walkers flooding inside, forcing everyone to fight their way through the rabid horde. PADRE and the auto shop are under siege from an overwhelming mass of walkers, and fires from the explosions threaten to burn the island fort to ashes. Odessa (Jayla Walton) retrieves the dual Single Action Army revolvers with "JD" etched into the handles that once belonged to June's departed husband, sharpshooter John Dorie. If this is the end, they're going out guns blazing.

Dwight, Sherry, June, Odessa, Frank, and Klaus (Julian Grey) are forced to fight their way through the herd if they're going to make it the hundred yards to the docks. With the island's children looking to "Red Kite" to lead them, Dwight calls the shots: he orders Hawk (Triston Dye) and the prefects to fire off flares on the far walls to draw the walkers away and thin the herds, creating their own path to the docks. If they're going to survive, they're going to have to kill their way out. Dwight and Sherry steel themselves as the gates open. "For Finch." For their son. Russell says the herd will eat them alive. "That's why you're here," Dwight growls, throwing Russell to the swarm of gnashing teeth and fingers that tear him apart as a diversion.

After clearing the walkers outside the auto shop, Strand's decision draws rage from Daniel. "This is the last time you put in danger what's left of my family to save yours," he yells, to which Strand says Daniel would have done the same if Luciana was on the island. Strand has only pursued his "self-serving crusade" to help him feel better about "all the rotten things" he's done, Daniel argues, so Strand counters: "The parts of me that you hate are the things you don't like about yourself." The last-surviving Salazar blames Strand and Madison for him losing "every single person" he's ever cared for and lost. He recalls Los Angeles, and regrets letting Travis (Cliff Curtis) into his barbershop the night the city fell "because ever since I did, everything has been bad luck for me." In turn, Madison says she regrets letting him into her home, and Strand regrets letting him onto the Abigail.

Luciana has tuned up a car allowing them to reach one of PADRE's refineries before sunrise. "I don't know if Alicia's alive," Daniel tells Madison, "but wherever she is, she's better off without you." And so is Tracy. Daniel tells the girl to run away from Madison (who is "losing her mind") and Strand ("a selfish, pathological liar who would have gotten Luciana and myself killed, just like every single person I ever cared for!") Daniel departs with Luciana, who leaves Madison a map and a can of gas to get to Fort Worth. Her parting words are kind: she hopes Madison finds Alicia and the peace she deserves.

On the island, Frank reports that PADRE is overwhelmed: they can't get to the dock because the dead are pushing them back to the center of the island. Walkers have pressed against the nets and gates, causing everyone to band together and stab the seemingly endless waves of walkers. This is also where Madison must leave Strand. She has to go find Alicia, and after almost drowning and then fighting walkers, she's in no shape for a fight. If Madison goes to PADRE, she fears she won't come back. "I need you, Madison. I need my friend," Strand says, choking back tears. "And to try to save my family." They're friends, but, "I've been seeing her. Nick, too. It's like a dream," Madison says of the visions of her kids that have flashed throughout the episode. "Just their faces. Back in LA, before everything went bad. If I have the chance to find her, Victor, I have to try. Start over."

Strand wants that for her, too, but it's clear nothing he can say will convince Madison to fight for PADRE. "I came here to save her. I came here to save you," he says tearfully. "So I can give you a chance to get things right. And now Frank and Klaus may die because of it. I guess you're teaching her what you want her to learn... this is how you survive." Victor Strand gives up on Madison Clark. "If you find Alicia, tell her I tried."

In the escape car, Madison sets her gun down to chart the course to Alicia. "If you're so sure the world's shit," Tracy asks, "why was it so important for Alicia to believe it could be different?" To that, Madison answers, "I think parents just try to give their kids the things that they didn't have." The next question, then, is whether Madison had anything to believe in when she was a kid. Madison recalls how her daddy drank and hurt her mama. He'd hit her, then he'd apologize, but the cycle of violence would repeat. Until Madison ended it. Madison recalls being Tracy's age when she knew her father was going to kill her mother, eventually. "I wanted it to stop so bad, I shot him," she admits, without a shred of remorse. Tracy takes Madison's hand. "You did it to protect her. You didn't want Alicia to have to do anything like that." Madison has visions of the Dell Diamond baseball stadium, and how she wanted to build a place where her kids could feel safe. But in the end, all she ever did was put them in danger. "So you get it?" Tracy says. "Why I have to do this."

Tracy shoots Madison, sending her spilling out of the open car door. Madison chuckles inbetween gasping for air. "You finally understand," she says weakly. "This is what happens when you try to build something better. You end up giving people hope. End up putting them in danger. You end up getting them killed. Find Alicia. Make sure she understands, too." Tracy again refuses to believe Alicia is her mother and leaves Madison for dead.

Meanwhile, Strand, Ada, Della, and Sara have reached the docks, but Strand's SOS goes unanswered... until Luciana and Daniel come over the radio, telling him that they can't get there in time to help save PADRE. "It can't end like this," Strand yells. "It can't end like this!" But that's the end of PADRE. The fort burns. A huddled mass of walker bodies are disposed in a mass grave. PADRE has fallen. In the woods, Tracy finds a zombified Troy tangled in branches. She tells him she shot Madison and how she thinks everyone on the island is dead. Tracy raises the gun, shoots Troy, and buries her father.

There's at least one survivor: Strand. He finds Tracy and takes her to an RV to tell her she still has something left to fight for. "Madison saved me. She saved all of us," Strand reveals. "And I promised her I'd find you, so I could tell you what she did." But Tracy shot Madison. Tracy killed Madison. Jumping back in time at the auto shop, Madison sticks her hand into her bloody jacket... and withdraws the gun's magazine, a bullet embedded in Alicia's St. Christopher medallion. It works.

"After you shot her, after she realized you wanted everything to end, she knew she was wrong. She knew she had to do something big, something monumental, in order to have any hope of restoring your faith," Strand says. "In what's worth fighting for. For the people we love. For the people we have. For the things that are bigger than all of us. For the things that we'd give up our lives to protect."

People and places like PADRE. The fort fell to the dead... but Madison saved the living "the same way she did once before." A flashback reveals the walker herd flooding into PADRE. In the distance, a glowing red flare reveals a figure: it's Madison, drawing the walkers inside PADRE the way she did at the stadium all those years ago. Madison leads the dead to the basement where she spent seven years of her life locked away inside her airtight cell, and with a swing of her sledge hammer, punctures the oxygen tanks that kept her alive. "She led the dead into PADRE's walls so we could escape to the docks," Strand says. "So we could live." She didn't do it just for them — it was for Tracy, too. So she would know.

Madison shuts herself inside her cell and dons an oxygen mask. "That your dad, that Madison... they were right. They knew that fighting for something better can get you killed. But it's also something that just fighting to survive can't." Madison lights another flare, opens the hatch in her cell door, tosses it out... and the air ignites, engulfing the walker horde in the fiery blaze that burns PADRE to the ground. "It can let you live forever."

No one's gone until they're gone... but Madison Clark is gone. Tracy realizes she has no one left. "She died for me," she cries. "And so did he." Strand tells her she has him and the others from PADRE, but she once again runs away. Sometime later, Tracy places a bluebonnet and the St. Christopher medallion next to... MADISON. ALIVE. Still breathing. The oxygen mask kept her from suffocating, but it was Tracy who saved Madison's life. After Strand told her what she did to save everyone, she spent half a day digging her out of the rubble. Madison is the only family she has left.

But no one's gone until they're gone... and ALICIA CLARK ISN'T GONE. Alicia lives! She came to PADRE to bury her mother, having heard the story about a woman named Madison dying to save PADRE's people. The Clarks reunite, embrace, and sob — both in disbelief that the other is alive. Alicia asks if Madison is okay, to which she answers, "I will be." That's not the only reunion: Alicia found Daniel's cat, Skidmark, while scavenging a warehouse for supplies. With the cat out of the bag, Alicia asks: "How are you still here?"

Madison tells Alicia that her daughter came back and saved her life... but Alicia never had a child. She knew Tracy's mother, Serena, so Tracy realizes that Troy lied because he knew how hard Madison fought for Nick and Alicia, and he wanted to give her a reason to fight for Tracy. Another question: "You said you heard a story about me. From who?"

On a highway overpass, Alicia explains she picked up radio chatter on the road. As they wait for the storytellers to make their route, Alicia tells Madison she would have looked for her if she knew she was alive. "I would've come looking for you, too," Madison responds. "I never would've stopped." After Troy attacked Alicia, she came across Ada, Della, and Sara, women who dressed like her, used weapons she was using, and did the things she did: helping people. "It's like the story of what I'd done was doing more good than I could do on my own," Alicia realizes. "And so I went somewhere else. I started using a different name so Troy couldn't find me. If I hadn't done that, maybe we would have found each other." In the end, Madison says Alicia made the right choice giving people something to believe in. 

Who heard Madison's story? It's a convoy of trucks carrying shipping containers with the word "PADRE" replaced by "MADRE." The people who told Alicia about Madison had one of the MADRE containers, but they think Madison is dead. Down below, it's revealed the convoy is Luciana, Ada, Della, Sara, and children from PADRE. They're going to use the refineries to refuel before rolling out on the road.

June is headed to John Dorie's cabin back in Texas, and Odessa is going along so June can teach her medicine. John's cabin is where her husband taught her "to shoot, to survive," June says. "To live again. If he can do that for me there, maybe I can do the same for you." They'll be keeping in touch once they get the repeater stations. Dwight and Sherry decide to go find the parents of the kids that PADRE separated from their parents, but with the island gone, the kids will need somewhere to live. Dwight suggests The Sanctuary. It's defensible, and the streets are still intact, so they can rebuild it into a place that's "worthy of its name." Sherry fears losing Dwight to that place again, but she won't. They'll do it to make Finch proud — and they'll do it together. Forever.

In the last time we'll see them together, Daniel Salazar and Victor Strand make peace. He was wrong "in some parts," admitting that Strand did save his family when the world fell apart. He thanks him for the Abigail. "No need to thank me for something that people should do for one another," Strand says, truly a changed man. With a smile, he adds: "You just caught me on a good day." Maybe Strand was right. Maybe he does remind Daniel of the worst things about himself. "I don't know if people like us can act differently. And that's why I have a problem with you, Victor. But for the sake of others and our own sakes... I guess we got to try to change." From selfish to selfless, from cunning con man to caring family man — Strand thinks he has changed. "Whether you have," he tells Daniel, "that's up to you." Daniel pats Strand's shoulder, and in German, says his goodbyes: "I'm tired of war. All the best." Daniel hears meowing and finds Skidmark — a little older, a little worse for wear. And finally, Daniel Salazar laughs heartily. With Luciana, and Skidmark, he has his familia.

Strand, Frank, and Klaus also chart a new direction. Placed in Strand's truck: a bluebonnet. He knows what it means, and who put it there: a friend. He looks out the window and sees the Clarks — Madison, Alicia, and Tracy — and exhales. With a smile, Strand's family has their new direction: onward.

In the final scene of the series, Madison tells Tracy that MADRE doesn't need her. They'll do better if they think Madison Clark is dead — before she gives them a reason to stop believing. They've made their way from California, to Mexico, to Texas, to Georgia. Where to next? Madison has been having visions of Nick and Alicia back before everything went bad. Back home in Los Angeles. They saw the city get bombed during Operation Cobalt, but that was 2010. Another lifetime ago. It's probably still pretty rough there, Madison says, and there's probably a lot of people who could use their help. Holding Nick's ashes, Madison thinks of her son. Maybe there's still some good out here. "It's never gonna be what it was," Madison says. "That doesn't mean we can't start over. Let's go home."

"Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard plays as the Clark family drives down the road ahead to start over in Los Angeles. The end is the beginning.

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