Fear the Walking Dead Showrunner Explains Luciana’s Lie

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Ofelia” episode of Fear the Walking Dead. Showrunner Andrew Chambliss reveals the truth about a lie that could tear apart the Fear familia. In “Ofelia,” named after the long-dead Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason), Daniel Salazar’s (Ruben Blades) PTSD-induced memory loss causes him to think his daughter is alive. Not only is Ofelia not dead in Daniel’s confused mind, she’s aboard a boat and being kept prisoner by Arno (Spenser Granese) and the Stalkers, former followers of Teddy’s (John Glover) now living out of a ship cemetery as they plot a takeover of Victor Strand’s (Colman Domingo) Tower. 

Daniel’s mistaken mission to find Ofelia endangers the lives of Wes (Colby Hollman) and Luciana (Danay Garcia), who has been helping Daniel with his cognitive stimulation therapy. Because June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) determined Daniel’s memory loss to be psychological instead of neurological, mental exercises and speaking in his native Spanish have helped to “ground” him as his mind struggles with what’s real and what’s not.

“Meeting you, listening to you, it’s made me feel like I’m not alone. And I don’t want to lose you, Daniel,” Luci says when Daniel’s mission gets the trio captured by the Stalkers. “When you discover that Ofelia is dead… I’m worried about what could happen to you.”

“Don’t worry,” Daniel tells Luci. “I’ll find her. And none of us will be alone again.” 

Negotiating for the coordinates to a weapons cache located by Dwight (Austin Amelio), Arno lies and tells Daniel his daughter is alive aboard the boat he believes to be The Abigail. Realizing the truth about Ofelia, Daniel kills Arno, leaving Teddy’s followers again without a leader.

Luciana rallies the surviving Stalkers to join the fight to take Strand’s Tower, but they’re going to need someone who knows what Victor is thinking before he does: Daniel. When he was trying to find Ofelia, Daniel explains, “Everything became clear. My daughter gave me focus.”  

Worried that a relentless Daniel’s search for Ofelia will get him killed, Luciana lies. “Strand has her in the Tower. I was afraid that you would go there alone and get yourself killed trying to get in. If knowing Ofelia’s alive gives you clarity, then you can lead all these people and take the Tower from Strand.”

Daniel wants to believe Luciana “but my mind is not clear,” he confesses. “You must be certain, Luciana. Because if you’re wrong, if this is not true, if this is another lie, it could break me for good. Are you sure?”

Luciana lies again: “It is true, Daniel.” Convinced, Daniel is determined to take Strand’s Tower so their family — Daniel, Ofelia, and Luciana — can be together, always.

“Luciana is faced with this really hard choice, and she spent the entire episode really being angry that Arno is manipulating Daniel,” Chambliss explained on AMC+’s Fear the Walking Dead: Episode Insider. “And she ultimately makes the very tough call that in order to save Daniel and save everyone else, she may have to sacrifice the thing that she just gained, the thing that means so much to her, and that’s her relationship with Daniel.” 

Luciana lying to her mentally-fragile father figure “is a very painful thing to watch, because we know the truth,” Chambliss continued. “In Luciana’s mind, she is thinking about the long game here. And I’m not just talking practically in terms of who is in the Tower and who is not, but I think, in her mind, she thinks if she can get everyone into the Tower, if Daniel can live in a place like that, then she can repair the relationship and they can rebuild.”  

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