Fear the Walking Dead is going even more off the rails for Season 7 Part 2, with the return of Madison. We’ve known since the end of Season 7 Part 1 that Kim Dickens was returning. In the new trailer, we get just a glimpse of what to expect and how she’ll be coming back.
We Don’t See Her Until the End of the Trailer
Madison isn’t seen until the last few seconds of the new trailer.
But her introduction is leaving fans with a lot of questions.
Based on the trailer, it looks like she somehow managed to survive the fire and some time has passed. She has Nick and Alicia’s names tattooed on her wrists (which she didn’t have before) and she’s carrying some kind of breathing device, probably to help from lung damage she suffered in the fire. But now she’s been kidnapped by some type of new “big bad” group. Someone over a loudspeaker asks her for her name and then tells her, “Not anymore. We will tell you who you’re going to be from now on.”
The rest of the trailer focuses on the Alicia-vs-Strand war that’s taking place in the nuclear wasteland that’s now Texas. The question of whether Padre is truly a viable goal still remains. The rest of Alicia’s crew also still exists, but are scattered about and also fighting against Strand in this new war.
But this kind of all pales in comparison to the return of Madison.
Madison has been rumored to be returning for quite some time, as we’ve reported on before. Back in Season 6, fans thought they had spotted some big clues pointing to her return, but they were wrong. Now that she’s finally coming back, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. The writing’s been a bit off the wall recently, and character motivations have been all over the place. I’m not quite as excited to see this character returning in the midst of all of that chaos. I want to see what Dickens can do with all of this, but I kind of wish she were returning during a better time in the show.
More hopeful fans are already trying to guess who kidapped her. Could it be CRM and somehow connected to The World Beyond and Rick’s story? It is doubtful that the group is in any way connected to the Commonwealth in The Walking Dead’s storyline.
Madison Was Once Going to be the Villain
Madison’s death was revealed in the mid-season finale of Season 4. She died off-screen, after leading the walkers into a ballpark and locking herself in with them so Nick and Alicia could escape. But because we never actually saw her die, fans have held out hope that maybe, just maybe, she survived.
At the time, Chambliss and Goldberg were quite clear that Madison was dead, even if we didn’t see her death. They confirmed with EW after the episode that Madison had died. They also confirmed that Dickens hadn’t asked to be written off the show, but it was a decision for the storyline.
Goldberg said at the time: “The thing Madison fought for, the thing that she gave her life for was a philosophy about a way of living and treating people in this world that she left behind in the people that survived her. And that’s something they’re gonna carry with them going forward. Madison’s legacy will be held very much in the way that these characters continue in the world going forward.”
Chambliss told The Hollywood Reporter: “There were thousands of walkers in that stadium that were feet away from her just before they went up in flames. So Madison died making that sacrifice for her family.” When asked to confirm specifically that she had died, Chambliss said: “Yes.”
Chambliss and Goldberg had just taken over the series after David Erickson left, when they decided it was time for Madison to go. Erickson had planned to turn Madison into a villain, as we explain in our story here. With Strand now playing that role instead, it’s not clear what’s going to happen with Madison’s storyline.
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