Posted in: AMC, Fear The Walking Dead, Opinion, Preview, Trailer, TV, TV | Tagged: amc, fear the walking dead, opinion, preview, season 8, walking dead

Fear the Walking Dead S08: Madison, PADRE, TWD/FTWD Timelines & More

Even with Tales of the Walking Dead hitting our screens this August, the third & final part of The Walking Dead Season 11 following not long after, and the feeling that we haven't had a free Sunday night in the past 37 months, there's still something very weird about there not being anything on AMC tonight having to do with the TWD universe. So what better day than today and what better time than now to share some thoughts on what we would like to see with Fear the Walking Dead Season 8. Now if you checked out our review of S07E16 "Gone" (which you can check out here) then you know that the season-ender was a mixed bag for us. On the plus side, it positioned the long-running spinoff to move the action into some fascinating literal & figurative terrain. But on the minus side, as nice as it is to have Kim Dickens' Maddison Clark back? Season finale scribes & series showrunners Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg dropped the ball on her full return & initial backstory. But that doesn't mean it's not fixable, with Madison being one of the topics we're covering below. Speaking of…

We Need to Know Who Madison Clark Is Now: It's great having Dickens back. It's great having Madison back. It wasn't great how she was brought back. Simply put? If Madison's going to return after having spent some serious time as a serial child-stealer on behalf of a shady, clandestine group, then viewers are going to have to learn a lot more about her backstory before her return in the second season finale. Because right now, it feels like one helluva personality jump for Madison since the last time we saw her- from hero to heartless monster. Now that Madison and Morgan (Lennie James) are on their way to PADRE, there should be prime opportunities for viewers to learn just how bad things got for her to make her take the path she chose.

No Family Reunions Anytime Soon: I know long-time fans may not like this, but we can/should wait on Madison, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), and Strand (Colman Domingo) reuniting any time soon (though I'm good with Danay Garcia's Luciana & Rubén Blades' Daniel seeing Madison again because that should be cool). With Debnam-Carey's Alicia, I hope they take the "absence makes the heart grow fonder" approach and then bring her back in her own adventure on Tales TWD before a full return to the mainstream universe (however it looks by then). As for Domingo's Strand, I think we need to go the "Negan redemption" route where Strand has his own storyline parallel to the main action. Because Strand did a ton of nasty shit during his reign at the Tower (and don't forget that trying to kill Morgan resulted in lost time that allowed a missile launch), the only way you can have him meet up with our survivors in the eighth season is if he pulls a "Carol" and serves as the outsider who attacks his way into PADRE to save the others. Because remember… the dude had people thrown off the roof as punishment.

"Fear the Walking Dead"/"The Walking Dead" Worlds Merge: Look, folks with brains and pay grades bigger than me can figure all of the timey-wimey stuff out, but let's get the two shows' timelines lined up again. And since he brought up his old friends not long before the season ended, maybe it's time to get Morgan heading back to his TWD home. Imagine the stories he could tell, while serving as the perfect bridge to bring the shows together before the Rick Grimes films (hopefully) bring us some "Avengers: Endgame"-like goodness.

Take a Page from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine": I mentioned this in a write-up around Seasons 4 and 5, but wouldn't it be nice to see how they would operate with an actual functioning community that actually begins reaching out and saving others? It could be like the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine of the TWD universe, and it would be a nice way to mix things up for a bit. Plus, how great of a storyline would it be to set up its fall after two or more seasons? That could be epic.

If Everyone's a Shady, Clandestine Organization Then Is Anyone a Shady, Clandestine Organization? CRM… Commonwealth… and now PADRE? Look, here's the thing. We're starting to get to the point where it's getting hard to believe that these entities aren't aware of one another. If Chambliss & Ian Goldberg really want to blow minds next season, let PADRE turn out to be a CRM outpost of sorts. Considering what we learned about them in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, it would definitely fit.

BONUS: Because you were nice enough to give up some of your time, we're going to offer you (free of charge) our random speculation about Alicia that would be a major game-changer and elevate her to essential status. See you on the other side…

Random Theory/Speculation Alert: At the end of her long-running battle with fever & infection apparently related to when she cut off her own arm after a walker bite, Alicia awakens healthy & renewed on the shore before heading off towards her destiny. But what if in the process of beating the fever & infection, Alicia developed an immunity within her body? And that immunity could be tapped into for either a cure or a way to keep the change to walkers from happening? Suddenly, Alicia Clark becomes the most important person in the TWD universe.

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