Fear the Walking Dead
Fear the Walking Dead fans are starting to get their hopes up that the dead former lead of the show, Madison Clark, may not be dead after all.
There are hints about Madison’s possible return after she was allegedly killed off last season. In last week’s midseason premiere, we saw Alicia notice a tree painted with the words “If you’re reading this you’re still here,” and she remarked that she thought she knew who wrote it, and wanted to find them. Despite the fact that writing whimsical words on a tree does not seem like a terribly Madison thing to do, fans are interpreting that as what Alicia means, and really, it’s impossible to imagine any other person she could be referring to.
Reportedly Kim Dickens was not amused that she was killed off the show last year, in contrast to Nick actor Frank Dillane who was killed because he asked to leave. But there’s one additional important difference between those two deaths, namely that Madison’s was only implied, and never confirmed.
Madison’s “death” was her getting in a dire situation by leading a horde of walkers into a baseball stadium and locking herself in with them so her family could escape. She was never seen again, and yet no one ever found her body, nor have we seen a Madison-shaped walker roaming around anywhere. The implication is that the situation was so deadly that she could not have escaped, but I mean, this is TV.
Fear the Walking Dead
This is not even the worst “certain death” situation we’ve seen in The Walking Dead, as we had to endure the whole “Glenn survives a horde by hiding under a dumpster” thing in the main show. It’s not even the worst scenario in Fear itself, as we literally saw Daniel get shot in the face and left in a collapsing dam, and yet here he is again, very much alive and barely a scratch on him.
I’m not precisely sure how much time has passed since Madison’s death in the stadium. Probably a year or two in show time, and it’s a big enough world where sure, even if she was looking for her family, I could envision her not finding them. But the cardinal rule of shows like this definitely applies here, if you don’t see a body, they’re probably not dead, and I am pretty sure that Madison will return to the series. The last time I saw Kim Dickens onscreen it was for a brief turn in the Deadwood movie, but she’s not actively on any other shows right now.
The issue, of course, is that Madison returning would not necessarily be the magic fix that Fear the Walking Dead needs right about now. In a perfect world, I would love to see Madison return and start sparring with Morgan for the leadership role, her old “survival at any cost” mentality clashing with his “help everyone at any time no matter what” philosophy that has watered down the last two seasons.
But I think we have to remember that even Madison changed under the new showrunners in season 4. She lost that edge, and was just trying to set up a nice community and help people, and is apparently the kind of person who is going around writing inspirational messages on random trees.
Fear the Walking Dead
That Madison may return and just join up with the new do-gooder squad without issue, introducing no real conflict and continuing the show on its not-great path. The Madison of seasons 2 and 3 died in season 4, whether she was literally dead or not. Given the new direction of the series, it’s hard to see that Madison returning, even if her character does rejoin the cast.
That said, yes, I want her back. Killing off Madison was a big loss and big mistake for the show, and it would benefit from the return of Kim Dickens. I am hoping that her arrival would take some of the spotlight off Morgan, who should not be leading this series, if Alicia is never going to fully be given the reins.
It’s possible this may not come to pass. That someone else is writing on the trees and Madison doesn’t return. But all signs are pointing in that direction, and we’ll have to see what happens next.
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