Details on Fear the Walking Dead season 8 point to a repeat of season 6’s story and a mistake it made with Morgan Jones. The events of the season 7 finale set up the mysterious organization known as PADRE to serve as the main antagonists of season 8. Tied directly to Kim Dickens’ highly anticipated return as Madison, The Walking Dead franchise’s new villain group put themselves at odds with Lennie James’ character by making off with his adopted daughter.
It’s been confirmed by AMC that the next season of Fear the Walking Dead will be its last. According to a newly released synopsis, the show will pick up where season 7 left off by continuing Madison and Morgan’s fight with PADRE. And apparently, this is a conflict that will stretch out across the entire season. The synopsis reveals that the second half of the 12-episode story will see Morgan and Madison contend with the “cynical rule” of PADRE, which has left the members of their group “demoralized and dejected.”
If Fear the Walking Dead’s core cast living under the control of an oppressive society sounds familiar, it’s because it happened before in The Walking Dead universe. In addition to this being exactly what the Alexandrians were put through in The Walking Dead season 11, it’s also a predicament that Morgan’s group experienced as well. Getting cornered by the Pioneers in the season 5 finale put the characters in an unfortunate arrangement with Virginia where they had no choice to conform to the rules imposed by the Pioneers. Some tried to make it work, but Virginia’s attempts to impose their will on them eventually collapsed.
Rather predictably, the synopsis puts the task of saving the group from PADRE on the shoulders of Morgan and Madison. Making Morgan the hero of the story was the subject of numerous complaints in season 6, as it was naturally he who led the fight against Virginia, even though the show has plenty of other capable survivors. Fear the Walking Dead is an ensemble of characters, many of which being people who predate Morgan’s ties to the series. Yet in spite of that, FTWD allowed its crossover character from The Walking Dead to occupy the spotlight. Other characters did get to play roles in the action, but FTWD made no secret of the fact that Morgan was Virginia’s true enemy. Her relentless crusade to bring him down was evidence of that.
The core group relying on Morgan to save them from a community led by tyrannical villains isn’t the most imaginative way for Fear the Walking Dead to end. After all, the show already followed season 6’s Virginia plotline by forcing them into a similar situation with Strand. If Fear the Walking Dead is to make season 8 feel unique from the fights with Virginia and Strand, it should emphasize PADRE’s differences to previous villains while giving meaningful arcs to Daniel, Luciana, and all the others.
