Warning! This article contains major spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead season 8. If you've not caught up, and don't want to know anything that happens, turn back now!
The latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead season 8 brought back a character just to kill them off, though showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg are sure it was the right thing to do...
In the zombie spin-off's most recent installment, titled 'Iron Tiger', Strand (Colman Domingo) and Daniel (Rubén Blades) got quite the shock when they discovered that Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) was the one helping Luciana (Danay GarcÃa) making fuel for PADRE in exchange for resources to help other survivors across the country. Last time Strand and Daniel saw Charlie seven years earlier, she was just a pre-teen and dying from radiation poisoning.
It turns out, during the time jump, June (Jenna Elfman) caught up with Charlie and cured her at PADRE, and the youngster has been working to absolve herself over killing Nick (Frank Dilllane) back in season 4 ever since. Apologizing to Nick's mother Madison (Kim Dickens) in episode 8, she explains she wanted to "turn all that hurt and all the pain into something more."
Later, Charlie agreed to try and kill Troy (Daniel Sharman), who claims to have murdered Madison's daughter Alicia, for repentance, but Madison changes her mind about the mission when she learns that Luciana and Charlie cremated Nick, and gave him a proper burial, after he died. Things took a turn, however, when Troy took Charlie hostage, telling Madison he'd spare her if she told him PADRE's location.
"I'm not gonna watch another place you built fall because of me. The place she's building, it's what Alicia wanted. And it's how Nick's death can mean something," Charlie said, turning a gun on herself in the dramatic moment, and robbing Troy of his leverage.
"It was a big decision, and it really came from this place of wanting to give Charlie a true sendoff," Chambliss explained to ComicBook, noting that he and Goldberg felt Charlie "deserved more" than succumbing to sickness off screen. "In thinking about Madison's story and all the things that she'd have to grapple with this season, we really wanted to put Charlie and Madison together.
"Charlie served as the ultimate test for Madison about how much she actually had changed. Could she forgive the person who killed her son? Ultimately, she was able to do that, although it was very messy in this episode, and it put Charlie in this very precarious position. It seemed like, to give Charlie that forgiveness, and make up for essentially driving her to Troy, she would have to give up PADRE – the thing that she was fighting for."
For Goldberg, Charlie's sacrifice "felt fitting". He continued: "She came into the show lying about her past as a spy who ended up leading to the downfall of the settlement that Madison had built for her children. Now, here she is exiting the show, giving her life so that she could secure that very same thing for Madison going forward."
Fear the Walking Dead airs on Sundays on AMC and AMC+ in the US. Want to explore the entire Walking Dead saga? Check out our guide on how to watch The Walking Dead in order if you're keen to dig into the main series and all its spin-offs.
