The post-apocalyptic zombie phenomenon The Walking Dead made a lasting impact when it introduced its sequel series in 2015, successfully dominating the television landscape. Fear the Walking Dead quickly achieved comparable success to its predecessor, firmly establishing itself in television. Despite its tumultuous seventh season, which witnessed the departure of some of the most beloved characters, the show is now entering its eighth season surrounded by buzz and excitement.
Fear the Walking Dead, adapted from the comic book series by Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard, introduced a roster of cherished characters to the franchise, including Alycia Debnam-Carter. With a considerable fan base already established from her role in the popular dystopian young adult series The 100, Alycia’s addition to the show was met with great enthusiasm. However, the recent season bid farewell to Alicia, leaving fans fueling speculation about her fate in the series.
Why did Alicia leave Fear the Walking Dead?
Seven years after taking on the role of Alicia in Fear the Walking Dead, Debnam-Carter bid her goodbyes to the home that housed her talent for almost a decade. Hoping to give herself a new start in the industry, away from the comfort zone created for all these years, Alicia’s own journey has also come to an end, though she never died. Upon getting bitten, believing it would be her ultimate demise, Alicia says goodbye to the group getting on the raft, fearing she would eventually get overtaken by the bite and kill Strand.
While still at the beach, Alicia finds herself falling in and out of consciousness, as her body acclimates itself to the bite. In a surprising turn of events, after she wakes up upon falling unconscious, she feels herself entirely healed, and with renewed strength. She then proceeds to stand up and walk away. This ambiguous ending for her character perfectly allows the opportunity for her to return in the future, meaning she would be entirely capable to come back if she so wanted to: perhaps even give us a reunion with her mother.
At the same time, Alicia has been struggling with her own demons for a while. Fueled by the hallucination of an 8-year-old – which ended up being her conscious creating an image of herself at that exact age – Alicia’s last moments on the show could easily be a hallucination on their own. Personally, I think that it wouldn’t be too far-fetched if it meant that Alicia was having some sort of end-of-life delirium, that would reveal that her character did, indeed, die. At the end of the day, though, no confirmation for this speculation was ever provided, so all in all, we can all believe that she is alive and well – for now.
Fear the Walking Dead can be watched on AMC every Sunday at 9:00pm EST, or alternatively, on Hulu.