| This article is about the Fear character. For other pages with the same name, see: Martha |
| “ | I know who you are... I know what you're really capable of.
―Martha taunting Morgan Jones over the radio.[src]
|
” |
Martha is an antagonist and a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's Fear the Walking Dead. At the start of the outbreak, she loses her husband Hank in a car accident. Martha then becomes insane and starts to kill people with a desire to help, believing that makes them weak. She served as the primary antagonist for the second half of Season 4.
Quick Answers
What drove Martha to become a killer in Fear the Walking Dead?
How did Martha's husband's death impact her in Fear the Walking Dead?
What is the significance of Martha's actions in Fear the Walking Dead?
How does Martha's character evolve in Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead?
How does Martha's story end in Fear the Walking Dead?
Overview
Martha is a delusional and psychotic woman. At the start of the outbreak, her husband, Hank, had been impaled in a car accident and, despite Martha's pleas, no one came to help, which led to Hank's death. This caused her to go insane. She began to believe that wanting help was a weakness and killed anyone who asked for help. She often lets her victims turn and write on their faces with a marker.
Martha's beliefs contrast with Morgan's group, who are trying to help those in need. Though Morgan's group tries to help her on multiple occasions, Martha stubbornly refuses to accept any of it. Even when in poor condition, Martha refuses, such as when she declines Morgan's request to help with her gunshot wound. She attempts to kill Morgan's group to make them "strong." Despite everything she did, Morgan believes her to be a victim due to no one helping her, which is the primary reason he decides not to go back to Alexandria.
Pre-Apocalypse
Austin, Texas
Nothing is known about Martha's life prior to or as the outbreak began, other than she was an English teacher and was married to a man named Hank.
Post-Apocalypse
Martha and her husband, Hank, are involved in a car accident that leaves Hank impaled by a guardrail. Martha frantically tries to wave down passing cars, but nobody stops to help. Martha sits next to the car. A figure walks toward her. She starts to ask for help until she realizes it's a walker. She brutally kills it with a rake.
Martha holds her husband's hand and assures him that someone will help. The next morning, he dies and reanimates, and a heartbroken Martha puts him down. In the night, she buries him and is driven insane.
The next day, a truck pulls over at mile marker 54. The driver, Stevie, places a supply box on the ground and writes an accompanying note. Martha introduces herself and corrects the grammar in Stevie's message. Stevie thanks Martha for helping, but Martha stabs Stevie's throat with a stick, killing her.
Another truck driver leaves a supply box on the road. Martha ambushes him with a zombified Stevie, killing him. In the following days, she kills several more truckers by attacking them with other turned truckers.
One day, Martha ambushes a truck driver, Purvis, and demands to know the identity of Polar Bear, the person who organized the box distribution. When the man refuses to answer, she kills him and tries to contact Polar Bear on the truck's CB. She is then contacted by a man named Morgan Jones, and he tells her he accidentally hitched a ride to Mississippi in the trailer.
Season 4
"The Code"
Morgan Jones communicates with Martha over the radio when he is accidentally smuggled into Mississippi after passing out in the back of a semi truck. Martha tells a confused Morgan to "take what you need, leave what you don't".
Later, Martha listens in on Morgan's distress call to his friends back in Texas while heading there with Wendell, Sarah, and Jim Brauer. After writing the same message onto the cheek of a walker named Purvis, impaled through its neck in her office, she declares with a wicked smile that they are headed for Texas as well.
"Weak"
Martha is first seen listening in on June's distress call to her friends. Later, Morgan unknowingly stumbles upon her and tells her she can take what she needs from his box. She ominously warns Morgan to "be careful." He leaves as she dumps out water from a clean bottle and replaces it with dirty water. She then puts a lighter to the top and places it back in the box.
At night, Martha tricks a guy named Quinn by putting a "7" on the mile marker 21, making him go to the wrong place and preventing him from finding June. As a confused Quinn looks around, Martha puts a walker on him and watches as his neck is bitten, before turning off the radio.
Then, Martha lets go of her previous walker, Purvis, and attends to Quinn, who's nearly turned and tied up in the back of the SWAT truck. She writes "People You Know" on his face and tells him he won't be weak anymore. Quinn reanimates as Martha evilly smiles down at her new pet.
"Blackjack"
Martha radios June when she attempts to radio Quinn. However, she tells her that Quinn is dead. Morgan recognizes the voice and radios her. Martha immediately recognizes Morgan. "I know a lot about you, Morgan," she says. She learned it from Althea's tapes, and she warns him to stop leaving those boxes on the road because it will make him weak. "I know who you are, I know what you're really capable of," she says ominously.
Martha later radios Alicia when she's talking to Morgan, and she tells Morgan, "I gave you the chance to be strong." Morgan tells her he'll continue to find the people they’re looking for until they find and help her. Martha drives Althea's SWAT truck and ambushes Morgan and his people. Panicked, Morgan radios Martha to ask what she's doing, and she tells him, "You lose people... You lose yourself." Morgan tells the group to get down just as the woman pulls the van right next to the truck, opens the gun hatch, and opens fire.
"MM 54"
In a flashback, Martha and her husband, Hank, are involved in a car accident that leaves Hank impaled by a guardrail. Martha frantically tries to wave down passing cars, but nobody stops to help. Martha sits next to the car. A figure walks toward her. She starts to ask for help until she realizes it's a walker. She brutally kills it with a rake.
Martha holds her husband's hand and assures him that someone will help. The next morning, he dies and reanimates, and a heartbroken Martha puts him down. In the night, she buries him and is driven insane.
The next day, a truck pulls over at mile marker 54. The driver, Stevie, places a supply box on the ground and writes an accompanying note. Martha introduces herself and corrects the grammar in Stevie's message. Stevie thanks Martha for helping. "I don't help," Martha says as she stabs Stevie's throat with a stick.
Another truck driver leaves a supply box on the road. Martha ambushes him with a zombified Stevie, killing him. In the following days, she kills several more truckers by attacking them with other turned truckers.
One day, Martha ambushes a truck driver, Purvis, and demands to know the identity of Polar Bear, the person who organized the box distribution. When the man refuses to answer, she kills him and tries to contact Polar Bear on the truck's CB. Morgan answers back and tells her he accidentally hitched a ride to Mississippi in the trailer.
In the present, Martha ambushes Morgan and his group. Althea goes after Martha with a knife, but falls back as Martha emerges from the back of the SWAT truck and releases a zombified Quinn onto June. Wendell shoots Martha in the chest, and Morgan puts down Quinn before June can get bitten, when suddenly, the truck explodes and attracts a herd from the woods.
Martha smiles and drives off in the SWAT truck as the group flees.
"I Lose People..."
An injured Martha ambushes Alicia and Charlie when they discover a kayak tied to the roof of a car by opening fire on them. She tells them she's been listening to them and that she can make them stronger. Alicia attempts to convince her to let her help, but she starts yelling that she doesn't need any help before collapsing, still weakened from the shotgun blast that she received from Wendell.
With Martha in their custody, Alicia makes communicating via the walkie-talkie easier and is able to ask Morgan where he and the group are trapped so they can come to rescue them.
When the group tells Morgan that they're going to save him, Martha warns Luciana that she should leave because this won't end well, but she ignores her. Then, as Alicia, June, and Luciana draw a herd of walkers and barely make it back to the fire truck alive, they find Martha missing.
At night, Martha marks Jim's corpse with the recipe he gave Sarah earlier. He reanimates, and Martha tells him, "You're strong now, let's go make him strong too."
"... I Lose Myself"
After escaping from the hospital, Al is confronted by Martha with a zombified Jim. Martha tells Al she watched her tapes and admires her strength. She orders Al to give Morgan a message, but she refuses. Martha attacks Al with Jim and then knocks her unconscious. However, she leaves her alive along with a message for Morgan on Al's video camera, which is recovered by Morgan's group. In the video, Martha tells Morgan that she's disappointed in him and vows to make him strong.
After leaving his friends, Morgan calls Martha on the radio, and she tells him to meet her at mile marker 54. There, Morgan finds a police car with the zombified Jim inside and Martha's wrecked car still crashed into the guardrail. After putting Jim down, Morgan discovers Martha lying on Hank's grave, weak but still alive. Morgan bundles Martha into the police car and drives off.
On the road, Morgan attempts to get her to take antibiotics for the infection she has developed in her gunshot wound, but she refuses. After a while, Martha finally tells Morgan about her husband Hank and how she was unable to help him. Suddenly, June radios Morgan to tell him they're all getting sick and to rush back. Martha asks Morgan for the medicine. As Morgan hands it to her, she grabs his arm and attacks him, causing them to crash. She pulls him out of the car and marks, "I lose people... I lose myself" in Sharpie on his face. Morgan wakes up with a leg injury, and Martha reveals she was bitten a while ago and taunts him, saying he must either kill her or she will kill him.
Martha confesses to putting anti-freeze in the water and tells Morgan that all her friends will die. Morgan suddenly loses it and starts choking her in anger before seeing himself in the mirror and stops. He handcuffs Martha to the car so she won't kill anyone else after she turns and hobbles away. Martha, defeated, bitterly sobs.
The next day, Morgan brings the group back to the place where he left Martha. He finds her severed arm attached to the police car and sees her turned, walking on the road. He stabs her in the head with his staff and then buries her nearby.
Morgan then decided not to go to Alexandria, saying that Martha became the person she was because nobody helped her when she needed it, and that more people need help.
Death
- Killed By
- Wendell Rabinowitz (Caused)
During a confrontation with Morgan's group, Martha is shot in the upper left chest by Wendell. She subsequently refuses treatment and develops a raging infection as well as massive blood loss from her wound.
- Zombies (Alive)
- Jim Brauer (Infected, Alive, Caused, Assumed)
- Herself (Suicide)
In order to prevent Morgan from helping her, Martha lets herself be bitten by a walker, possibly a zombified Jim.
- Morgan Jones (Zombified)
After handcuffing and abandoning Martha, Morgan returns to find her turned. He stabs her in the head with his staff, putting her down.
Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Martha has killed:
- Hank (Zombified)
- Stevie (Alive)
- Trucker 1 (Caused, Alive)
- Trucker 2 (Caused, Alive)
- Trucker 3 (Caused, Alive)
- Purvis (Caused, Alive)
- Quinn (Caused, Alive)
- Herself (Suicide, Alive)
- Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people
Relationships
Allies
|
Enemies
|
Appearances
Fear the Walking Dead
Season 4
- "The Code"
- "Weak"
- "Blackjack"
- "MM 54"
- ”I Lose People...”
- "... I Lose Myself"
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 4 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||||
| Season 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 6 | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 8 |
| ✔ | Appears | ✔ | Voice is heard |
| 👁 | Appears with no lines | ✔ | Appears in a flashback |
| ✔ | Appears as a walker | 🖼 | Appears in a photograph/video |
| ✔ | Appears as a corpse | ✔ | Appears in a hallucination/dream |
Trivia
- This character is credited as Filthy Woman and Dirty Woman in "The Code".
- She is not called by name until "MM 54".
- Martha may have been responsible for Al getting so inexplicably sick in "Weak". Near the beginning, Al could be seen drinking from a water bottle from what appeared to be one of Polar Bear's boxes. Martha was then seen tampering with another such water bottle by partially filling it with dirty water. If Al drank from one of Martha's tampered water bottles, it could explain her sudden, severe illness.
- As Martha was not bitten on-screen, it's possible the walker that bit her was Jim Brauer, her current "pet", which would make Martha the only human Jim was in any way responsible for killing.
International Dubbers
| Language | Dubber | Other Characters Voiced |
|---|---|---|
| Czech | Zuzana Slavíková | N/A |
| French | Sophie Riffont | Jocelyn Dorian |
| German | N/A | N/A |
| Greek | Vina Papadopoulou | N/A |
| Hungarian | N/A | N/A |
| Italian | N/A | N/A |
| Japanese | N/A | N/A |
| Portuguese | N/A | N/A |
| Spanish (Latin America) | Diana Pérez | Maria Thompson Kari Bennett |
| Spanish (Spain) | N/A | N/A |