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"PADRE" is the eighth episode and mid-season finale of the seventh season of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead. It is the ninety-third episode of the series overall. It premiered on December 5, 2021, the same night as "The Last Light", the season finale of the second season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. It was written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg and directed by Michael Satrazemis.
Plot
Alicia enlists Morgan's help to search for a new home for her people, but Morgan soon learns the search is more complicated than he imagined.
Synopsis
In a flashback, Teddy locks Alicia in the bunker and leaves. Alicia bangs on the door, but no one hears her.
Alicia cries in despair. She hears a noise and tiptoes around the bunker to investigate. One of Teddy's followers sneaks up behind her and at gunpoint orders her not to move.
Alicia's captor takes her to the conference room where Teddy's tree has been relocated. A walker is tied to the tree. Her captor starts to shove her towards the walker, but Arno shows up and tells him to stop. Arno announces that Teddy anointed Alicia as the leader who will usher them into a new beginning. Alicia shoves her captor into the walker and grabs his gun. Arno lets her escape, knowing there's no way out of the bunker.
In the present day, Alicia's followers evacuate their camp as it comes under attack by irradiated walkers.
Alicia's followers reaches safe territory and removes their masks. Morgan tells Alicia that he and Strand had a falling out, and that Strand is holding Grace and Mo hostage. Alicia says she needs Morgan's help, then points to a special walker being held captive.
Alicia tells Morgan that Dwight and Sherry found the special walker a few days ago. Dwight explains that Arno didn't want Alicia finding this walker.
In a flashback, Alicia bangs on the bunker door with an axe. Will appears and warns her that the door is too strong to batter down. He introduces himself and says he lived in the bunker before Teddy arrived. He reveals that he might know of a way out.
Will takes Alicia deep underground and explains that Teddy's people killed his entire group, including his boss, Senator Vazquez. He says he has been hiding ever since. They hear Teddy's followers looking for her. Will tells Alicia to play along while he looks for a way out.
In the present day, Alicia tells Morgan she needs his help finding PADRE. She claims that the special walker knows how to get there. Sherry warns them that Strand's rangers are tracking them. Dwight and Sherry go to ward off the rangers.
Alicia cuts open a dead walker to mask herself in its guts.
Covered in blood, Alicia and Morgan untie the special walker and follow him.
In a flashback, Arno shows Alicia her bedroom and gives back her sharpened barrel weapon. Alicia sees a classified file titled "P.A.D.R.E." on a desk. Someone radios Arno that they found an intruder.
Arno's crew shoves Will's face at the tree walker. Alicia declares that they will no longer be feeding anyone to the walker. She orders everyone to let Will go and leave the room. Will grows emotional and tells her that the walker is Senator Vazquez. He says Vazquez had planned to take everyone to PADRE to build a new future but that he was the only one who knew its whereabouts.
In the present day, Alicia and Morgan follow Vazquez across the desolate landscape. Alicia stumbles, weak with hunger. Rangers fire at them. Alicia runs after Vazquez to protect him. She and Morgan drag him to a cliff and push him into the river below. A ranger removes his mask: It's Strand. Strand apologizes for attacking Alicia. She jumps into the water, followed by Morgan.
Alicia and Morgan dry off on a riverbank. Morgan begs Alicia to come back and help everyone, but she insists that finding PADRE is the best way to help. She admits that she's following Vazquez because she believes walkers retain an echo of their former selves – and that he might know the way to PADRE. Morgan is dubious and threatens to kill Vazquez, but rangers find them.
In a flashback, Will and Alicia bring Vazquez to an underground sewage tunnel. Will guesses it must eventually lead outside the bunker. Alicia cuts Vazquez open to cover herself in his guts, then apologizes to Will, forgetting how close he had been to Vazquez. Vazquez crawls through a tunnel. Alicia follows him with Will close behind. They hear the loud boom of the detonating warhead. The tunnel caves in.
In the present day, the rangers hold Alicia and Morgan captive. Strand joins them and says his tower is more successful than any community they've tried to build. He asks for Alicia's help building up the tower. Alicia rejects his offer. Strand tells his rangers to kill Morgan and Vazquez. Alicia tries to save Vazquez and gets bitten in the arm. Strand apologizes. Alicia screams at him to go.
In a flashback, Alicia wakes up in the tunnel and calls Will's name. Her voice attracts Vazquez. Will tries to dig through the rubble to rescue her, but Vazquez bites Alicia's arm. Alicia despairs, but Will vows that she will survive.
In the present day, Alicia and Morgan sit by a fire. Alicia unzips the glove on her bitten arm and reveals that she has a prosthetic arm made from her own bones. She starts gutting a walker.
In a flashback, Alicia makes Will promise that if she gets a fever or looks like she might turn, he must kill her. She amputates her arm with her weapon, then faints.
Alicia wakes up in her bed. Will explains that her friends tried to stop Teddy from launching the warheads, but Strand got in the way. He tells her she had a fever but that it broke. Alicia worries that she might be infected but Will insists she can still lead everyone.
In the present day, Alicia and Morgan follow Vazquez through the night. Alicia races ahead and says they found PADRE. Morgan tells her it's not PADRE: it's Strand's tower.
Alicia and Morgan watch from afar as Vazquez joins the herd around Strand's tower. Alicia despairs. Morgan insists she join him at the sub, but Alicia reveals that the infection is still inside her and that she will eventually turn.
Strand and his rangers find Alicia and Morgan. Alicia reveals that she was not bitten. Strand urges her to live at the tower with her group. Alicia finally agrees but makes him promise that he will treat her people well, even if she isn't there. She then sees a walker on the ground: it's Will.
In a flashback, Alicia wakes up and finds a note from Will. He tells Alicia that he left the bunker out of fear that he would inhibit her leadership.
In the present day, Alicia demands to know why Strand killed Will. Strand says Will professed his love for Alicia. He knew that killing Will would hurt Alicia and keep her away. Without Alicia, Strand could then build the tower the way he wanted to. Alicia vows to take the tower from Strand. Strand says he will protect it. "Then we're going to war," she says.
Other Cast
Co-Stars
Uncredited
- Jared Gibson as Elias Vazquez
- John Glover as Theodore Maddox (Archive Footage)
Deaths
- Acolyte (Flashback)
- Will (Zombified)
- 2 unnamed patrolmen of Alicia's followers (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
Trivia
- First appearance of Elias Vazquez. (Zombified)
- Last appearance of Theodore Maddox. (Flashback)
- The title of the episode, "PADRE", is an acronym that refers to a location that various characters have been searching for throughout this season.
- It is also a word in Spanish which means "Father".
- This episode was made available for streaming to subscribers of AMC Premiere on November 28, 2021.
- The season finale of Season 2 of The Walking Dead: World Beyond is played directly after this episode.
- Both episodes feature a main character having an arm amputated after being bitten.
- The flashbacks begin with the end of "Mother".
- Upon seeing a walker tied to a tree in the bunker, Alicia tells the acolyte that he'd better not ask her what she sees in a reference to Riley's questions to Morgan's Group in "The Holding".
- Alicia and Morgan use the walker guts trick previously seen in "Till Death". Later, in a flashback, so does Alicia and Will.
- While watching Alicia gut a walker, Morgan mentions seeing people get sick from using the trick, a possible reference to Gabriel Stokes who got deathly ill after using the trick in "The Big Scary U" and lost an eye or at least the sight in it. Alicia also warns Will about the possibility of getting sick from the walker guts if they get into your eyes or mouth.
- This is the first time that Morgan is seen using the walker guts trick in either The Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead. It is also the first time that Alicia is shown using the trick.
- Uniquely, Alicia guts Vazquez while he is still reanimated while previous uses of the walker guts trick have all occurred after the walker in question has been put down.
- In a flashback, Arnold returns Alicia's Sharpened Barrel Shroud that was last seen in "The Holding" to her. However, its current location is unknown as it isn't seen in the present. Instead, Alicia has blades attached to her new prosthetic arm.
- Strand mentions visiting the bunker in "The Beacon" and finding Alicia's note.
- The promise that Will broke to Alicia that he mentioned to Strand in "The Beacon" is revealed to have been to kill Alicia if her bite caused her to appear to be turning in order to protect everyone else. When she got sick from the bite and was unconscious for a week, Will didn't kill her as he had promised.
- In Talking Dead for this episode and "The Last Light", Kim Dickens revealed that Madison Clark is still alive and that she will be returning to the series.
Episode Highlights
- It's revealed that the Stalkers have been stripping the dead of their clothes in order to keep Alicia from finding the zombified Elias Vazquez.
- Elias Vazquez bit Alicia on the arm shortly after the bombs went off and she has replaced her arm with a prosthetic made out of her own arm bones.
- Alicia states that she apparently didn't amputate her arm in time and that she is still suffering from the walker bite. Despite the time that has passed since the bite, Alicia believes that it is only a matter of time before she turns now.
- After discovering and putting down the zombified Will, Alicia declares war on Strand for Will's murder.