“Fear the Walking Dead” showrunners explain that shocking death

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead, season 8, episode 8, "Iron Tiger." 

Fear the Walking Dead keeps bringing characters back from the dead, and this week the show did so again, only to kill that person right off again, and this time for good.

To be fair — unlike Kim Dickens' Madison and Daniel Sharman's Troy — Alexa Nisenson's Charlie didn't actually die on the show previously, but her radiation poisoning was portrayed as terminal. Well, it turns out PADRE had some pretty awesome drugs in stock, because she was back this week and driving an 18-wheeler to boot. That was the good news. The rest of the news was not so good. Not only did Charlie have to inform Madison that she murdered her son, but then she was sent by the grieving mom to infiltrate Troy's camp.

Madison eventually thought better of the request/demand, but it was too late. Charlie had already decided to take her own life in the hopes of atoning for her sins, and that is exactly what she did — shooting herself so that Madison would not reveal the location of PADRE to Troy to get her back.

We spoke with showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss to get the scoop on why they brought Charlie back only to kill her right off. We also inquired as to the return of Danay Garcia's Luciana, Troy's real reason for revenge, and Madison's next steps.

Lauren "Lo" Smith/AMC Daniel Sharman and Kim Dickens on 'Fear the Walking Dead'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let's start with Luciana. Tell me about crafting her story and what she's been up to offscreen during this whole PADRE story arc?

IAN GOLDBERG:  We saw in season 5 into season 6 that Luciana became very, very adept at making gasoline and working the oil fields. And so we thought that was an interesting skill for her to be applying when she was working with PADRE. And we had set up this mystery in the first half of the season of where PADRE was getting gasoline in a world where gas has mostly gone bad.

But what also interested us were the reunions. This is the first time Luciana's reuniting with Madison since the stadium, and she brokered the deal to spare Daniel's life that he never knew about. And the fact that she has been harboring Charlie this entire time, that was a huge part of it for us, too.

Lauren "Lo" Smith/AMC Danay Garcia on 'Fear the Walking Dead'

Okay, we have another character at least back from the semi-dead in Charlie. I'm sure once you brought Madison back, you had a lot of discussions about what a Madison and Charlie reunion might look like. How did you ultimately land here?

ANDREW CHAMBLISS: The moment Madison was back, it just felt like questions were going to be all about what she would do when she found out that Charlie is the one who pulled the trigger and killed Nick. And in looking at where Charlie was at the end of season 7 and the resources PADRE had, we ultimately decided it would be plausible that they could have given the medical treatment that she needed that June wasn't able to at the tower to save her.

And what we gained from that was a reunion between Madison and Charlie that is really a test for Madison at this moment when she is kind of doing this soul searching of "Why am I doing all this? My kids are gone." And to then be confronted with the person who took the life of one of her children forces her to ask whether or not she really has changed, and whether she's worthy of redemption, and whether or not she could forgive Charlie.

Lauren "Lo" Smith/AMC Alexa Nisenson on 'Fear the Walking Dead'

The episode obviously takes a lot of complicated turns for Madison, and I think by the end of it, Madison still blames herself for the fact that Charlie did what she did, because she never would've gone to Troy if Madison hadn't rejected her. And it's put Madison in an even darker place.

From Charlie's point of view, it felt like her story deserved a more satisfying ending, and it felt like her entrance to the show was kind of her original sin. She lied to Madison about why she was at the stadium, and she is very much responsible for the stadium's downfall. She killed Nick, and it felt like in her own quest for redemption to put that behind her, we wanted to give her this kind of final, tragic, heroic moment to really help Madison and Strand and Daniel secure what they're trying to build. And that's a place where people can be safe. The thing that Madison always wanted for her kids.

And just because I always now need to double check with you guys — she is dead, right?

GOLDBERG:  She is gone. She had a heroic death that will have ripple effects for Madison and all the characters. But yes, this is the end of Charlie's story.

So is this Tracy character you introduced Troy's daughter?

GOLDBERG: Tracy is his daughter, that we can confirm.

So when Troy says her mother is dead because of Madison, what does he mean by that?

GOLDBERG: We will answer that, and he has very strong reasons for believing that. We're going to unpack it in a few episodes. We're going to do a really deep dive into Troy and where he's been. And all these things that he's saying blaming Madison, we're going to understand why he believes that. And there's a whole chapter to the Troy story that's happened since the dam in season 3 that we're going to really fill in that will help piece together where his psychology is now.

Lauren "Lo" Smith/AMC Kim Dickens on 'Fear the Walking Dead'

Finally, where is Madison walking off to at the end there?

CHAMBLISS: She walks off with Nick's ashes, and I think the one thing that's really haunting her is this idea that Alicia, as Troy said, is out there as a walker wandering the apocalyptic landscape, and that's not sitting well with her. So she's on a journey to put her children to rest.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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