Fear the Walking Dead’s Dave Erickson implies that the show’s Clark/Manawa family won’t reunite until around Season 3.
While arriving under a major television shadow, Fear the Walking Dead, has shaken off its early growing pains with the rapidly accelerating zombie apocalypse evolution of the blended Clark and Manawa family. In fact, the mid-season finale really set up the group’s growth by leaving them on separate paths after a tumultuous conflict. Interestingly enough, the show’s boss has dropped a hint, revealing that this split state will be the status quo for quite a while.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, showrunner Dave Erickson discusses the separation of the Clarks and Manawas at the end of the fiery May 22 midseason closer, “Shiva.” The group, which began Season 2 braving the undead threat from the apparent maritime safety of the yacht “Abigail,” saw their fortunes quickly overturned, left as a fractured family, reduced to a rough life on the road. In fact, Erickson states that the remnants of the group will soon learn that said boat is, "not as accessible" as they had hoped, which will be a disappointing shock to the road-weary survivors.
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The current split was initially defined by the diverging paths of Nick Clark (Frank Dillane, pictured above) and Chris Manawa (Lorenzo James Henrie). Consequently, as Season 2 resumes on August 21, Erickson discusses how the split will enable radical changes within the separate group dynamic. However, he also dropped a potentially potent detail about the characters’ current state on the show, explaining:
"I think we'll see some of those traits come together by the end of the season, but it's really not going to be until season 3 that we see any semblance of our family returned."
The “traits” to which Erickson refers center on the personal implications resulting from Nick’s abandonment of the group, notably to his mother Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and sister Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). It was a desertion that made the biggest impact on the group, since it centers on Nick’s fixation with the flesh-consuming creatures with whom he has formed a bizarre “bond” (for lack of a better noun). According to Erickson:
"What the split provides us with is there is an opportunity not just to explore our characters in more depth. It also allows us to look at some of the relationships that maybe work that under-served, and the absence of Nick I think really motivates some changes in Alicia... Some changes in her relationship with her mother which is great."
Erickson also explains that Nick’s practice of covering himself in walker viscera to move amongst the dead unmolested – reminiscent of the signature trick of the mothership show – reflects a fascination with the walkers and their seemingly tranquil state that is actually a manifestation of his series-long heroin addiction. However, his absence from the Clark family – who have taken to the road with Victor Strand and Ofelia Salazar (minus her father Daniel) – will have distributive effects on sister Alicia, who grows harder and wiser after her naiveté earlier in Season 2 nearly cost the Abigail crew dearly when she fell for a post-apocalyptic catfishing scheme.
However, Nick’s habit of stopping to smell the ambulatory undead roses will quickly culminate deeper in Mexico in Season 2B of Fear the Walking Dead when he falls in with another group of survivors, with apparently extreme views and methods, notably with an apparent badass femme-fatale played by former Prison Break star Danay Garcia. As for the aforementioned Chris, he’s also dealing with his own set of demons in the form of his fear and ambivalence that nearly cost group members their lives. Having split off from the group with his father Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis), Season 2B will also kick off a purported long-running focus on the father-son dynamic. The actor who plays Chris, Lorenzo James Henrie, chimed into the interview, further explaining:
"I don't think Chris or Nick have the intention of going back. I think they are exploring this new universe. Obviously their parents are much more wise [sic] and want to bring everyone back. I think there's going to be hope with the parents. Chris and Nick, those two are the two primary characters I think that are really branching off with their own ideals. I think it's the journey of season two, or the second half of the season."
Thus, while Fear the Walking Dead initially came out of the gate as the (frustration-inducing) travails of Madison and Travis’s embattled blended family in Los Angeles, which quickly transported its dynamic to life on the seas, the show will return in Season 2B in an extremely altered form. Indeed, expect the fractured family dynamic to help shape the arc of these formerly-hapless characters at a rapid pace that veteran audiences of The Walking Dead will find welcome.
Fear the Walking Dead returns on AMC for the second half of Season 2 on August 21.
