Has Fear The Walking Dead season 6 just taken a first step to bringing back Madison Clark? When Fear The Walking Dead began, the humble prequel revolved almost exclusively around the Clark family, and it didn't take long before Madison (played by Kim Dickens) took center stage as the story's lead protagonist. Madison became a grizzled zombie apocalypse survivor and led her family (or what remained of them) to a baseball stadium in Fear The Walking Dead season 4. Predictably, a rival group soon arrived on the scene, and the feud escalated until zombies swarmed the stadium and residents began to flee. Giving her children a faint hope of escape, Madison gathered the undead into the stadium and set the place ablaze. Strand and Alicia assume that Madison died in this moment of sacrifice, but the story is told through the eyes of witnesses. There's no burned corpse, no chewed-up body, and no zombie Madison staggering around the diamond.
Fear The Walking Dead season 6 has enjoyed a strong first half full of intrigue and mystery, and one of the biggest ongoing questions concerns Morgan's enigmatic savior. After being shot and left for dead by Ginny in Fear The Walking Dead's season 5 finale, Morgan was so close to death even the zombies wouldn't touch him. Luckily, Morgan was saved by a good Samaritan and went on to make a full recovery. Morgan doesn't know the identity of this hero, but the elusive figure did leave a note behind reminding Morgan that he still has work to do.
Even before Fear The Walking Dead season 6 began, Madison was mooted as a character who could potentially return to save the ailing Morgan Jones. The latest episode, however, offers the biggest hint yet that Madison is destined to make a post-apocalyptic comeback. In "Damage From The Inside," Alicia and Charlie are plotting an escape from Ginny and her oppressive regime of Pioneers. When Charlie asks where they'll go, Alicia suggests a return to the stadium from Fear The Walking Dead season 4, reassuring Charlie that their former home actually isn't too far away from Ginny's cluster of settlements.
This line of dialogue seems purpose-built to plant a seed in the audience's mind - travelling between the stadium and Fear The Walking Dead's current location is entirely possible. With time jumps, new cast members and fresh communities, the geography of Fear The Walking Dead has become somewhat muddled in recent times. Before "Damage From The Inside," it would've been impossible to guess how far the characters have traveled over the past 2 seasons, but many viewers would've assumed a far greater distance than what Alicia claims. Now that Fear The Walking Dead has brought Madison's last known location and the cast's current home closer together, the possibility of Madison's return becomes far more likely. What other narrative purpose does this line serve other than to lay the foundations for a journey between the two sites? Had Madison appeared out of the blue, viewers might've questioned how she could've plausibly found her way to Ginny's camp, but now Alicia has laid the groundwork, Madison reuniting with her former companions would be logically sound.
Fear The Walking Dead would still have questions to answer. Why Madison hasn't made herself known to Alicia? Why didn't she stick around with Morgan? But the stars are beginning to align, and as The Walking Dead's golden rule dictates, "if you don't see a body, they aren't dead." Kim Dickens would be a very welcome addition to the new-look Fear The Walking Dead cast, and it would be fascinating to watch her interact with the likes of John Dorie and Charlie (who killed her son). Most importantly, however, a potential showdown between Madison and Ginny feels like a box office main event. After years living in the wild, Madison would've become even tougher, and with the Pioneers currently threatening Alicia, no one with any sense would trade places with Ginny if Madison did return to Fear The Walking Dead.