Fear the Walking Dead season 6 is leaning on its original characters’ season 1 roots. The latest episode of the new season shifts attention from Morgan (Lennie James) to Alicia (Alyica Debnam-Carey), Strand (Colman Domingo), Charlie (Alexa Nisenson), and Daniel (Rubén Blades), who are now stationed at the Pioneers’ main encampment.
Sometime after everyone was split up in the Fear the Walking Dead season 5 finale, the four characters were relocated, with Alicia and Strand doing clean-up work for the Pioneers. After going to meet with Virginia (Colby Minifie), Alicia and Strand came face-to-face with Daniel Salazar, who seemingly had no memory of them and is now working as a barber for the Pioneers. Later, they were reunited with Charlie, who had to help them clear an area of zombies. When they succeeded in their mission, Strand received a big promotion from Virginia. At the end of the episode, Strand had Alicia transferred out of Lawton, and Daniel had an encounter with Morgan. In this scene, it was confirmed that Daniel never actually lost his memories.
Alicia, Strand, and Daniel are the only characters on the show leftover from season 1, and now Fear the Walking Dead is finally leaning on their origins, and who they were when the zombie apocalypse began. A key example of this is what season 6 is doing with Strand, who Fear the Walking Dead took down a path to redemption in seasons 4 and 5. The show undid all of that in episode 2 by having him use an innocent man as a distraction for the zombies. What Strand did is not something he would have done in the last two seasons, and is more in line with the selfish conman that he was at the beginning of the series. Strand acknowledged this when he told Alicia that he needs to “forget” the person that he has become.
There’s also the matter of Daniel Salazar. Back in Fear the Walking Dead season 1, Daniel was introduced as a man who ran a barbershop in California. Now that he’s with the Pioneers, he’s back to giving haircuts again. Furthermore, Daniel is presumably using his amnesia act to spy on the Pioneers. The implication of the episode’s final scene is that he’ll be Morgan’s inside-man in season 6. By going in this direction, Daniel will be relying on the skills he used as an assassin for the CIA during the Salvadoran Civil War.
It’s been a long time since the AMC series has utilized these important aspects of Victor Strand and Daniel Salazar’s characters. For better or worse, Fear the Walking Dead has been a different show since Morgan came on board in season 4. During this time, the cast was shaken up considerably with the addition of numerous new characters, such as John (Garrett Dillahunt), June (Jenna Elfman), Althea (Maggie Grace), and more. For a while now, the group has been focused on their mission of helping people in need, and that’s distracted a bit from some of the darker elements of people like Strand, Daniel, and even Morgan, who is also embracing a dark new change of pace. With that in mind, it’s good to see Fear the Walking Dead honoring its characters’ roots in season 6.