Strand's weakness in Fear The Walking Dead season 7 pays off a forgotten plotline. In season 7 episode 7, "The Portrait," Strand and Morgan are forced to work together in order to prevent the Tower from becoming inhabitable from nuclear bombs made by the Stalkers. It is here that he reveals to Morgan what his major weakness is. This weakness calls back to a story that the show has gradually shifted away from.
Fear The Walking Dead is a completely different show before Morgan arrives. As such, aside from Strand, Alicia, Daniel, and Luciana, it features a completely different cast of characters as the show follows their quest for survival during the early stages of the apocalypse. Notable characters include Alicia's mother, Madison, and brother, Nick, as well as Madison's husband, Travis. These characters have been killed between seasons 3 and 4 (though Madison's survival continues to spark debate,) which ultimately leaves Fear's Alicia as the sole survivor of her family.
In Fear The Walking Dead season 7, Strand's weakness is none other than Alicia herself. This is because, out of all the characters in the show, she is the only one from the original cast left alive that he feels kept him from feeling alone. No other living character holds the same impact. This reveal highlights how much Strand has changed, and the show along with him.
Strand's weakness being Alicia calls back to the early seasons of Fear The Walking Dead because it establishes that she is all he has left. Everyone else he has cared about (to one degree or another) is gone. These include Madison, Nick, and most notably his partner, Thomas Abigail. Strand doesn't hold the same bond with the other living characters as he does with Alicia. This is particularly true in the case of Fear's Morgan and Daniel, as both of them can lay claim to being his worst enemies. Alicia is the only character for who Strand has ever tried to change, and now that he is in a place where he has given into his darker instincts, he now considers her a weakness.
Calling Alicia his greatest weakness shows how far Strand has fallen in terms of his moral compass. It also shows how much Fear The Walking Dead has changed as a show by acknowledging all the characters who were lost over the course of the series. Now that Strand has fully morphed into a villain, how will Alicia respond? Does she believe Strand is beyond redemption or is she still holding out hope for him? This isn't even getting into the possibility of Fear's Madison returning, which could throw Strand for a whole new loop. If that ends up being the case, then Fear The Walking Dead's original story may not be forgotten after all.
New episodes of Fear The Walking Dead release Sundays on AMC.