Fear the Walking Dead could be making a groundbreaking change to franchise canon - one that would rewrite the entire narrative surrounding the zombie apocalypse. Now confirmed as the OG spinoff's final run, Fear The Walking Dead season 8 picks up seven years after Morgan and Madison traveled to the mysterious PADRE in search of Morgan's abducted daughter, Mo. Although Fear the Walking Dead is largely a self-contained story, one teased detail in season 8 could completely change the past and future of The Walking Dead.
A promo scene from Fear the Walking Dead season 8 shows Madison as an unwilling captive of PADRE. Kim Dickens' character appears to have suffered a possible zombie bite on her arm, with a set of teeth imprints visible, and is having blood taken by her captors. The exact status of Madison's health and the nature of PADRE both remain highly ambiguous, but the scene is likely to be taking place prior to Fear The Walking Dead season 7, soon after Madison was first taken by PADRE. If so, PADRE may have developed a method that slows or delays the zombie virus, and the ramifications of that would be massive.
PADRE's Zombie Bite Treatment Completely Changes TWD's Future
If Madison was bitten before she encountered PADRE in Fear The Walking Dead - perhaps during the baseball stadium collapse that led to her being assumed dead - then she has been nursing this bite for several years in the Walking Dead timeline. Since PADRE seems more interested in studying Madison's condition than digging her a grave, it seems plausible that the group itself is responsible for Madison's continued survival. Ever since The Walking Dead began, a zombie bite has been a death sentence, whether that transformation comes within minutes or days. If PADRE has found a way to elongate that process and delay zombification, the entire Walking Dead landscape changes.
If the technique for delaying zombification is easy and straightforward, a great many past deaths in The Walking Dead would suddenly look avoidable rather than inevitable. Perhaps, for example, Rick Grimes could have saved Carl's life if he knew in The Walking Dead season 7 what PADRE and Madison know. If Fear The Walking Dead is introducing a zombie virus solution that does not involve taking a sharp blade to a limb, it is only a matter of time until this discovery is made by others in The Walking Dead: Dead City, Daryl Dixon and the Rick & Michonne spinoff.
Altering how long a character can survive after a bite would rewrite the premise of The Walking Dead, as characters who previously would have died within moments suddenly become ticking time bombs across months or years. Bitten characters would no longer need to be put down but, equally, could not be left alone either. Fear The Walking Dead season 8 introducing a potential method of delaying a bite's outcome could make the apocalypse more unpredictable than ever before.
The Walking Dead Already Set Up Potential Zombie Treatments
Should Fear The Walking Dead season 8 reveal a method of surviving zombie bites without resorting to a hasty amputation, it would not be entirely without precedent, as the spinoff has already hinted toward several possible solutions. Fear The Walking Dead season 7 stretched the franchise's zombie rules with Alicia Clark, who suffered a chomp before the season began and amputated her arm, but concluded that the procedure had been too late and gave up hope of survival.
Alicia did ultimately survive, and Fear The Walking Dead failed to definitively resolve whether she beat the virus, or whether the amputation worked and her subsequent illness was an ordinary fever. If the former is true and Alicia possesses a special immunity to the zombie virus, this could explain Madison's situation in Fear The Walking Dead season 8. The mother and daughter may carry the same special gene, which would explain PADRE constantly taking samples of Madison's blood.
Another potential explanation can be found in The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The scientifically-minded Bennett family discovered in The Walking Dead's teen-based spinoff that yeast has the potential to accelerate the decay of zombies. Utilized correctly, this discovery would give survivors in The Walking Dead a method of mass exterminating the undead, but the science may also allow yeast to stave off the virus in an infected host. Perhaps PADRE found this out before the Bennetts.
Another possible explanation could derive from when Madison was likely bitten - the baseball stadium. Per Spectre2408 on Reddit, the possible teeth marks on Madison's arm look to be surrounded by a burn, perhaps from the baseball stadium fire. Given that The Walking Dead's zombie virus supposedly kills due to the bacteria inside a zombie's mouth, an intense heat could have negated the nasty contents of Madison's bite.
Although this discovery could not be credited to PADRE, fire as a solution to getting bitten in The Walking Dead would be a bitter blow for every previous virus victim. The likes of Carl Grimes in The Walking Dead maybe could have survived if they had taken a flame to their wounds quickly enough. Until Fear The Walking Dead season 8 premieres, Madison's arm injury remains a mystery, and may turn out to be insignificant. It also carries the potential to utterly alter the franchise's ongoing zombie apocalypse.