We will have full coverage of the two-part Fear the Walking Dead finale tomorrow morning. In short, there was more good than bad, but perhaps the most disappointing turn in an otherwise thrilling finale is how the wrinkle in the mythology of The Walking Dead universe that we were seemingly promised never materialized. Indeed, for many critics and viewers alike, the compelling question that pulled us through the otherwise slow previous two episodes was the knowledge that we would finally get an answer to the season’s biggest mystery: How did Alejandro survive a zombie bite?
As it turns out, he didn’t. Alejandro was a fraud, and we the viewers were duped as much as the people of La Colonia who put their faith in Alejandro.
We learned early on in the back half of this season that the pharmacist Alejandro had managed to rise into his leadership position of La Colonia by allowing the people of that colony to believe that he had been bitten by a zombie and survived.
Not only was there evidence of a bite on his shoulder, but Luciano had actually witnessed Alejandra suffer the bite and survive. For the better part of six episodes, viewers wondered how that was possible, because surviving a zombie bite in The Walking Dead universe without an immediate amputation had heretofore been impossible.
It’s still impossible.
As we learned in the Fear the Walking Dead finale, Alejandro is not actually immune from the zombie infection. He was bitten again, and this time he not only succumbed to the illness (in what had to be the longest incubation period for an infection in the history of The Walking Dead universe), but he admitted to Nick that he never had immunity to begin with. The first bite he received was not actually from a zombie, but from a crazed drug addict who bit him on the shoulder. Luciano saw “what [she] wanted to see,” and helped to fuel the legend of Alejandro’s immunity.
It was all a lie. There are no new wrinkles or modifications to The Walking Dead universe, although in the end Alejandro at least managed to redeem himself before succumbing to the infection. Thankfully, the rest of the episode was strong enough to make up for the narrative misstep.
