There were two major revelations in this week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead, “Skidmark.” We’ll talk about the other one, the existence of what appears to be something akin to a child army, in the upcoming Fear recap, but more pressing at the moment is the return of the helicopter we are familiar with from The Walking Dead.
Helicopters are obviously nothing new to The Walking Dead universe — they have been around in some fashion or another since the opening season of the series. However, one particular helicopter began recurring in the eighth season of The Walking Dead and eventually absconded with Rick Grimes and Jadis.
It is that helicopter — or at least another one from the same organization — that resurfaces in this week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead. Its appearance was not entirely unexpected. We learned in the season premiere that Althea had been abducted from an organization called CRM, an outfit with materials that had the same logo as the one that appeared on the helicopter that picked up Rick Grimes in the ninth season of The Walking Dead. Over the course of the last three episodes, Morgan and Company have endeavored to track Althea down with no success.
In this week’s episode, we see one of the men from CRM responsible for taking Althea out killing walkers. However, at the end of the episode, while Morgan and Alicia are being surrounded by the child militia, the helicopter reappears, only to fly away.
“What the hell is that?” Alicia asks, obviously surprised to be seeing a working helicopter during the zombie apocalypse.
“Those people,” meaning the people who took Althea, “came in that,” Annie tells her.
“Why are they leaving?” Max asks.
“Maybe they got what they came for,” Annie says.
What does that mean? It probably means that what they came for was Althea. Maybe not her specifically, but someone like her — either an “A” or a “B.” Recall that before Jadis left with Rick Grimes in the helicopter, she told the member of CRM that she had an “A,” referring to Rick. She also suggested earlier that Father Gabriel was a “B,” and based on the context, all we can maybe surmise is that A is for Alpha and B is for Beta. Jadis had planned to exchange an “A” for supplies for her people.
We’re still not entirely sure what CRM wants with either an “A” or a “B,” but it appears as though they got one or the other with Althea. What does this mean for the future of Maggie Grace on Fear the Walking Dead? It’s possible if we don’t see members of CRM or the helicopter again that Althea is no longer on Fear, and that she has been transported to wherever it is that Rick and Jadis are. She may reappear again in the Rick Grimes movies. However, it is also possible that Morgan and Alicia continue investigating and searching and eventually learn more about CRM and perhaps even breach their organization and take back Althea ahead of the Rick Grimes movies.
Personally, I believe it is the former — and that Maggie Grace is off of Fear for now — because Scott Gimple, the architect of The Walking Dead universe, recently said that that Fear’s connection to Rick Grimes will lead to something significant “outside of both shows,” which seems to point toward the Rick Grimes movies. When the first one will air, however, is still unclear.
In other words, answers may not be forthcoming anytime soon.
