In the season two finale of Fear the Walking Dead, Daniel Salazar set an entire compound on fire with him inside of it. His daughter and the rest of the cast, however, escaped, leaving Daniel for dead. Miraculously, Salazar survived the fire, and several episodes later — badly burned — he returned to the series. He wouldn’t last much longer, however, because in the third season finale, Strand shot Daniel in the face, and he was left atop a dam as it exploded.
Again, Daniel Salazar was considered dead. After the years-long time jump, he did not resurface in Texas with Madison Clark and her gang in season four, and he was never mentioned among the remaining characters.
Likewise, in the season three finale, Troy admitted to Madison that he amassed a zombie horde to attack the Broken Jaw Ranch, and after rattling off a few racist insults, Madison took a hammer to Troy Otto’s skull, presumably killing him. But we never saw the body. Fans assumed that his corpse, along with Daniel’s, was left among the rubble of the dam after it exploded (season four never really returned to the dam explosion).
That does not appear to be the case, as Ruben Blades and Daniel Sharman will return to the series in season 5. Though their roles, and the number of episodes for which they are expected to return, is unknown, some are speculating — especially where it concerns Troy — that it will be limited to a flashback, or he might be seen in one of Althea’s videos.
That, however, doesn’t make a lot of sense. If Troy did die at the dam, there wouldn’t have been logical occasion for Althea and Troy’s paths to cross. Althea, as far as we know, has never spent any time near the Mexico border, and we can account for Troy’s whereabouts from the beginning of the apocalypse until Madison hit hit him in the head with a hammer. Likewise, what reason would Daniel have for resurfacing, years later, in Texas, after being left for dead on the Mexican border, since his entire family is dead?
Actually, if they somehow managed to survive the dam explosion, both Daniel and Troy would have very compelling motivations for tracking down Strand and the Clarks. To wit: Madison hit Troy in the head with a hammer with the intention of killing him, and Strand shot Daniel in the face with the intention of killing him. If Troy and Daniel survived, they were in roughly the same place after the dam explosion. It’s not that far fetched to imagine the two joining forces — and presumably crippled or scarred for life, in some way — make it their mission in life to track down the Clarks and Strand and exact their revenge.
Of course, that trek might take them several years, and locating them might take several more (in the third-season finale, there was talk of going to Houston, Texas, so they would have a starting point). Locating them might be easier, still, since Morgan and his gang are setting up a facility in which they transport supplies to those in need. One of those supply runs just might bring them back in contact with Daniel and Troy, which could put all their lives in danger.
We’ll find out more when Fear the Walking Dead returns in 2019.
