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Entertainment Now | October 21 - 27, 2023 By Sarah Passingham TV Media T he end of the trail has just begun for some apocalypse survivors in the return of the final season of "Fear the Walking Dead." The "Walking Dead" spinoff series' midseason premiere airs on AMC Sunday, Oct. 22, just in time for an early celebra- tion of the eeriest holiday of the year. Kim Dickens ("Friday Night Lights") stars as Madison Clark, a high school guidance counsellor before the outbreak who now oversees the reconstruction of a survivors' island colony. "Fear the Walking Dead" clos- es out an impressive eight-season run with six episodes to go before the big, two-part series finale set to air Sunday, Nov. 19. The first of now six spinoffs of the original series, "Fear the Walking Dead" premiered in 2015 and followed an extended family as they tried to survive in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. The series detailed the survivors' journey as they trav- eled and settled in California, Mexico and now an island off the Georgia coast. The island, known as PADRE, was constructed after the walker outbreak as a military operation in- tended to distribute supplies to new communities of survivors. A tragic walker invasion decimated PADRE, and since then, desperate survivors have used the island's re- sources that once represented a more hopeful future. In the first half of the final sea- son of "Fear the Walking Dead," Madison landed on PADRE after a hard-fought journey to find the is- land with Morgan Jones (Lennie James, "Save Me"). The pair re- united Morgan with his daughter, Mo (Zoey Merchant, "The Price of Fame"), by force at PADRE before the show leaps seven years into the future. Madison is imprisoned on PADRE, while Morgan spends most of the first six episodes of the season on his own mission — try- ing to save Grace Mukherjee (Kar- en David, "Legacies") from radia- tion sickness before sadly losing her and setting off to Alexandria. With the dangerous former co- leaders of PADRE no longer a prob- lem, Madison attempts to reinvig- orate the spirit of PADRE and the island with the remaining resourc- es available to them. While the fi- nal episodes of "Fear the Walking Dead" could certainly detail the es- tablishment of a post-apocalyptic paradise, this is the Walking Dead universe after all, so there will un- doubtedly be danger lurking in the shadows of PADRE. This season also stars Rubén Blades ("The Counselor," 2013) as resistance leader Daniel Sala- zar; Colman Domingo ("Sing Sing," 2023) as antihero Victor Strand; Danay Garcia ("Prison Break") as survivor Luciana Galvez; Austin Amelio ("Hit Man," 2023) as PADRE member Dwight; Christine Evangelista ("Mrs. Fletcher") as Dwight's wife, Sherry; Jenna Elfman ("The Twilight Zone") as nurse June Do- rie, who is on the run from PA- DRE; and one former cast mem- ber whose appearance in a trailer for the upcoming return of the se- ries may have come as a surprise to "Fear the Walking Dead" fans. Daniel Sharman ("A Town Called Malice") returns as Troy Otto, a member of the Broke Jaw Ranch community who last appeared in the third season of "Fear the Walk- ing Dead." It seemed unlikely that Troy would make any sort of come- back after he was bludgeoned, but leave it to the Walking Dead uni- verse to bring someone back from the dead. In an official trailer for the upcoming season, Troy spits, "Madison, been a while," before removing his sunglasses, revealing his chilling new appearance. Though one icy-white iris doesn't seem too bad for having survived a hammer attack. The trailer also teases, in addi- tion to some gruesome walker kills, a sword-wielding Victor teaming up with Madison to "save PADRE"; Daniel, Luciana and June all preparing for battle; nearly everyone staring down the barrel of a gun; explosions, car flips and muddy battles. After the original series, "The Walking Dead," concluded its run after 11 seasons in 2022, two ex- citing new series entered the franchise. "The Walking Dead" really made use of its filming lo- cations in Georgia, but these two spinoffs took the stories of survi- vors far, far away from the Peach State. "The Walking Dead: Dead City" plants Maggie (Lauren Co- han, "Whiskey Cavalier") and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, "The Good Wife") in Manhattan as they search for her son while Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles, "Friday Night Lights") is on Negan's tail. "Dead City" premiered this June and was renewed for a second sea- son by AMC, along with the second new 2023 addition to the Walking Dead universe. "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon" follows Daryl (Nor- man Reedus, "The Bikeriders," 2023) after he finds himself on the shores of France with no memory of exactly how he got there. AMC promoted the series alongside the travel docuseries "Ride With Nor- man Reedus" airing immediately after the post-apocalyptic drama as "A Night With Norman." Daryl is a fan favorite in the Walking Dead franchise, having starred in nearly every single one of the original se- ries' 177-episode-long run. The future of the franchise rests in continuing spinoffs, including the upcoming series, "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live." Expect- ed to premiere in 2024, the drama reunites beloved lovers Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln, "Guiller- mo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosi- ties") and Michonne (Danai Gurira, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," 2022) and is set after the events of the original series' finale. Don't miss the return of "Fear the Walking Dead" Sunday, Oct. 22, on AMC. Jenna Elfman in "Fear the Walking Dead" 'Fear' the undead: 'Fear the Walking Dead' returns with final episodes 2 | Cover story Grindstone Charlie's 1 x 4" Moore's Home Health 5 x 2"

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