The Fear the Walking Dead season 8 premiere, “Remember What They Took From You,” features a look at what happened in the moments just after the season 7 finale, but the bulk of the story picks up after a seven-year time jump.
The episode begins with Morgan (Lennie James) being interrogated by someone behind a mirror. Madison (Kim Dickens) is with him and when a baby monitor is brought in, the sounds of a baby crying push him over the edge. He demands his daughter’s return; when that doesn’t happen he attacks the guards and with Madison’s help manages to escape, with Madison keeping him from being caught.
What is PADRE?
PADRE is an organization training a colony of kids on an island. There are adults present, and their only job seems to be training the kids for combat against the undead. They’re also being taught survival skills. Everyone has jobs, whether it’s a trade or something to help make life operate smoothly. No one uses their real names, rather they are all named after birds.
Growing up without parents has caused these kids to be hardened and stoic. They’re more like little soldiers than children, and their devotion to PADRE is cult-like.
What is PADRE doing to Madison?
Madison, renamed Lark, has been locked up since helping Morgan escape all those years ago and she’s been subjected to some kind of medical testing that requires her to give blood every week. That means that PADRE is running experiments of some kind, and Madison is a primary test subject.
She’s had quite enough of the testing, so when Shrike (Maya Eshet) arrives for another sample she grabs a gun and tries to kill herself. But they know better than to bring live ammunition into her cell. “PADRE’s not going to let that happen,” Shrike says.
Who is Wren?
Wren (Zoey Merchant) is a grown up Mo. She grew up at PADRE and only knows their way of life. She’s conflicted because whenever she goes to the arena for training with live “carrion” she starts to have flashbacks of being attacked by walkers, and of a woman singing.
Mo feels like something’s missing from her life but has no clue what it is. When she comes upon Madison in her jail cell, she questions why she’s being kept. Dove explains that Lark was a collector who brought in more kids than anyone else, but when she helped a new collector escape with his daughter, almost killing PADRE in the process, she was locked up.
Wren knows what Madison is capable of, so she turns to her for help with her training. She sneaks a sledgehammer to the cell and asks for advice, but when she can’t get her grip quite right Madison uses the opportunity to escape.
Madison quickly realizes that Wren is Mo (there’s a scar on her arm from when she helped Morgan escape) so she decides that her new objective is to return Mo to Morgan. But Wren, who has no idea about her true name or anyone named Mo, has no desire to leave PADRE.
What is Madison's plan?
As a valued collector, Madison knows exactly how to come and go from the island and since there are more kids than adults it’s easy for her to make an escape by boat. Mo manages to get away from Madison with a radio, and she calls to PADRE before Madison can get it back. Walkers are descending on their position and once again Mo freezes, hearing the voice singing in her head.
Is Morgan working with PADRE?
Madison’s instincts were right, and they end up right in Morgan’s territory. Morgan vows to take Mo back to PADRE. His code name is Nightingale, and he’s working with PADRE as a collector because there’s no other option.
When PADRE tells them that they only want Wren, not Lark, Morgan is left with a decision to make. Does he kill Madison? All he wants is for them to take Mo back, because they’re the only ones who can protect her. But he doesn’t want Mo to see him kill Madison.
Madison knows that PADRE will threaten people using things they care about. For her, it was the promise of finding her kids. She wonders if they threatened Morgan with Grace’s life. He says that he couldn’t protect Mo so that’s why she’s better off with PADRE.
Where is everyone else?
One of the reasons Morgan ended up working for PADRE is that he didn’t know what happened to his friends who were on the rafts last seen in season 7. He mentions Daniel (Ruben Blades) and Luciana (Danay Garcia), and notes that Strand (Colman Domingo) wasn’t on the rafts when PADRE intercepted them. The bottom line is that he has no idea where anyone went.
What are Mo's flashbacks about?
When the group moves toward the house in the swamp, Mo asks if something happened to her there, but Morgan doesn’t want to talk about it. It turns out that the swamp house is where he took her after they escaped. Her crib sits in the corner, frozen in time.
We learn that seven years ago, Morgan was forced to turn to PADRE for help when Mo became sick, and at that point he agreed to work for them as a collector in return for her health and safety. The flashbacks Mo recalls are from the night they escaped the house, which had been surrounded by walkers.
What has Grace been doing for Padre?
When Grace (Karen David) arrives and saves Mo, Morgan and Madison from the swamp walkers, she tells Mo that she’s Mo’s mother. Her job has been to work on PADRE’s radio towers. It’s another bittersweet reunion because Grace was forced to turn her back on Mo, too, and it clearly wasn’t easy for her. That’s why she’s trying not to connect with Mo now, because she knows she’ll have to go back to PADRE. When Mo says she doesn’t want to go back to PADRE anymore, it’s heartbreaking for her because she knows Mo can’t stay with her.
What happens at the end of the episode?
PADRE arrives thanks to Morgan’s radio message to them when he first spotted Madison and Mo. Shrike says they have plans for Madison, and she and Mo are loaded back on the boats. But so is Morgan, because now that he’s crossed paths with Mo, he won’t be able to return to work as a collector.
With their futures uncertain, Mo, Morgan and Madison head back to PADRE while Grace returns to her work.
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC.
