Fear the Walking Dead
“Fear the Walking Dead” Season 2, episode 5 saw the return of the “Flight 462” character Alex, who revealed what happened after she was abandoned to survive on the open water. AMC

As Season 2 of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” continues to force its characters to adapt to the new postapocalyptic world, a familiar face returned during the episode Sunday to further the saga of “Flight 462.” The group’s previous sins in connection with the possibility of taking on new members came back to haunt it in episode 5, “Captive.”

For those unfamiliar with the “Flight 462” web series, AMC presented it before the premiere of “Fear the Walking Dead” Season 2. It depicted the character Alex (Michelle Ang) — called Charlie in “Flight 462” — attempting to keep a character named Jake (Brendan Meyer) alive when a zombie outbreak led the plane they were aboard to crash. They arrived on the TV series in Season 2, episode 3, when it was revealed she survived the crash and managed to get a badly wounded Jake onto a life raft. That’s when she encountered the crew of the Abigail, but Strand (Colman Domingo) refused to let them board, arguing there wasn’t enough room for the people already on the boat on their way to Mexico.

Travis (Cliff Curtis) suggested they simply tow the life raft bearing Alex and Jake behind the yacht, but Strand seized an opportunity to cut the rope and abandon them to their fates on the open water. However, it was revealed during the episode Sunday that their journey didn’t conclude there.

When Travis and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) were captured by a group led by a man named Connor (Mark Kelly), it was revealed that before its members found the Abigail, they found Alex, and only Alex. Filled with vengeful rage, she says they ran out of water and Jake was beginning to suffer a very horrible death due to dehydration. His only request was to avoid drowning, so Alex says she took it upon herself to strangle him instead. When Connor’s group eventually found her, she sold out the Abigail’s location and asked to have a special conversation with Travis, who made the call to not let her and Jake board the yacht in the first place.

“She gets a chance to size him up, and she realizes how difficult a decision that was for him,” showrunner Dave Erickson told Entertainment Weekly. “She realizes that he suffers for it. It pains him. And I think for her, she sees an opportunity to save him — if that makes any sense. She couldn’t save Jake, and she totally ratted out the Abigail when she was picked up by Connor, but she’s trying to teach a lesson, and she’s curious to see if Travis is going to embrace that lesson. Will he take anything away from it?”

While that’s the showrunner’s explanation, some weren’t on board with this take on Alex’s desire to come after Travis. As IGN noted in its review of the episode, Alex has murdered people for the mere suggestion that it might be OK to kill a dying and suffering Jake — so why is she so upset with Travis for trying to find a compromise?

Despite all the mystery, the most intriguing part about Alex’s return is that she made it clear that she wouldn’t be staying on with Connor, although Travis and Madison (Kim Dickens) made that a moot point by the end of the episode, anyway. However, it means Alex is in the wind and could possibly show up and surprise the survivors a third time.

Erickson also revealed that Alex’s storyline with Connor and the survivors is done and that her next move is to venture into the postapocalyptic landscape to survive on her own terms. So, while there doesn’t appear to be any immediate plans to bring the “Flight 462” character back into the fold, the door has been left open for her return.

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