Danay Garcia as Luciana, Frank Dillane as Nick
“Fear the Walking Dead” star Danay Garcia said that the Broke Jaw Ranch is like a ticking bomb that will sooner or later explode. Peter Iovino/AMC

Despite Nick’s (Frank Dillane) romantic effort to convince Luciana (Danay Garcia) to stay at Broke Jaw Ranch in Season 3, episode 5 of “Fear the Walking Dead,” the former La Colonia scout secretly abandoned the sanctuary on her own and left her boyfriend behind.

In a recent interview with BT TV, Garcia, along with executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and showrunner Dave Erickson, explained Luciana’s bold decision and explained why she’ll never feel at home inside the Ottos’ property. “Luciana knows that at this place, the ranch, is like a ticking clock,” Garcia said. “Sooner or later it’s gonna explode. Everything is going to hell.”

Hurd added that Luciana is aware that Jeremiah (Dayton Callie), the leader of the ranch, sees her as an outsider, and that’s one of the reasons she can’t stay there for good. “Otto believes that people with the same value system, the same skin color, the same background, that’s his tribe. Luciana has a different tribe. He would never really be able to see her as someone who belongs, and she knows that,” explained Hurd.

READ: Dayton Callie reveals what happened after Ofelia met Jeremiah in “Fear the Walking Dead”

“Luciana doesn’t trust them [anyway],” Hurd continued. “And these are not the people that she wants to find a future with.”

As for Luciana’s decision to leave Nick behind, Erickson said: “She realizes that as much as [Nick] might care for [her], Nick has greater obligations to her mom and sister, and she comes to that awareness on her own.”

According to the synopsis for Season 3, episode 6, Nick grapples with the hard truth that Luciana is gone. But will he leave the ranch, too, and look for her?

At some point in the trailer for the episode, Madison (Kim Dickens) is seen telling someone: “If you leave, you’ll die!” Is she talking to her son Nick? Only time will tell.

Elsewhere in the upcoming episode, Madison struggles to keep everyone at the ranch together when they find out that Walker (Michael Greyeyes) and his men are coming for them.

“Fear the Walking Dead” Season 3, episode 6, titled “Red Dirt,” airs on Sunday, July 2 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC. Watch the trailer below: