Fear The Walking Dead Season 8 Will Flashback To Madison's Stadium Escape

"Fear The Walking Dead" Season 8 may be pushing the post-apocalyptic series to its narrative conclusion, but the final installment will also be taking the time to resolve a dangling plot thread from its past. Specifically, the eighth season will address the return of Madison (Kim Dickens) and how the show's former lead managed to survive a stadium's worth of flesh-craving zombies several seasons prior.

For years, fans of "Fear The Walking Dead" have thought Madison to be dead and gone. The character was ostensibly killed off in the middle of Season 4, when she sacrificed herself to save the rest of her surviving group by trapping a metric ton of walkers in a stadium with no way out. While Madison's death was shocking enough, her return in the Season 7 finale proved even more unexpected.

Thankfully, those questioning how Madison could have possibly survived her predicament won't have to wonder much longer. ""Honestly that is a very important story point that will be addressed in this season," series showrunner Ian Goldberg told Insider. "We will answer how she survived the stadium."

Not only will fans get a clear answer as to how Madison survived her stadium ordeal when "Fear The Walking Dead" Season 8 releases, but it seems that it's going to factor pretty heavily into the final storyline of the show. For one thing, Kim Dickens has been confirmed to be coming back once again as a series regular, so viewers should expect to learn a lot more about what she's been up off-screen for that section of "Fear The Walking Dead's" timeline. Beyond that, there's the way that Madison ties into the mysterious organization glimpsed in Season 7: P.A.D.R.E..

There's still a lot that fans don't know about P.A.D.R.E., but it's already been confirmed that the organization will be a driving force in Season 8. With Madison clearly under its thumb, it appears that P.A.D.R.E. played a major role in helping the survivor escape from the stadium. As a clearer picture of just how Madison survived comes into focus, so too will a better idea of just what P.A.D.R.E. is and what it does.

As a matter of fact, watchers may even get to see this pivotal moment for themselves. In the Insider interview, Ian Goldberg also teased that Season 8 might satisfy fan curiosities with a flashback sequence showing Madison's escape. "They can always hope," he cryptically stated. "You should always hope."