What Happened To Alicia On Fear The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 1?

"Fear The Walking Dead" is back with a vengeance, coming off the catastrophic nuclear explosions seen in its Season 6 finale. With conditions more desolate than ever, the show's Season 7 premiere sets its core survivors up to navigate a scorched wasteland with no food, water, or uncontaminated shelter. Indeed, in the post-apocalyptic world of "Fear the Walking Dead," the skies are now yellow, fish float in murky, contaminated water, and every walker has seemingly been flayed.

The series' Season 7 premiere, titled "The Beacon," focuses on Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), who has managed to find a secure, radiation-free haven to rule. Newcomer Will (Gus Halper), meanwhile, lives in a van with questionable safety protocols and few supplies. When Strand brings him into the new group, he realizes that Will knows Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey).

Unfortunately, Will's mysterious relationship with Alicia is little more than a tease for the "Fear The Walking Dead" fans out there who are still wondering what happened to her. As a matter of fact, while many characters don't appear in the premiere, Alicia's absence was just further highlighted by the conflict that plays out between Will and Strand, with the latter intent on keeping her away from him.

"Fear The Walking Dead" viewers learn in the show's Season 7 premiere that Strand is eager to prove to Alicia that he doesn't need her. However, her fate is still unknown. Will reveals that she was willing to sacrifice herself to save everyone in the bunker, but that plan didn't come to pass. That means that she's still alive, but considering that Will is killed by Strand in "The Beacon," it's hard to know when Alicia will even find Strand's Tower.

With that in mind, Insider recently spoke with "Fear The Walking Dead" showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg about "The Beacon," and, namely, why they didn't open the season following Alicia, who has been a fan-favorite character ever since the show's first season. Goldberg explained that they wanted to focus on how "dire and devastating" the show's world has become following the nuclear explosions in its sixth season. The show's creative team also wanted to use "Will in particular as this bridge between Strand and Alicia, which, again, is something that will carry forward."

Fortunately, fans can rest easy knowing that Alicia will be back soon. "We definitely will see Alicia in the first eight episodes. You see, from the first episode here, that there is very much a mystery of what happened to her and why she left the bunker and what happened between her and Will that kind of caused this rift," teased Goldberg.

For now, though, "Fear The Walking Dead" fans will just have to wait to see what's next for the character.