Is Charlie Really Dying On Fear The Walking Dead?

Contains spoilers for "Fear the Walking Dead" Season 7, Episode 10

AMC's "Fear the Walking Dead" is still striding tall through Season 7, which won't come to a close until its 16th episode, the season finale titled "Gone." Of course, the show's more recent seasons have taken its original focus as a prequel to "The Walking Dead" and moved to a story that moves concurrently with the original show. The latest season of "Fear the Walking Dead" focuses on the fallout of nuclear attacks across Texas brought about by villain Teddy Maddox (John Glover) at the end of Season 6 in an attempt to destroy what is left of the living world.

The "Fear the Walking Dead" Season 7 episode "Mourning Cloak" prominently features Charlie (Alexa Nisenson), a teenager who is part of Morgan's (Lennie James) group but who used to be a member of the Vultures all the way back in Season 4. When Charlie attempts to infiltrate the Tower under Victor Strand's (Colman Domingo) leadership, she is captured by a young Tower trainee, Ali (Ashton Arbab). The teenagers are sent on a separate mission by Howard (Omid Abtahi), where they reflect on the lack of a true adolescence they've experienced due to growing up in a postapocalyptic world. They start to fall for each other, but by the end of the episode, Ali is killed and Charlie is sickened with radiation poisoning — posing the question of whether this character is facing the end of her road.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, "Fear the Walking Dead" showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss said they wanted to strike at the notion of a life Charlie could have experienced if she were a teenager before the apocalypse started. Chambliss said that Alexa Nisenson, the 15-year-old actor who plays Charlie, showed interest in being part of a romantic storyline, resulting in "Mourning Cloak."

The duo said that Charlie and Ali's experience in the episode was what they imagined a first date-type scenario could look like, given the intensity of their situation — but they stopped short of saying that Charlie is going to die. "I'll just say that Charlie is very sick," Goldberg told EW. "We mentioned earlier wanting there to feel like there's a cost to this world and this punishing nuclear landscape, and Charlie is definitely suffering because of it."

Goldberg pointed out that Charlie's character arc has been motivated by her desire for normalcy, and getting sick with radiation poisoning is a direct consequence of trying to fulfill that desire. There is no confirmation from either showrunner that the character will live or die; Goldberg only suggests that Charlie's situation is very serious and that the character will have a difficult path through the season's remaining six episodes. If Charlie does die, it will mark the end of quite the run for Nisenson, who has starred in 60 "Fear the Walking Dead" episodes since Season 4 in 2018 as her first main series role.