‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Season 3: Is Travis The Next Villain? Plus, How The Season 2 Finale Rated

The dust has settled from the Season 2 finale of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead. Many fans were happy with how the double episode played out. However, what will happen moving forward into Season 3?

Spoiler alert: This article discusses the Season 2 finale of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead. Please proceed with caution if you wish to avoid spoilers.

The Season 2 finale of Fear the Walking Dead played out over a special double episode event. All the main characters got their time in the light. Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) managed to make it to the U.S. after her truck broke down and she was attacked by the infected.

Nick (Frank Dillane) also moved his group towards the border after it was discovered Alejandro (Paul Calderon) wasn’t really immune. His new girlfriend, Luciana (Danay Garcia), however, suffered a gunshot wound after the group was attacked at the border.

At the Rosarito Beach Hotel, everything was thrown in the air in the Season 2 finale of Fear the Walking Dead after it was discovered a couple of newcomers were actually the men Travis’ (Cliff Curtis) son, Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie), was travelling with. It was this event that led to the discovery that Chris had actually been killed by Brandon (Kelly Blatz) and Derek (Kenny Wormald) when their car rolled and Chris was injured. This led to a tipping point for Travis and, as a result of this, he, along with Madison (Kim Dickens) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), left the hotel. Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) chose to stay at the hotel, even considering his history with Ilene (Brenda Strong).

The biggest change moving forward into Season 3 of Fear the Walking Dead involves Travis Manawa and how he has evolved since the Season 2 finale. Over the course of the show, he has been the one person trying the hardest to hold onto the past and maintain a semblance of the old moral code. However, as has been proven time and again to him, the zombie apocalypse moves the parameters of morality significantly.

Travis went through a similar transformation in the Season 1 finale of Fear the Walking Dead when he had to put down his infected wife, Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez). However, when Season 2 premiered, Travis quickly resorted back to his moral high-ground. Many fans were not impressed.

According to an interview Fear’s showrunner, Dave Erickson, did recently with ComicBook, this will not happen to Travis again moving forward into Season 3.

“We’re going to see a bad ass version of Curtis [the actor who plays Travis] in Season Three. I think that you can’t cross that line and then go back. That’s not to say he’s not going to protect Madison or be protective of her and Alicia, but he’s going to go about that in a much, much different way. He’s going to be somebody much quicker to pull the trigger. He’s going to be somebody who is far more aggressive.”

So, Fear the Walking Dead, potentially, could get its very first serious villain in Travis’ transformation. However, as ComicBook also pointed out in another article, there are other potential threats moving into Season 3 of Fear the Walking Dead. The militia seen at the border could also be the early formation of a villainous group. While Erickson stopped short of confirming this group as a new threat in Season 3 of Fear, he did reveal they would be part of the new developments being set up for Season 3.

“What we wanted to do going into Season 3 was really tell the border story. We started introducing elements north of the border since we haven’t been there for quite some time, just to begin that story. I think we’re going to possibly find our characters on either side who are straddling the border. We’re going to introduce some new elements that are in or just outside of Tijuana in Season 3.”

While not, technically, a villain in Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead, Travis’ son, Chris, was the one character most viewers loved to hate. Even with all the hate out there, fans were still saddened by the way in which Chris lost his life in the Season 2 finale.

But, many fans were also optimistic, as Lorenzo James Henrie revealed to Entertainment Weekly.

“Oh, Chris isn’t dead. No one actually saw it,” was a common response on social media to Chris’ death.

As for how the rating went for the Season 2 finale of Fear the Walking Dead, the numbers are down from the Season 1 finale. However, according to Deadline, Fear still managed to pull in 3.4 million viewers when the show aired on October 2. That number is expected to be higher once the Live +3 results are released. Even without the final viewer numbers, Fear the Walking Dead can still be considered “the third most watched and rated scripted show on cable” in the year-to-date. It is beaten only by AMC’s other zombie shows, The Walking Dead and Talking Dead.

What did you think of the Season 2 finale of Fear the Walking Dead? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below.

Season 3 of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead returns in 2017.

[Featured Image by Peter Iovino/AMC]