Episode 10 of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead Season 4 was a dark and brooding episode that included only two characters from the vast lineup. However, it turns out that the original script for this episode was dramatically different to what fans saw on Sunday night. In fact, the new script for Episode 10 was changed at the last minute as AMC decided to go in a different direction.
SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Episode 10 (titled “Close Your Eyes”) of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead Season 4. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet watched the episode and wish to avoid spoilers.
With a storm raging, Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) finds shelter in a house inhabited by a family of the undead. Killing them all, Alicia quickly removes all evidence of the family rather than think about the loss of her own. However, she also discovers she is trapped inside the house with the girl responsible for her family’s demise: Charlie (Alexa Nisenson). At times in Episode 10 of Fear the Walking Dead Season 4, there is the sense that Alicia might kill Charlie. However, by the end of the episode, a tentative friendship is beginning to form.
Already, this episode has gathered a positive response to the performances of both Debnam-Carey and Nisenson, who is only 12-years-old in real life. However, according to Comic Book , this episode nearly didn’t happen.
“Originally, this was a different script,” Alycia Debnam-Carey revealed to Comic Book .
“It was with another character. It was an episode that was Morgan and Alicia, and then three days before, they were like, ‘No, we have a different plan. We want to change it completely,’ and they changed it to an Alycia and Alexa episode.”
While Debnam-Carey never got to read the original Fear the Walking Dead script that was scrapped and replaced by the “Close Your Eyes” version, she did reveal that she was excited about the new direction.
“When I read it, I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ I didn’t read the episode we originally had planned. I don’t think anyone did but they had some kind of new idea and the concept, and when I read it, I was like, ‘It’s great. Fantastic.’”
In addition to having to pick up a new script at such short notice, Debnam-Carey also found it difficult to be mean to her fellow actor in the episode. In fact, sometimes, she had to tell the young actress to step away so Alycia could work up to being mean.
“There were moments where I was like, ‘I can’t be nice to you right now! You’re so nice and so sweet but I need to be mean!’ So, like, ‘You need to stand over there for a second while I get mean!’”
As for whether Alicia and Charlie were friends by the end of Episode 10 of Fear the Walking Dead Season 4, Debnam-Carey had this to say.
“They’re not friends, right now. They’re not enemies though, either.”
Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC with Episode 11 (titled “The Code”) of Season 4 on August 26.
