Its Time for Alicia Clark to Lead on Fear the Walking Dead – TV Insider

For a split-second in Fear the Walking Deads Season 6A, it seemed like Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) mightve been on the verge of breaking off from the group and starting anew. She spoke about taking the series teenagers Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) and Dakota (Zoe Colletti) back to the Dell Diamond, and presumably, they wouldve remained there. Then, of course, it didnt work out and Alicia went back to the rest of the group and joined Morgans (Lennie James) new community. But what if she hadnt?

Wed like to argue that its about time Alicia plays a key role in the leadership side of things, if not going off and starting her own group elsewhere. Shes grown leaps and bounds from the teenager who talked to random strangers over The Abigails radio, and shes proven herself capable of taking charge of a group time and time again. Heres why we think its time for Alicia to lead.

Who else could take down an entire pantry filled with walkers, all by themselves? And that was six years earlier than the present, in Fears timeline! Theres no denying it Alicia is a fierce warrior. She was excellent with her sleek butterfly knife, and shes just as good at walker-killin (or people-killin, if need be) with her new weapon. And for a second, she learned how to use a stick like Morgan, too.

In Season 6 episode The Holding, we saw just how far Alicia would go to save the people she cares about just like her mom, shes willing to meet a fiery end if it means her pals escape from The End is The Beginnings compound. And thats not the first time weve seen her do this type of thing: in Season 5, Alicia helped out that group of kids who were building blockades out of walker gutseven though she ended up getting irradiated walker blood in her mouth. (She appears to be fine, so were choosing to forget that even happened.)

All the best leaders in the TWD-verse have shown theyll lay down their lives for their family and friends to survive, and Alicia is no different. Shed drop a flare in a baseball stadium filled with walkers or blow up a bridge with her standing on it to keep walkers from reaching her people.

That said, all that prowess and post-apocalyptic know-how wasnt ingrained in her. Unlike the rest of her family, who were all built for the apocalypse in various ways, Alicia had to learn how to survive in a violent world without morals or remorse. In the beginning, she naively led a deadly group to The Abigail by communicating with them over the radio; she learned a valuable lesson about trusting people without seeing or knowing them. But when she strayed too far the other way and let her anger take control, a bullet meant for June (Jenna Elfman) hit John (Garret Dillahunt), and he nearly died so she learned pure vengeance wasnt the answer, either.

Plenty of people in the post-apocalyptic world are leagues behind Alicia in terms of how well they understand the world and their attitude toward it. Her past stumbles have given her a healthy outlook on life in the dead world, and she could lead a group with the wisdom shes gained.

Not that Alicia was actively studying to lead her own group, but if she was, she certainly couldve had worse teachers than Morgan and her mother Madison (Kim Dickens). Early-seasons Madison was a little more bloodthirsty, but sometimes thats necessary hey, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) left a fair number of bodies in his wake, too! More importantly, Madison was almost always able to manipulate or scheme her way out of an unpleasant situation, and in the zombie apocalypse, thats not a bad skill to have.

Morgan, on the other hand, shows a reverence for all life and a willingness to compromise, which is also valuable. Taking the best traits from those characters makes a great leader, and Alicia has certainly learned from them both.

Perhaps most importantly, Alicia has a kind heart and recognizes when to allow her mercy to prevail over her wrath. She didnt kill Charlie even though Charlie killed her brother Nick (Frank Dillane), but shes since grown close to the girl and seems to see her as a sister. More recently, Alicia advocated for Dakota (Zoe Colletti) to be freed from Virginias clutches and while that led to Johns death, she hasnt sought revenge. If Dakota sticks around as Charlie has, its not hard to envision Alicia eventually forgiving her also.

The best leaders weve seen have shown strength in showing mercy: Where would Rick have been without Tara (Alanna Masterson), or Daryl (Norman Reedus) without Lydia (Cassady McClincy)? Alicia recognizes that sometimes, good people do bad things when the world is upside-down but it doesnt make them bad people. Thats the outlook of a true leader.

Fear the Walking Dead, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC

Originally posted here:
Its Time for Alicia Clark to Lead on Fear the Walking Dead - TV Insider

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero