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Warning: This article contains major SPOILERS about Fear the Walking Dead's season 3 finale (episode 15 'Things Bad Begun' and episode 16 'Sleigh Ride').
Fear the Walking Dead ended its fine third season with an action-packed and explosive two-part finale, but not everybody made it out alive.
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(This is your last chance to turn back if you haven't seen the episodes...)
In episode 15, Troy Otto – played by Daniel Sharman – met his end after Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) discovered that he was the one who led that massive zombie horde to the ranch.
"I'd do it all again," he said unapologetically, as his racism came spewing out once again. Troy insisted that it was his right, despite the fact that the zombie attack wiped out pretty much the entire ranch, including Ofelia and his brother Jake.
Madison – realising that Troy will always be a threat to her family – responded by whacking him in the head with a hammer twice. In front of an angry Nick. Oof.
But Fear the Walking Dead showrunner Dave Erickson said that his plan was originally to have Troy survive beyond the third season.
"Troy was a hard one because I actually had a conversation with Daniel [Sharman] earlier in the season where I said that at that moment, my intention was to not kill Troy," he told Entertainment Weekly.
"And then when we got to a place where I realised I had to have a bit more closure than I had originally intended, I had another conversation with Daniel where I said, 'You know how I said I wasn't going to kill you? Well, unfortunately, now I am'."
As Erickson pointed out, no matter how much of a fan favourite he had become, Troy had done some awful things and he is a racist character.
"The truth of the matter is, he deserved it," Erickson said. "If anybody on our show deserved to go, it was Troy."
And that moment when Madison kills Troy also affects her relationship with her son Nick (Frank Dillane).
"I think that's the moment where Madison comes full circle," Erickson explained. "That's the moment where she realises, this is who I am. Nick's not wrong. That violence is ingrained in her and what she realises is that she deviated from that course.
"She wasn't true to herself and people suffered because of it, and so in that instance, she decides to put him down. And that has a direct impact on Nick as Nick moves into the last episode because he wants to reject that and find another way."
The season ended in a cliffhanger, as several characters' fates were left uncertain.
As the dam was blown up, main characters Nick, Alicia, Daniel, and Strand were possibly killed (but we have a sneaking suspicion that they will emerge alive next season). Madison is the only regular character certain to have survived...
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, October 22 in the US, and FOX and NOW TV on Monday, October 23 in the UK.
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