Major FTWD Exit Ends One Part Of The Walking Deads CRM Story

A major character has exited Fear The Walking Dead season 7, thus ending one part of The Walking Dead franchise's ongoing CRM story.

Warning: SPOILERS for Fear The Walking Dead season 7, episode 6, "Reclamation."

Maggie Grace has exited Fear The Walking Dead and, therefore, ended a significant portion of The Walking Dead's CRM story that's currently ongoing across the franchise. Fans were made aware of Maggie Grace's Al potentially leaving the spinoff series last month when it was revealed that the actress' name was no longer in the main credits, not to mention that she was missing for most of season 6's final episodes as well as throughout the beginning of season 7.

Al has been an outlier from the group despite being one of the first and most prominent people to join the new cast in season 4. While she had a significant story at first, that quickly fizzled out once more and more characters joined the fold. And then she became the connective tissue to the CRM once Isabelle was introduced. Now with the narrative surrounding the CRM expanding in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Fear The Walking Dead's personal version of that story has come to an end.

Maggie Grace's Al has been written off Fear The Walking Dead in season 7, episode 6, "Reclamation," in which she says goodbye to Morgan and Grace and heads off to find Isabelle, who's been hold up somewhere in the woods where the CRM's reclamation teams wouldn't find her. Of course, by committing to a life on the run with Isabelle, Al's connection to Fear The Walking Dead's main group and overarching story has been severed. For all intents and purposes, she's gone. Fear The Walking Dead co-showrunner Andrew Chambliss had previously confirmed this was Grace's final episode "this season" during the show's Episode Insider.

Fear The Walking Dead seasons 4 and 5 heavily resembled the main show in which each character was given ample screentime throughout most episodes, but seasons 6 and 7 have employed the vignette approach, giving the characters their own episodes to thrive in. Part of that must have been bolstered by the ongoing pandemic, but there's also an attempt to tell smaller stories that build to a larger one later on; for this particular season, that larger story is a conflict between Strand's sanctuary and Morgan's submarine group. Then there's the people searching for the mysterious location, Padre, where Alicia might be. That's all to say that there's little room for the CRM's inclusion anymore — and, unfortunately, Al.

Al and Isabelle's story of being on the run from the CRM doesn't build to anything specific, sadly. It provides an interesting connection to the main Walking Dead story, and potentially the Rick Grimes movies that are still in development, but as far as Fear The Walking Dead goes, it's unlikely viewers will see those two characters again for quite some time. Still, the producers have chosen to keep Al's story open-ended, thereby allowing Maggie Grace to return at some point in the future should she and the producers wish to bring Al back. It's just, without her, the CRM likely won't be in Fear The Walking Dead anymore.