Fear The Walking Dead [SPOILER]s Season 5 Return Explained

Fear the Walking Dead's season 5 premiere brings back a long-lost character after several years - but what brings the person back into the fold?

Daniel Salazar returns in the Fear the Walking Dead season 5 premiere after being presumed dead once again - but what brings him back? Fans have been surprised at characters like Glenn and Rick Grimes surviving all sorts of perilous situations on the flagship Walking Dead show, but when it comes to Fear the Walking Dead, the one person that takes that crown is Daniel Salazar, who not only managed to escape Los Angeles at the start of the outbreak but also survive two deadly events.

In the midseason finale of Fear the Walking Dead season 2, Salazar seemingly has a breakdown and attempts to burn himself alive while setting fire to a building in which the walkers were kept at a remote compound. But he didn't die and then returned in Fear the Walking Dead season 3. However, again, at the end of that season, Salazar was on top of the dam when Nick blew it up. And while the core characters survived, Salazar was never heard from again. That is, until now.

Fear the Walking Dead experienced a big time jump in season 4, and it appears that, at some point in the years since the dam's explosion, Maggie Grace's Al had come into contact with Rubén Blades' Daniel Salazar and even recorded his story on one of her tapes. In the Fear the Walking Dead season 5 premiere, Strand watches one of those tapes at Al's behest and sees his one-time friend - and enemy, for that matter - return to the fold.

In the Fear the Walking Dead season 5 premiere, "Here to Help", Al's plane loses an engine and crashes, thus leaving them vulnerable and wounded. But before they leave the plane behind, Al radios Strand and tells him to retrieve her backup tapes. On the tape labeled "Skid Mark", Al interviewed someone who has a plane, which Strand can use to pick them up. As it turns out, the person on the tape is none other than Salazar, who Strand hasn't seen in years.

What's interesting is that this is the second person from Fear the Walking Dead's original group that Al has come across without the rest of the team knowing. The first person was obviously Kim Dickens' Madison Clark, who was killed off in Fear the Walking Dead season 4. As revealed in the Fear the Walking Dead season 5 trailer, Strand and Salazar do eventually meet up, and rather than shoot Strand, Salazar is open to hearing him out. Of course, at the time, it was unclear how the character would come back, but now audiences know what brings them together.