Spoilers below for the double-episode season finale of Fear the Walking Dead that aired Sunday night.
Fear the Walking Dead came to a pretty wild close for Season 2, going almost in the opposite direction of its predecessor The Walking Dead by not really touching anything close to a cliffhanger, though some strands were left loose enough to keep anticipation alive for Season 3. (Strand joke quota: met.) One of those loose ends involved Ofelia and the introduction of a mysterious character played by none other than Sons of Anarchy star Dayton Callie. Though the sun tries to make things difficult, you can clearly recognize him below.
And if you couldn't quite make out his face, then you definitely heard it in his unmistakable voice when he said, "Buenos dias, señorita. Welcome to America." I admit I wasn't looking at the screen when he stepped up, but the voice immediately made me pop my head back up.
Ofelia's storyline was really scattered this season, and it seemed like we would end up getting to see her reconnect with her father Daniel at some point, since he didn't really die last season. But instead of that reunion, she ends up running off on her own and killing a bunch of zombies and crossing the border back into America. And because this is America, there's someone almost immediately there to point a gun at her in an ironic welcome gesture.
Frustratingly, we don't get to see anything develop from this storyline in the second half of the finale, "North," so we really have no idea what to make of this gentleman. He didn't shoot first and he didn't make any loud domineering threats, so he's got that going for him, but he also didn't immediately offer her any water. He's bound to be part of some border patrol group or something similar, but it's not at all clear just how far along the "good guy" spectrum this new character falls. My guess is, if there's a Gemma of his group, he's loyal to her the most.
Also known for Deadwood and John from Cincinnati, Dayton Callie is arguably most recognized for his years as the morally wavering Wayne Unser on Sons of Anarchy, and his absence from cable primetime has been noted. But now he's got another potentially solid role on Fear the Walking Dead, though we'll have to wait until Season 3 gets here to find out just how solid it really is. And if he could share a scene with Kim Dickens, also of Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy fame, maybe that would open up a portal for other actors to join in.
Season 3 is set up to showcase Travis dealing with the grief over losing Chris and how that loss will affect him, and we won't be getting any immunity miracle cures, since it was revealed that Alejandro was just lying about all that shit. Naturally. And then Strand is sticking around the hotel that everyone else is heading away from, so there will be more splits and reunions next year. They really need to bring back Rubén Blades' Daniel Salazar, and team him up with Dayton Callie for the whole season without killing either of them off, and then just kill off all the other characters and they can just make the world their own.
Now that Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 is finished, we only have a few more weeks to wait for the onset of The Walking Dead Season 7, which kicks off on Sunday, October 23, on AMC. To see what's starting up in the meantime, check out our fall premiere schedule.
