‘Fear The Walking Dead’: Is The AMC Series Heading To Pacific Northwest?

AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” has no plans to explore the Pacific Northwest.

In last week’s Season 3, episode 12, Jake (Sam Underwood) told Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) that there are other communities like Broke Jaw Ranch where they can live. “Vernon (Hugo Armstrong) wasn’t wrong. There are other places like this,” Jake said. “Otto didn’t have the monopoly. The Pacific Northwest was prepper central.”

Alicia quickly dismissed the idea of traveling to the Pacific Northwest, saying that a trip from Mexico to Cascadia is going to be long. But will Madison’s (Kim Dickens) daughter change her mind after a horde of the infected has infiltrated the ranch at the end of last episode?

“No,” showrunner Dave Erickson told ComicBook.com when asked if they have plans to explore the Pacific Northwest in future episodes. He, however, acknowledged that “it absolutely was a worthwhile story to explore.”

“I think the notion, and I think we speak to it, is that that is quite a long trip,” Erickson explained of why it’s not reasonable for the characters to move to the Pacific Northwest. “[But] what [Jake is] basically saying is Alicia has accepted and embraced the ranch as the best option she’s seen since this all. Since the apocalypse began. And what he’s trying to say is there are alternatives. What he’s trying to say is, ‘The things that I held sacred, the things that were important here are gone. And in their absence, it’s really just me and you. You’re the one person I care for.’”

Apparently, Jake’s plan to go the Pacific Northwest ceased to exist when he died in the episode. In the middle of the installment, Jake’s arm was bit by a zombie after Nick (Frank Dillane) stopped him from killing Troy (Daniel Sharman). Despite Nick and Troy’s best efforts to save Jake, the older Otto brother succumbed to his injury, leading Troy to put him down.

In a separate interview with ComicBook.com, Erickson said that Alicia will further grow as a character following Jake’s unexpected demise. “Every time we have a significant character death, it definitely has to have repercussions and it has to echo, and it’s gotta drive the other characters and drive story, so that’s very much the case with Jake,” Erickson said. “From a character perspective, what you’re going to see as we now pivot into the final few episodes is Alicia becoming far more prominent and far stronger than she’s been before.”

“Fear the Walking Dead’s” next episode (Season 3, episode 13) airs on Sunday, Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.