‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Spoilers: Who’s The New Leader Of The Ranch?

The politics within the ranch gets complicated in Season 3B of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead.”

In a new featurette teasing the second half of Season 3, showrunner Dave Erickson revealed that Jake (Sam Underwood) steps up as the leader of Broke Jaw Ranch following the death of his father, Jeremiah (Dayton Callie). But with the arrival of the Nation at the ranch and Madison’s (Kim Dickens) secret deal with Walker (Michael Greyeyes), Erickson said that the Clark matriarch is really the one in control.

“We’re going to find Madison in something of a powerful position within the ranch,” Erickson said. “Jake is ostensibly the leader now that his father is gone, but the truth is Madison is in control. Madison is dealing with Walker and she’s brokered a deal with him. So it’s a very fine line in terms of the politics of the ranch.”

Apparently, Madison isn’t the only Clark who wants to take the upper hand. “There’s this leadership vacuum within the ranch. Otto is gone. And Jake is getting weaker by the second,” Debnam-Carey said in the video. “[So] Alicia steps into that role, and it’s really, really an exciting beginning of what she can do.”

Erickson previously said that the Clarks have effectively taken over the ranch by the end of the midseason finale. “As we play out the final montage in [Season 3] episode 8, you see the Clark family on that balcony looking out over the ranch as Jake and Troy (Daniel Sharman) take their dad to the barn, and the sense for me is that they have effectively taken over,” Erickson told Entertainment Weekly last month. “The sense for me is that Madison has Troy in a place where he’s willing to do her bidding, at least right now. Jake has developed a relationship with Alicia and entrusts her, and Nick (Frank Dillane) is in this strange relationship that’s been developing with Troy as well. So there’s a shadow government to the ranch next season. It is very much the Clarks.”

While Madison has what it takes to be Jeremiah’s successor, Erickson said that the mother-of-two knows why she shouldn’t take over Jeremiah’s role as leader right after his death. “Madison is smart enough to know that if it seems like she’s the clear leader of the ranch at this point and that she’s benefitting by Otto’s death, it may cast her in a bad light,” Erickson said. “So for all intents and purposes, I think Madison will be in control, but she’s going to have to handle it in sort of a back-channel manner.”

“Fear the Walking Dead” Season 3B premieres on Sunday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.