Kim Dickens goes inside that “Fear the Walking Dead” series finale

The star also weighs in on whether we have truly seen the end of Madison Clark.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Fear the Walking Dead series finale.

In the end, Madison Clark not only found peace, she also found her daughter. Kim Dickens’ Madison wrapped up both her storyline and the entire series run of Fear the Walking Dead on Sunday night as the final two episodes of the zombie spinoff aired on AMC.

Madison — who was originally killed off in season 4 yet first reappeared in the season 7 finale — was a badly damaged woman in her full-time season 8 return. When we first met the 2.0 version, she was stealing children from their parents for P.A.D.R.E., and while Madison finally fought back against those baby nappers, she still had a dark view of life in the post-apocalyptic landscape, having abandoned her principals of personal sacrifice for a bleaker vision of survive at all costs, no matter who it hurt in the process.

Madison hit her lowest point on Sunday’s two-part finale when she stabbed former and current adversary Troy (Daniel Sharman) as he was trying to make things right — and right in front of his daughter Tracy (Antonella Rose), essentially killing him for the second time. But just when she herself seemed beyond saving, Madison went back and sacrificed herself to save all the others from a rapidly advancing herd… just as she did at the baseball stadium back in season 4.

And just like at the baseball stadium, it appeared she had perished in the process, but Tracy — hearing about the sacrifice — went back and found Madison’s still breathing body in the rubble. That was the first big surprise. The second was the arrival of Madison’s daughter Alicia (Alyica Debnam-Carey), who had left the show near the end of season 7, but turned out was also still alive after being left for dead by Troy years earlier. The Clark reunion led the two women (and Tracy) to start their journey back to where it all began, Los Angeles, with the trio headed west as the show came to a close.

It was a fitting, full-circle ending for Madison and the woman who plays her — especially after both were jettisoned from the show back in season 4 before their eventual return. We spoke to Dickens to get her thoughts on how Madison’s journey ended, coming back to the show that killed her off, and if this time we really have seen the last of her beloved character.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When you first came back at the end of season 7, how much then did you talk with showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss about Madison’s end and how her story would ultimately play out?

KIM DICKENS: I think they had an outlined idea of it. I knew it was going to be a journey of redemption and reunions and letting go. They let me know that I was going to go all the way down to the very end and perhaps not make it.

We all hoped and assumed that Alycia with a Y would be coming back to play Alicia with an I, so when did that all come together?

Well, that was the showrunners’ dream, and they had no way of knowing because Alycia was gone. She was on to other things. She had run her course with Fear and her character. So they had pitched it to her like, "We just want you back for one scene," and she goes like, "well, lose my number for a little while and then we'll see." So as it got closer, they were like, "Kim and Colman, can you guys call her?"

And so Colman called her first, and honestly, she wanted to do it with us because she felt like we did: We'd started this thing together and it felt right to really finish it for ourselves, for the story, and certainly for the fans. It's just something she really wanted to do and she came back, and we had the best five days together that we could possibly have and it was wild. We've all grown so much and been through so much, and when we say the word Fear family, I mean, it really is a family now.

What was it like getting to work with her again?

It was just like riding a bike. She's my kid. She's my friend, just someone who has my heart. We've been in it since the very beginning. I've seen her mature. She was a mature 21-year-old — an elegant, graceful, talented young woman, and I've just seen her grow into even more of herself. So it just brings tears to my eyes. I'm so fond of her and we had such a great time together and we laughed and we all went to dinner together and hijinks ensued. So yeah, it was really rewarding. It was a really great way and it felt right to all of us to end it like that.

What was your final day on set like? Tell me about wrapping on the series.

I think I was the last scene. I think I wrapped the series. It was the slow-motion stuff of me with the flare leading them in the exteriors, and that's the way we finished it. And it was amazing. It's just the right way to go out. It's the way I went out in season 4.

We were all huddled around. It was a night shoot in March. And we're out near the river there and [director] Mikey Satrazemis starts giving this speech. And I just start crying. And then I start speaking and I'm like, "This is only the second time I've cried in this series. And the first time was just the other day when I wasn't getting my turnaround." It took that long to break me for a tough show, but it really meant a lot. And I really appreciate Ian and Andrew having the idea and the courage to bring me back.

Well, they killed you off back in season 4. A lot of fans weren’t happy about it. I know you weren’t exactly thrilled about it. So does coming back for this final season change your outlook on the entire Fear experience that you had over the past eight-plus years?

It does. In any job we do, you show up and you give it your all and your heart and your soul and your blood, sweat and tears, your laughter. You’re part of a crew and it is truly about the journey together more than it is about the result. And if you're lucky, you show up on these jobs and you come out of them changed. And I think these eight years — if you even count the time when I was off — I was a female lead on an action genre at 50 years old. And I was then fired from it, and I lost that job. So I had to go through loss. And I went on, letting go, and I went on and did other things. And it would always kind of sting sometimes, but I was like, “Whatever.’

Colman was the liaison to me. They asked me if they could reach out and I said, "Sure, I'll listen to them." And we were on Zoom during the pandemic and I just listened and they were gracious that I even took the call because we've never spoke. I mean Ian, Andrew and I did not know each other. They were put on the show for season four as we were finishing season 3 with Dave Erickson in Mexico. And I didn't talk to them or anything until it was time to have your season meeting right before shooting. So they didn't know me, we didn't know each other, and they'd made a creative decision and I had to deal with it.

So when I took the Zoom, we still didn't know each other and they just were gracious and grateful that I took the call and they pitched me their idea, and I didn't have something lined up after the pandemic. So we worked out the logistics of it, and I liked their idea. And for myself — look, my happiness is not paved with resentment. It's just not.

I've worked through so much. And I didn't know what it was going to be like to work with them, but I just said, "Look, this is a different show now." I liked their ideas. I'm going to stand up for myself throughout the process. And I showed up and there were a lot of new characters and it's just a different show and they were great. They were super on my side. They were super grateful to me for all the hard work I gave it. And they collaborated with me. We shared ideas. A lot of my ideas made it in there. They pivoted. It ended up being a great experience and I have fondness for them now. And that was just part of my journey.

I know how close you and Colman are. Tell me about getting to work with him again in the back half of this season and filming your final scene together.

What a nightmare. [Laughs] No, we were so excited that we got to be together again. We've remained friends and we would go to dinner and do laundry together and run lines at my apartment. And it was just like old times. It was great to be able to work together again. I didn't know how I was going to get through those first scenes when I'm having to stand across from him speaking German. But we did it. We got enough to get the takes.

It was not lost on us, everything that it meant, those last few scenes together. When Colman met me and he came onto Fear in that first season, he'd never really done television as a regular. And look at him now! This started things for him. It helped build him as a performer and put him out there so people could see what he could do.

We're going to be friends forever. I feel that way. And sometimes in the scenes, I would just be watching him perform and then I'd forget my line 'cause I'd watch his character. He's like, "It's your line, Kim." We had so much fun, but the last scene we kind of have to break up.

What was your reaction when they told you that they were not only bringing you back from the dead, but bringing Daniel Sharman as Troy back from the dead as well?

I was like, "I don't know guys. That was a pretty solid kill. Play the tape. That's a solid kill." But yeah, we all love Daniel Sharman and hated to see him go back then, so I was like, "Yes, absolutely. Bring him back. Let's do this." I thought it was a great idea.

I actually gasped in that finale when he's sitting there pouring his heart out to you and you stab him in the chest. What did you make of that scene and how was that to film, because that's about as dark as it gets?

Yeah, that scene we're all outside by a swampy area, and we shot it all day and it was so much screaming and death and blood. And at one point he has to cough up the blood, and he spits it all over over my face. [Laughs] It's hilarious, but it was a hard day. It was one of the days where we all slept funny. We all had tough sleeps that night. It was one of those days that sort of rattled you. And a lot of people said the next day "Wow, that was tough.” That was a brutal day with the emotions of the scenes and what was happening. It was primal stuff. And so maybe that's why you gasped. We all felt it too.

How important was it to you in terms of where the character ultimately ended up when the final credits rolled and the kind of send-off she would get?

It was important. I can't say that I had an idea what it should be, but what they originally pitched in the end, I loved. I thought it was the right thing to have her survive, but I didn't really have a strong opinion about it how or to what way. Had I been on the show still with Dave Erickson, I was always suspicious what was going to happen when he was a showrunner. I kind of thought either Nick was going to kill me, or I was going to kill Nick.

I thought that because that was the relationship that was mixed everything up. But going forward, because I didn't really know what the show was, I didn't know how it should be, but I loved their idea, which was to send us back on the journey home and living as a legacy and being reunited with my daughter, I just thought, yeah, it feels good. It feels right.

What do you think happens to them after the cameras turn off? Do you think they get to L.A.?

That's the way the guys originally pitched it. The last half of the season was going to be a road trip and then we were going to be pulling into East L.A. And that's when we were going to go to black. I think they wanted to try to get the high school. It was such an iconic piece when it started in Los Angeles. Obviously, it foreshadowed a lot of stuff we were really going to go through in some ways, but it was such an iconic, unusual thing to start the piece like that in L.A. And for me, I think it would be satisfying to go back to an apocalyptic Los Angeles at that point. It's like the way they've gone in Dead City into the urban areas, and even to France. We didn't see the full apocalypse in Los Angeles, and I think that would be fascinating. It felt right to me.

Well, there are all these other Walking Dead shows still out there, and we've seen characters get their own shows or we've seen characters crossover from series to series. So how would you feel about Madison continuing this journey or showing up on one of those other series?

Oh my God, I spent so much time letting go. It almost feels like the last half was Madison's spinoff in a way because they brought her back to tell her story. But this is a character that I love and this is a franchise that I love. And I love doing the work of it. I don't think it's for everybody, and I didn't even know it was going to be for me, but I love the action. I love how we've been challenged every season. I love the stakes of it — the high stakes of it are a great challenge to play as an artist.

And so I'd always entertain it. I don't know that it's over, but I certainly don't know of anything else that's happening with it. I think as far as we do know, it's over. But I’ve got Madison in my heart, so, have leather jacket, will travel.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Fear the Walking Dead series finale ending is like storming a castle

• How Fear the Walking Dead get a 'karmically correct' series finale

• Lennie James addresses possible Morgan and Rick Walking Dead reunion

• Fear the Walking Dead showrunners explain that big flashback twist

• Fear the Walking Dead just aired its most shocking scene ever

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.