WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 15, “USS Pennsylvania,” which aired Sunday on AMC.
Fear the Walking Dead‘s “USS Pennsylvania” sees Morgan and the protagonists face off against Teddy while aboard the beached submarine housing nuclear missiles. Despite a valiant effort, part of Teddy’s nefarious plan succeeds. Riley uses his key — in conjunction with Teddy’s matching one — to boot up the launching system. Teddy sets off one of the missiles while Riley eerily reminds Morgan that it was all “inevitable.” Now, the Fear the Walking Dead heroes must contend with something far greater than zombies. The fallout may force them into hiding, perhaps indicating the start of a massive time jump chief content officer Scott Gimple promised in Season 6.
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In the prior episode, “Mother,” Teddy locked Alicia in a Cold War-era underground bunker capable of withstanding a nuclear blast. He also assured her it was stocked with enough supplies for shelterers to “never have to go topside again,” or at least until it’s time to “begin again.” Teddy’s twisted plan is to destroy everything — except Alicia — to rebuild a better world. It’s still unclear if anyone else is in the bunker with Alicia. If so, it seems Teddy may be enacting his own Adam and Eve-type scenario.
While most Fear the Walking Dead fans wished for the heroes to prevail, they didn’t. In “USS Pennsylvania,” Teddy gets off one missile. It’s slightly better than the original plan, which included a lot more. However, Riley informs Morgan and Strand that there are 10 warheads on the missile, each with a separate programmed location. Teddy and Riley refuse to give up the planned destinations, but Teddy hints they could land near the water or near the town Morgan built. This seems like a strong possibility, especially considering the circled locations they uncovered on Wes’ brother — one of Teddy’s cult members — in Episode 11, “The Holding.” Not to mention Teddy has been quite forward about his plans to destroy as much life as possible, especially people connected to Morgan.
The episode concludes with the missile launching, not landing. With only one episode left in Season 6, it’s likely the season finale will deal with the aftermath of the warheads’ devastation. Depending on where they hit, the protagonists’ lives may be immediately at stake. Even if they avoid the blast zones, they will have the fallout to contend with. While they have already dealt with residual radioactivity, a fresh blast presents a serious threat. As such, survivors may have to take shelter, marking the start of a possible time jump.
Scott Gimple previously teased that Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 contains timeline changes, saying, “Not only is there a time jump, but there might be time jumps.” Thus far, Season 6’s events occur over a period of weeks. The nuclear blast and the bunker’s bountiful supplies seem to suggest a time jump of years. Teddy’s flashback in “Mother” pinpoints the explosion about three years after the zombie outbreak that allowed him to escape death row. In Season 9 of The Walking Dead, after Rick Grimes’ departure, the timeline jumped six years. The Season 10 finale, “Here’s Negan,” now places TWD approximately 12 years into the apocalypse.
With that in mind, a time jump of five or seven years would put Fear the Walking Dead much closer to TWD. While Gimple gave no confirmation that the time jump would align the prequel series with its predecessor, it’s a possibility. As such, the missile may be the catalyst to blast Fear into the future.
Fear the Walking Dead stars Lennie James, Rubén Blades, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia, Maggie Grace, Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman, Alexa Nisenson, Karen David, Austin Amelio, Mo Collins, Zoe Colletti and Christine Evangelista. New episodes air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on AMC.
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