The following contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 15, "Amina," which aired Sunday, May 29 on AMC.
Since Fear the Walking Dead's Alicia cut off her arm to save herself from turning into a walker, she's been plagued with weird hallucinations throughout Season 7. One of these hallucinations was the little girl in the gas mask -- who many viewers correctly predicted was actually a younger version of Alicia herself. While Season 7, Episode 15, "Amina," purported to answer that question, it also raised a whole bunch more.
The hallucinations have been Alicia's driving force for the latter half of Season 7, and created a bitter game of "Is it real? Is anything real on this show anymore?" These questions can't possibly be answered by anyone other than the writers, because the show leaves things so vague and up in the air that it's impossible to analyze the substance. The end of "Amina" didn't make clear that it was Alycia Debnam-Carey's final episode, as it ended on a note of Alicia seemingly returning. Viewers had to tune into the "Episode Insider" following the hour to find out what really happened.
The one thing the show did answer was the little girl in a mask mystery, which in hindsight, wasn't that important of an answer because it confirmed everything fans already knew. ScreenRant predicted a while back that the gas mask girl was Alicia herself, especially after Paul helped Alicia realize zombified Senator Vasquez was her inner voice in the midseason premiere. Alicia even went on to claim herself as Padre, being the one to lead people all to safety -- even though she later discarded this declaration after asserting multiple times that Padre might still be out there.
In "Amina," Alicia was determined to save the little girl from the Tower fallout, while the girl said she needed to save her friend. Everyone around her knew it was just a hallucination, but if there's anything viewers learned from Luciana manipulating Daniel's fragile mind, everybody in this world has given up on snapping people back into reality. Everyone helped Alicia back to the burning Tower, and even left her there knowing the little girl does not exist. This must be said: everyone in this show would be terrible to survive an apocalypse with.
Fear the Walking Dead confirmed that the little girl wanted to help Strand, who was still in the Tower. The girl then revealed herself as a younger Alicia, the part of her that Madison wanted Alicia to be -- someone who still believed in the goodness of people and helping them. It seemed more like what Morgan wants Alicia to be, considering Madison was well on her way to villainhood many seasons ago, but sure, it works for the emotion of it all.
Strand and Alicia made it out of the Tower and despite Strand's pleas, Alicia begged everyone to leave her so she could go "help more people." All alone in this radiated wasteland while others drift away to freedom and safety, Alicia had another fainting spell. Again -- these people would be terrible to survive with. But by the miraculous healing powers of Alicia's inner child, Alicia woke up to seem... cured? The color in her skin and lips was back, she no longer had dark circles around her eyes and she wasn't sweating, so it seemed Alicia just needed a good nap to cure her months-long infection.
Older Alicia and younger Alicia said their goodbyes, with older Alicia saying she feels more like herself than she has in a long time. Alicia set off to live her final days helping people who heard her message (again, what people?), and the two parted ways. It was strange for Alycia Debnam-Carey and her character to go out this way. Everyone thought Alicia would have a chance to reunite with Madison, but all she did was reunite with the part of herself that still wanted to help people. One can appreciate the sentiment of what Fear the Walking Dead is trying to say about Alicia's development throughout the series, but it feels cliché to use a hallucinated younger self to get the message across.
The Season 7 finale of Fear the Walking Dead airs Sunday, June 5 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and will be available to stream a week early on AMC+.
