Interview: Danay Garcia talks Luciana in Fear TWD 4B

On Losing Madison

Garcia was very candid about how losing Kim Dickens’ Madison Clark and Frank Dillane’s Nick impacted the group. At the end of the first half of season 4 the surviving members of the group sat around a campfire in a motley crew of unlikely allies. “Everyone [who is left] recognizes what Madison’s legacy was. They each connect with each other through her mission. Even though they have nothing in common, somehow it works,” she says, adding that this group would “rather be here than in the middle of nowhere. They know what it’s like to be alone and so they stick together.”

It’s Madison’s legacy that will help guide the group’s direction moving forward. “Madison showed that the way can be better than what they have, and each person has a shot to be better than they were.”

The challenge with this group, Garcia said, is that there has been so much tension between them. Alicia was after Naomi/Laura/June, John took a bullet for Naomi, Charlie killed Nick and Luciana wanted to kill Charlie. But they all managed to sit at the same campfire in the mid-season finale. “They went from a group that wanted to kill each other to sitting at a campfire together.”

“The future won’t be easy for anyone, but they have earned the right to survive,” Garcia said of the surviving members. And in honoring the legacy of Madison and Nick, the two dearly departed original characters managed to preserve their niche in the future. “They didn’t die in vain because their losses were so profound for the group.” In that way, Madison and Nick will always be part of the show.