Fear The Walking Dead Theory: The Key

At the end of this week’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead, Morgan was forced to give Riley back the key he took from Emile at the beginning of the season. In the first half of the season, it was made quite clear that the key was very important to the Beginners, but it was never elaborated upon.

Then, for a while, the key sort of dropped off of the radar. Fear was more interested in finishing the story between Virginia and everyone else and pushed the Beginners (And, subsequently, the key) into the background for several episodes, which makes perfect sense. Since then, the Beginners have come blazing back into focus, along with their primary issue with Morgan: The key.

What does it do? What does it open? And, most importantly: What happens once whatever the key opens…is opened?

If I’m right: BIG trouble.

The cult’s gotten their key back, but, what happens next? If my latest Fear The Walking Dead Theory is right, it may be an even BIGGER threat than the dead.

Fear The Walking Dead Theory: The Beginners Are Planning A NUCLEAR ATTACK.

I know this seems kind of extreme, but, just hear me out.

First, before I do anything, I will acknowledge that, when we first learned about the key, I dismissed the idea of the Beginners using the key for the massive submarine we saw the first two members of the cult hanging around in the season premiere. The reason I dismissed that idea was considering the fact the submarine was beached, I figured the Beginners using it would have been pointless.

However, this was before we learned more about the group, their tactics, their methods, and confirmed their motivations. Having now learned those (As well as a few new details), I’m ready to admit I may have been hasty in dismissing the idea that the key was for the submarine. I jumped the gun, and that was wrong.

You see, looking over things from some earlier episodes this season on The Walking Dead Fandom pages, I stumbled upon the titles of the remaining episodes for this season of Fear, including the second-to-last episode, “USS Pennsylvania”. According to the wiki, the title refers to the name of the very submarine we saw at the beginning of the season.

Now, on its own…that doesn’t really mean much: It’s just the name of a ship that can’t get back into the water. Whoop-dee-do. But, in light of what we know the Beginners want, who they’re specifically out to destroy, and the lengths they’ve gone to try to achieve that, suddenly, the significance of the sub, and the Beginners’ interest in it, starts to come into focus.

Let’s start with the fact that we now know that The Beginners are a death cult: Wes’ brother, Derek, has already said “We need to start over. And we can’t do that till everyone and everything up there is gone“. If that isn’t the mark of a death cult, I don’t know what is.

Next, thanks to the revelation of Derek having stolen a collection of Civic Republic Military maps, we know the Beginners are not only aware of the Civic Republic, but also, that they are out to destroy them.

And, finally, we know that The Beginners have resorted to using biological warfare to try to achieve that goal of destroying the Civic Republic, specifically, filling Drop Site Baker with plague rats.

So, with all these things established, doesn’t it stand to reason that the Beginners, both for the purposes of destroying everything, and specifically to try to get rid of the CRM (Where their biological attack failed), they’d resort to an even more destructive weapon to do the job?

Of course, the next question would be: How would they get their hands on a nuclear weapon? To which I would reply: A nuclear submarine.

Now, for all we know, the submarine may not have an ICBM on it, but, we also don’t know if the Beginners know that. It’s entirely possible that they assume the sub does have nuclear weapons aboard and want access to the sub to get their hands on the arsenal they believe it has, we just don’t know yet, but considering their goals, their interest in the submarine and the fact submarines are the sort of vessels that could have nukes, leads me to believe that a nuclear attack is the Beginners’ ultimate plan.

Of course, there is one other thing that happened in this week’s episode that leads me to believe that a nuclear holocaust is the Beginners’ trump card: Grace survived, and not Athena.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, think about it from an out-of-story perspective: If the Beginners’ goal is a nuclear attack, the only character within any of our protagonist groups who might have the knowledge to prevent such an attack…is Grace. Grace worked in a nuclear power plant, so, if anyone can stop a nuclear weapon from being launched (At least out of Strand’s Pioneers, the Outcasts, or Morgan’s group, in any event), Grace is the person to do it. I think that part of the reason Grace lived was so that she could be the one to get everyone else out of whatever jam The Beginners may get them into with the submarine. If Grace had died instead of Athena, she couldn’t be there to stop whatever The Beginners are planning with the sub. I think the series needed Grace to survive for that purpose.

The Beginners are a death cult, plain and simple, and, after their most devastating attack had failed, and with such a large list of enemies to destroy over such a large area, I think they’ve chosen to up the ante with the most powerful weapons available, and see the U.S.S. Pennsylvania as their means of doing it.

But, what do you think the key will be used for? Do you think it’s for the submarine, and, if so, what do you think The Beginners plan to use it for? Do you think they’re planning a nuclear attack? Let me know! I’m curious! And, if you want to hear my theories on how to survive a zombie apocalypse in the real world, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also find it at Amazon here and on iTunes here!