Fans of Fear the Walking Dead have been hearing the term PADRE since season 7 of the series. The term was first used as an acronym P.A.D.R.E. as a classified location set up by the United States government thought to contain supplies and instructions on how to rebuild after a catastrophe. But since then, it appears that someone has taken on the moniker Padre and is running the child abduction ring that the survivors now find themselves a part of in season 8.
Perhaps at one time, PADRE was established to assist citizens of the US in rebuilding, but like many things during an apocalypse, have been twisted by someone on a power trip. Now, seven years after the events of season 7, the survivors have relinquished their children to Padre and working on the island to be near their children.
What hold does Padre have over people like Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) to make them consider giving up the child they longed to have? Morgan (Lennie James) and Grace’s (Karen David) child had already been abducted, so their involvement is understandable.
This article contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead season 8, episode 3, “Odessa.”
Fear the Walking Dead – Padre
There have been wild theories out there about who Padre could be, including Fear TWD characters, Strand (Colman Domingo), Troy (Daniel Sharman), Tobias ( Lincoln A. Castellanos), the US President, someone from the CRM, or even Heath (Corey Hawkins) from The Walking Dead.
In the third episode of season 8 “Odessa” it was finally revealed who Padre is. It was quite the twist and somewhat of of Wizard of Oz reveal to find out that the voice of Padre is Shrike’s (Maya Eshet) brother Crane (Daniel Rashid), who isn’t nearly as scary as the old speaker system makes him sound.
The siblings experienced severe trauma when the watched their father, a military man in charge of things at the original PADRE, torn to bits by a horde of walkers. This experience was so traumatic they decided to twist the mission of the organization and began abducting children so they never have to experience “the worst pain of all: the pain of losing a parent.” This is why they are so set on the radiation treatment to stop the spread of the walker bite infections.
Now, Shrike want to head back to PADRE where a shipyard full of containers filled with supplies lays in wait, protected by a horde of walkers. She believes they trained the children for a reason and now is the time to for the children to show what they have learned.
Fear the Walking Dead premieres new episodes on AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET and AMC+ three days early on Thursdays.
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