In Louisiana, Morgan goes in pursuit of Mo when she is kidnapped - by Madison Clark.
- Beneath the Mask: Madison crows the entire episode how it’s no trouble to separate a child from their parent and even claims that she doesn’t want to find her kids. But when Morgan tells her Nick and Alicia are dead, she completely breaks down and grieves for them.
- Bittersweet Ending: The group has escaped the nuclear wasteland of Texas, but now the supposed safe zone of PADRE is revealed to be a new group of antagonists who kidnap children for an unknown reason. Madison has returned and is an ally again, but she and Morgan face an uphill battle to rescue Mo from them. Furthermore, the group is all separated from Morgan and it’s clear that if their rafts happen upon PADRE, they will be in no condition to fight back.
- Bottle Episode: Another one, mostly about Morgan and Madison.
- The Bus Came Back: Madison Clark makes her grand return to the series after roughly three seasons.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Ava makes the sobering point that Madison wouldn’t remember any specific children she’s kidnapped, she’s kidnapped so many.
- Cliffhanger: The season ends with the rest of the group still adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, and with Morgan and Madison on their way to PADRE to try to rescue Mo and potentially bring it down from within.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Morgan realizes who Madison is, he mentions how she supposedly died in the fire at the dam.
- Morgan says he saw a mother lose her baby once before, referring to Grace’s Tragic Stillbirth.
- Dramatic Irony: Morgan claims Nick and Alicia both died, but we know Alicia ultimately survived her infection from the previous episode. They end up suggesting that she could still be alive since Morgan didn’t witness her death.
- Evil All Along: The long-fabled PADRE turns out to be kidnapping children from their parents due to believing they can take better care of them.
- Exact Words: Morgan only told Madison he’d tell her what happened to her kids. He never clarified if they were dead or alive despite Madison’s fury upon learning they both supposedly died.
- Good All Along: Downplayed. The masked group who accost Morgan in the intro appear to be antagonists, but it eventually becomes clear they just want to get back the children Madison and PADRE stole from them. They’re still dangerous people who warn Morgan not to cross their paths.
- Heroic BSoD: Morgan is shaken to see Ava among the walkers and gets overrun and nearly bitten by her.
- History Repeats: Once again, Morgan ends a season separated from most of not all of his allies who are left to fend for themselves.
- Face–Heel Turn: Madison returns but as an antagonist to Morgan.
- Ironic Echo: Morgan throws Madison’s taunt that she promised a deal with him to get what she wanted right back in her face when he claims her children are both dead, despite earlier acting like they were alive.
- Laser-Guided Karma: All the children Madison kidnapped bought her the cruel revelation that her children are (supposedly) both dead.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Madison is ashamed of kidnapping children in service of PADRE and that’s why she boasted she didn’t want to find Nick and Alicia, ashamed of what she’d been doing to try to get PADRE to find them.
- Papa Wolf: Morgan makes it abundantly clear Madison screwed up stealing Mo from him.
- Real After All: PADRE is finally confirmed to be real after a season of build-up.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Madison and PADRE kidnap children due to having the resources to provide for them, and refuse to allow the children to grow up with their parents.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Ava joins this season’s pile of one-episode characters.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: As of this season finale, Mickey’s whereabouts remain unknown, said whereabouts having last been properly mentioned in “PADRE”.
