The Two Walking Dead Deaths You Never Realized Happened At The Same Time
At first blush, The Walking Dead spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead may sound like it has more or less the same premise as the original. But there are a few key differences. The spin-off is set in the west coast of the United States (or, at least it was in the early seasons); it follows a distinctly different cast of characters; and, most importantly, it starts its run significantly earlier in the timeline of the Walking Dead universe.
Fans of the franchise know that when episode 1 of The Walking Dead begins, the walkers have already taken over the world. On the other hand, Fear the Walking Dead depicts the very beginning of the outbreak, and follows the characters as they come to grips with their crumbling world and then learn to survive in it. Because of this, the early seasons of Fear the Walking Dead actually take place before the action of The Walking Dead even began. When the shows do begin to overlap, though, it's possible to compare the timelines and find fun correlations between the events in each.
To that end, one fan on Reddit recently crunched some numbers and realized that two emotional character deaths – one from each series — happened not just on the same day, but also right around the same time of day. Amy (Emma Bell) and Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) have little in common, but they do share the distinction of meeting their unfortunate ends at the same point in the Walking Dead timeline.
Breaking down the timeline similarities between Amy and Ofelia's deaths
In a Reddit thread titled "I found out about 2 characters that died at the same time," user u/Interesting-Bar-9835 broke down the coincidence they discovered when they took a look at the timeline overlaps between both Walking Dead shows.
First, they laid out how Ofelia died tragically after being bitten when a horde of walkers overtook Broke Jaw Ranch in the Fear the Walking Dead season 3 episode "El Matedoro." They then noted, "This is 3 days before the dam blew up so it's day 61 [after the outbreak]." With that settled, they continued: "What else happened on day 61? TWD season 1 episode 4. This was the day Rick, Glenn, and Daryl went to Atlanta to find Merle and the bag of guns, which is the night the group had a fish fry and the camp was over run, resulting in Amy getting bit and dying in Andrea's arms."
Longtime fans of The Walking Dead will remember Amy's death as a truly shocking season 1 moment. Amy was a vibrant member of the original group the series followed, and her unexpected and sudden death was one of the first moments when it became very clear that no character was safe. Her death, like Ofelia's, was also extremely emotional. She died in her sister Andrea's (Laurie Holden) arms, the same way that Ofelia died as her father Daniel (Rubén Blades) held her.
To make the coincidence even more palpable, u/Interesting-Bar-9835 pointed out, "The fish fry happened around 11-12 at night, so in Mexicali, which is where Ofelia died at the trading post, it's roughly 8-9 PM. So basically around the same time, Ofelia died in Daniel's arms and Amy died in Andrea's arms."
Why some fans now have more respect for the Fear the Walking Dead characters
If you're wondering exactly how u/Interesting-Bar-9835 managed to reach this conclusion, you're not alone. Commenters on the thread were intrigued by the factoid, but a few had questions about exactly how the Redditor managed to calculate the timelines so precisely. Thankfully, there's a relatively simple answer to it all.
In a follow-up post, u/Interesting-Bar-9835 broke down how they reached their conclusion: "We know Rick woke up from the hospital on day 59, which means the last episodes of season 1 [take place on] day 64. The FTWD writers confirmed the last episode of season 3 was also day 64. If you go back 3 days on both shows, it brings you to TWD 1x4 and FTWD 3x14, both day 61."
For many, this perspective shift made them re-evaluate the characters on both shows. User u/filipinonotachino wrote, "Wow that's wild, our characters in FTWD were basically seasoned survivors by then, while the Atlanta group still didn't know how people turned." That was not lost on u/Interesting-Bar-9835, who replied, "Yeah, and when [Fear the Walking Dead] first released everyone was making memes and jokes about how these guys were such noobs compared to the characters on TWD. BUT in reality, RICK WAS STILL IN A DAMN COMA LOL."
The west coast may be a few hours behind the east coast, but apparently, when it comes to apocalypse survival, they are several months ahead of the curve. You can further compare and contrast by tuning into The Walking Dead, which is currently airing season 10C, and Fear the Walking Dead, which returns April 11.