Fear the Walking Dead recently took viewers on a nostalgic journey back to its first season, illuminating the fates of two characters who had disappeared from our screens: Jenny and Duane Jones. The show’s eighth season revisits King County, Georgia, where it all began for Rick Grimes, and fills in a decade-long narrative gap reported by Screen Rant.
Jenny and Duane Jones, wife and son to Morgan, were central figures during the show’s genesis. Jenny, already in her undead state when we met her, was intriguing due to her unusual behavior among the zombie population. She was often seen lingering near Morgan and Duane, attempting to open doors, habits that were out of character for zombies within Robert Kirkman’s live-action universe.
Fear The Walking Dead suggests that Jenny was one of the zombie variants introduced in later seasons, thus explaining why her behavior stood out. During the first season of Walking Dead, the show was still establishing the ‘zombie rules’. However, as the show progresses many seasons later, the notion of smarter zombies would slowly and quietly fade. This would only come back in season 11 of Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
A Decade-Long Question Finally Answered
Duane, Morgan’s son, had a tragic fate. He was bitten by his zombified mother, Jenny. However, Fear The Walking Dead reveals that Morgan was unable to bring himself to kill his son after he turned, resulting in Duane spending a decade as a chained zombie in an attic, a heartbreaking revelation. This confirmation dispels a persistent theory that Duane might have survived, a theory fueled by the show’s tendency to resurrect characters presumed dead. Sadly, Duane’s fate was sealed, and Morgan finally laid his son to rest alongside Jenny.
Walking Dead Season 3’s “Clear” episode showed Morgan unable to put down Jenny and in the end, paying a high price of getting Duane bitten by his own mother. That was the only point Morgan finally shoots her. FTW Season 8, episode 4 confirms what happened to Jenny’s body. It was exactly where Morgan left her dead. The lifeless body of the wife was never buried and put to proper rest.
A poignant moment sees Morgan finally giving her a proper send-off, righting a long-standing wrong. The episode provided closure to some of The Walking Dead’s earliest narratives while also serving as a solemn reminder of the harrowing emotional turmoil that its characters endure in their struggle for survival.
Meanwhile, Fear the Walking Dead will also serve as the final sendoff for Morgan, according to actor Lennie James.
“This is it for me. He’s been around long enough,” James told CBR. “For me to pick up the stick again, it would have to be an amazing storyline. It would have to be a situation where I couldn’t look back on all the episodes that I’ve done so far and go, ‘No, I did that in episode such and such in season such and such.’ I’m not interested in repeating myself with Morgan at the moment. I think it would kind of slightly tarnish his legacy.”
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
