‘Fear the Walking Dead’s Tree-Writing Mystery Had a Surprising Resolution

Ever since Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) first discovered some mysterious words painted on a tree stating, “If you’re reading this, you’re still here,” all the back in the midseason premiere of Fear the Walking Dead that aired a week ago, fans have been wildly speculating. Specifically, they’ve predicted that the reason Alicia has become so obsessed with the writing is that the words were painted by Alicia’s believed-to-be-dead mother, Madison (Kim Dickens).

Well, we finally (look, it’s been a long week) found out who painted the words, and it’s fair to say it didn’t turn out how anyone thought.

Spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead “You’re Still Here” past this point.

Turns out, those words were painted by Wes (Colby Hollman), a former member of Logan’s (Matt Frewer) crew that Alicia and Strand (Colman Domingo) encounter on the road. Wes isn’t a nice guy, but he is a poetic one, prone to writing books in honor of his dead brother and painting aphorisms on trees. Part of Wes’ journey is to send Alicia on the opposite path… She’s been freezing up since slaughtering a herd of the undead a few episodes back, and needs to figure out what her path is, going forward.

By episode’s end she sees what Wes turning off his feelings has led to, and she repaints his trees. Instead of his slogan, she draws a bird flying upwards — most likely a phoenix rising from the ashes — and writes “No one’s gone until their gone” on the branches. As she states, “I’m not going to find what I’m looking for from anybody else,” so it’s time for her to own her own path forward.

Side-Note: between the trees and the boxes saying “take what you want,” this group sure does love writing on things, huh?

Side-Note 2: Kinda funny to have Alicia’s trees saying “No one,” because Alicia Keys had that hit song “No One.” I realize this is a stretch. I’m sorry.

In any case, does this mean that the fan theories Madison is secretly alive are incorrect? Yes, and no. We never saw her body after she shockingly — and controversially — died last season. So it’s always possible they could pull a Glenn (Steven Yeun) and explain how she made it out of an exploding, zombie filled stadium alive. But she’s not the one behind the painted trees, and there’s no indication she’s alive otherwise.

And with Alicia finally moving on thanks to Wes’ mourning of his dead brother mirroring Alicia’s mourning of her own, she doesn’t need Madison anymore, either.

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.