‘Fear The Walking Dead’: Is It Alex Or Charlie On ‘Flight 462’?

For avid fans of Fear The Walking Dead, a possible error occurred in Episode 3 (entitled “Ouroboros”) of Season 2. Or is it really a mistake? Finally, after months of waiting, we found out just how Jake and Charlie from Flight 462 would meet up with the main cast of Fear. Except Charlie is now called Alex and fans are wondering if it was an error or intentional.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains information about Season 2 of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead and the miniseries attached to it, Flight 462. Please proceed with caution if you wish to avoid spoilers.

Ever since fans heard Fear The Walking Dead would get a miniseries spin off that would result in at least one character joining the cast of Fear, there has been speculation as to who it will be. The miniseries seemed to focus mainly around two young characters, Jake (Brenden Meyer), who had to leave his mother behind when he got on board Flight 462 and Charlie (Michelle Ang), a female character who seemed to know an awful lot about the infected. But something very strange has happened since Flight 462 hit the water, Charlie has been renamed Alex.

At the time of publishing this article, Alex is still listed as Charlie on IMDb and being referred to as Alex in most articles on Episode 3 of Fear The Walking Dead. The Fear The Walking Dead Wikia also lists her as Alex. Even the Walking Dead official comic website originally listed Michelle Ang’s character as Charlie. And both names are attributed to the one actress, so it is not like there has been a confusion over similar-looking actors.

So is Charlie just a filler name used for Alex on IMDb to confuse fans? After all, the show’s companion series, The Walking Dead, is known to do this in order to cover up potential upcoming story lines. However, Fear The Walking Dead is not like the companion series as it has no other literature to base the series on. The Walking Dead TV series finds its inspiration in the comics of the same name, and this is why character names are changed in casting calls and on cast lists because to reveal names from the comic books would also potentially reveal the direction in which the TV series was headed each season. Fear, while set in the Walking Dead universe, has no previously written backstory that would require name changes. Plus, why call the character Charlie in the miniseries and then change it to Alex for Fear?

Could Charlie be hiding something? Perhaps she assumed the name Alex for some, as yet, unknown reason? Considering just how much she seems to know about the infected, could she have assumed an identity in order to get herself on that plane and out of the Operation Cobalt area? After all, fans now know that Cobalt destroyed as much of L.A. as they could trying to contain the spread of the infected. So is Charlie/Alex somehow connected with the government? And just what is her obsession with keeping Jake alive now that he has been so horribly burned during the crash? Is she feeling guilt over something she has seen or done or knows in relation to Jake or his family? Or is it just the fact that she took Jake’s mother’s seat on Flight 462? Only time will tell it seems.

While many media outlets have just let the name discrepancy slide in relation to whether it is Charlie or Alex, Pajiba also wanted more concrete answers. Along with this, they pointed out, besides Alex’s name change, the fact that Flight 462 also seems to have a time frame issue — especially if the plane Nick (Frank Dillane) saw in distress back in Season 1 of Fear The Walking Dead is in fact Flight 462. While AMC have alluded to the fact that these two planes are one and the same, if this is the case, some weeks could have passed since Flight 462 went down. Although, Episode 3 did suggest that Jake and Alex/Charlie had been in the water for some time before they met up with the Fear characters.

What do you think: is Charlie just a typo or is there some other reason why AMC changed her name to Alex on Fear The Walking Dead? Let us know your thoughts and theories by commenting below.

Season 2 of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead returns next Sunday, May 1, with Episode 4, titled “Blood In The Streets,” at 9 p.m. ET. The official synopsis for Episode 4 is as follows.

“A family in distress boards the Abigail. Strand branches off and his past begins to emerge. Nick searches for an associate of Strand’s.”

[Image via AMC]