She may only be a child, but Fear the Walking Dead has previously proven that nobody is immune to retribution, not even Charlie.
Children in The Walking Dead universe have to grow up quickly in order to survive. On the one hand, children’s minds are still developing, so they should be able to adapt to change better than adults. Unfortunately, this underdevelopment also means children’s minds are too emotionally immature to handle traumatic events. When faced with something horrific and beyond their comprehension, each child reacts differently.
Faced with so much violence on a daily basis, would it be surprising that a child develops a propensity for the same violence? And should they be punished for acting in a way they’ve learned from observation? Perhaps the right solution is to try to teach them a different way. They are kids after all, and they’re quite impressionable. There’s no clear answer, and both shows provide different solutions.
The current problematic child is Charlie on Fear the Walking Dead. First introduced as a sweet, innocent little girl whose family she watched burn to death, she’s welcomed to Madison’s group with open arms. It turns out she’s actually a spy for a group who’s trying to take our group down. If that isn’t enough, she also kills Nick in retaliation of him killing Ennis.
She’s a young girl, and already has a human kill to her name. Does this adult action deserve adult consequences? According to The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, violent actions from children warrant death.
On Fear, Chris loses his humanity. He becomes too trigger-happy, and it results in his death. On the parent show, Lizzie loses her grip even more than Chris, possibly because she’s younger. She believes walkers deserve to live, she tries to kill a baby, and she kills her sister. Apparently there’s no redemption for murderous children on that show because Carol kills her. Attempted murder doesn’t fly either, as evidenced by Ron trying to kill Carl, and dying by a horde of walkers.
Despite both Lizzie and Charlie being children who have killed people, their reactions to those murders is vastly different. Unlike Lizzie, Charlie seems to have some grasp on the gravity of what she’s done. Lizzie didn’t understand how her actions were wrong, and perhaps the ordeals she suffered and witnessed truly broke her moral compass.
Related: 7 children from (Fear) The Walking Dead you wish had been grounded
With Charlie, though, she clearly feels guilt over her actions. Since joining Alicia and Morgan’s segmented group, Charlie has attempted to let the infected take her on multiple occasions. Unsuccessful, she acquires a gun with the intent of ending it herself. Unable to do so, she goes so far as to ask Alicia to do it for her.
Whether this guilt has been instigated by her own conscience or the blame placed on her from Alicia is irrelevant. The fact that she feels remorseful is enough to indicate there’s humanity left in her. That said, if she’s old enough to understand that what she did is wrong, doesn’t that mean she should also be held accountable?
In the pre-apocalyptic world, one murder is still murder, it’s not a three strikes and you’re out deal. Even in the post-apocalyptic world people have been killed for less. But without a government or penal institution, who’s to determine fair punishment? It becomes a matter of taking justice into individual hands.
In this case, Alicia is the judge, jury, and executioner. Not only is Alicia the only person in Charlie’s vicinity, she’s also the one who’s suffered most from Charlie’s actions. Fortunately for Charlie, Alicia ultimately lets her good nature take over and she not only lets Charlie live, she saves her life, too.
If the person who’s been wronged has deemed the accused should be spared, should that not be enough for everyone else? What about the reverse? If the wronged feels the accused should be punished by death, is their judgement final? What about Charlie? She’s just a kid, and kids make mistakes, right? Is murder just a mistake? Fear the Walking Dead is certainly presenting us with interesting questions that reveal more about ourselves than we’d probably care to admit.
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