Fear the Walking Dead showrunners promise 'unconventional' season finale

The missile is in the air. So what's next? The penultimate episode of Fear the Walking Dead's sixth season ended with cult leader Teddy launching the warhead packed missile into the sky, with detonation now imminent. So what does that mean for our heroes who failed in their quest to stop the launch from happening and are now awaiting impact?

That's just one of the big questions heading into Sunday's season finale on AMC. Will there be fallout from Strand's attempt to sacrifice Morgan so he could be the hero saving the day? What's Alicia up to in that bunker Teddy locked her up in so she could survive and be the leader in his post-post-apocalyptic landscape? And will the finale wrap up the season 6 storyline, set the table for season 7, or both? We turned our launch keys at exactly the same time to fire some burning questions at showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg heading into the big finale.

ENTRTAINMENT WEEKLY: We ended season 6's penultimate episode with a missile in the air and 10 warheads on it. Where is that missile headed?

ANDREW CHAMBLISS: That missile is headed for Texas. It is designed to spread those warheads, to create kind of maximum impact on the area that our characters are. So even though it's one missile, the kind of payload that is on it could potentially do a whole lot of destruction to the landscape that our characters have lived in for this past season.

So, what does that mean in terms of our characters in this finale? This isn't necessarily the type of thing where you've got a bunch of bad guys coming and you can gear up for the big fight, and you can get ready, and you can prepare yourself. The missile in the air, so when we pick things up, what are they going to be doing? What's the plan?

IAN GOLDBERG: I can't spoil the whole episode. Those are great questions. We will answer all of them in the finale.

What is everyone's attitude when things first pick back up? Is it just resignation or is it more "We have to figure out something out!"?

GOLDBERG: I would say some characters might feel one way, some might approach it another way. Honestly, Lennie James in an interview talked about this episode as taking place over a held breath. And I think that's a really accurate way to describe it. I think we'll see that all the questions you're asking about: What do you do in the face of utter destruction and the end of everything, is something that the characters will be wrestling with in very different ways as we'll see in the finale.

So how does that impact Strand and Morgan? Because Morgan said in this episode, "We'll deal with this later, let's get to the weapons room." Strand left Morgan for walker chum. So, I don't know if that's sort of now backburnered a little bit with the missile in the air, but what are we going to see between those two guys?

CHAMBLISS: We definitely will be dealing with the fallout from what went down between Morgan and Strand. And I think that's really all I can say with that without giving away too much.

But we will be dealing with the fallout. It will be something that obviously is going to in one way or another play out in this episode?

CHAMBLISS: Yes, and perhaps beyond.

Alicia is locked up in that bunker. We didn't see her this past week. What can you say about Alicia heading into the finale, now with the missiles in the air?

GOLDBERG: I can say very little. Other than she's in a unique position, because she was locked in a place that was meant to withstand an event like this happening. That was by design for Teddy. He wanted her to survive if he was successful in launching this missile. So, we'll see.

Is it possible more people could end up in that bunker?

GOLDBERG: Anything's possible.

It seems like a pretty sweet place to be holed up right about now. All right, clearly you guys are not going to tell me how this season ends, but what are we looking at in terms of when all is said and done with season 6? Are we looking at a cliffhanger situation with this finale? Will it be wrapping up the season 6 arc? Will it be setting the table for season 7? Maybe a little bit of both? What can we expect in terms of that?

CHAMBLISS: I think it really is all of the above. The thing that excited us about the finale is we had this season where we really tried to tell these anthology stories that focused on individual characters in each episode, and give each character an arc within that episode. And then, a larger arc that crosses the season. So when we were looking at the finale and how we wanted to tell this story, we decided to do something a little bit unconventional that honors the anthology format in a different way.

And that's as much as I'll say about that, but it very much is about giving all of the characters closure to their stories from season 6, while at the same time really pivoting them towards their journeys for season 7.

GOLDBERG: Five words: The end is the beginning.

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