[S3 Spoilers] Future Spec: The Ranch is Villain Alexandria.

Looking ahead at 3B and beyond, there are a few possibilities for how the plot would get the Clarks off this ranch and onto what would conceivably be the next bit of plot. But... there's also a lot of plot that could come to the ranch and a ton of story to be mined by sticking in this area. There's the inevitable alliance with Walker's group, perhaps not just for resources but against a common enemy. There's the fact that Strand and Salazar are now wandering around, each with their own storylines, and could encounter people who then have plot connections to the ranch, leading the characters back together. The question then becomes what happens in the long term. If 3B is basically Walker alliance, Salazar reunion, Strand at the ranch, then what happens in S4? What if, unlike TWD, which always found a reason for the characters to go back on the move until Alexandria, FTWD gives the characters their Alexandria early... and for a purpose that ties into a common fan theory about this group of characters.

What if the ranch is a kind of villain Alexandria-- it becomes the central location of the series and plot surrounds protecting it at all costs? We've already seen how personal a quest this is for Madison and now Nick seems to be beginning to feel the same. The ranch already represents for these characters what Alexandria represents for TWD characters and they've spent a whole half-season building the backstory for that representation. This doesn't feel like an arc on the farm where we pick up some characters before moving on-- it feels like the FTWD family just met the anti-Deanna and found their home. For this to happen fairly early on makes me wonder if we are looking at a situation where these characters will come to do more and more reprehensible things to keep their home-- and build it. An alliance with Walker's group is only the start. What if Madison gets it in her head to basically empire build and the ranch develops Saviors-level resources over time?

It's worth noting that while the Clarks settle into this ranch, all past ties to a sense of home are destroyed along the way. The vineyard goes up in flames, the hotel is abandoned, and then, right in parallel to Madison negotiating with Walker to keep the ranch, Strand finds the Abigail again. It was good to be home but home was broken and so he burned it down, saying goodbye to his husband and starting anew, just as Madison's obsession with the ranch is 150% about Travis. With no homes left to go back to, the ranch is all the Clarks have and the Clarks are basically all Strand has, which will hit him hard when he next encounters them. That, plus the Salazars in shouting distance, means the story could well stay here permanently, with the plot coming to the characters, instead of them going out searching for it.

Submitted July 30, 2017 at 05:13PM by maryssmith http://ift.tt/2vW4GMq