Althea (character)

Althea Szewczek-Przygocki is a fictional character and a protagonist in the fourth and fifth season of the television series Fear the Walking Dead portrayed by Maggie Grace. The character was created by Robert Kirkman, Andrew Chambliss and Ian B. Goldberg. Althea is a curious and tactical journalist who encounters Morgan and John on the road through Virginia.

Season 4
Morgan and John are sleeping the night in John's truck, but later that night Morgan leaves and is captured by a man named Leland and a small group of survivors. John comes to save Morgan but is captured himself; they are saved by Althea, who drives a SWAT vehicle. Althea tells Morgan and John that she is a journalist and wants to get their stories on camera. The following morning, John tells Althea that he is on a mission to find his girlfriend, Laura. When Althea asks for Morgan's story, he refuses and decides to leave and return to going on his own. John catches up to him to give him new pairs of socks, but Morgan and John realize they're being ambushed. They are then held at gunpoint by Leland and his men (along with Althea). Morgan uses his spear to attack, giving John time to shoot back. A quick gunfight ensues, and Morgan is shot in the leg by one of Leland's men. After a brief fight, they fall and the man starts getting devoured by walkers until Morgan grabs a grenade from a walker and throws it at the walkers. He runs to the bathroom for cover as the explosion kills the walkers and the man. Outside, John is dealing with the walkers, while Althea and Leland are fighting over the keys to the SWAT vehicle. Althea throws a set of keys and Leland, believing they're the keys to the SWAT vehicle, goes after them and is bitten by a rattlesnake. He is eventually surrounded and set upon by the walker herd. Althea uses machine guns in the SWAT vehicle to shoot the walkers as Morgan and John duck for cover. Along the way, the group stops their vehicle when they see a woman crawling on the ground, who turns out to be Alicia. Morgan, John and Althea are then surrounded at gunpoint by Nick, Strand and Luciana. Luciana finds a flag marked "51" in Althea's SWAT truck, and Alicia orders them to take them to where they found the flag. The SWAT vehicle swerves off the road and crashes after a commotion inside the vehicle between the two groups. Nick spots the blue El Camino and chases after it. The others find a service station which has a truck with wire cable, that they can use to tow the SWAT vehicle from the mud. Returning to the SWAT truck, they fight off various infected and successfully tow it. Nick finds Ennis at a farm and they fight inside a silo. Nick impales Ennis on a deer antler display, killing him. Nick is then shot by Charlie. The rest of the group arrives, where they try to revive him, but he dies. Alicia sobs and is left devastated.

Season 5
While the group tries to find a man named Logan, their plane suddenly crashes, which leaves Luciana severely wounded. After leaving the crashed aircraft, Althea tries to record the events on her camera. Al investigates a strange walker wearing body armor, only to be captured by more of the man's group. While traveling with the woman who captured her, Isabelle, Al learns more about the mysterious "Helicopter Group". Per a promise she made to Isabelle, Al lies to them about her experiences when she rejoins the group and reveals to them her last name, finally revealing a personal detail about herself.

Development and reception
Althea is portrayed by Maggie Grace. Grace has compared Althea to her Lost character Shannon Rutherford, saying; ""I don't think Althea would really tolerate five minutes in Shannon's presence," "She might knock her out. Nothing good would come of that pairing!", "They do feel similar in terms of a strong ensemble in a rough environment," "Similarly, there's some really elevated genre moments with really grounded characters so I would say that there are definitely moments that feel similar in that way. I would just give all the credit to Damon [Lindelof] and JJ [Abrams] on LOST for making really bold choices with novelized TV. That kind of storytelling hadn't been done very much in television."