Christopher James Manawa is a fictional character in the first two seasons of the television series Fear the Walking Dead. Portrayed by Lorenzo James Henrie, he is the teenage son of Travis Manawa and Liza Ortiz. Christopher was shown to be a normal teenager before the apocalypse occurred, though he did appear to be extremely angered at his father for leaving and seemed to hold this against him for the rest of his life. Chris slowly adapted to the apocalypse in the beginning and retained his kind side, though after the death of his mother, he is shown to be even more angered and traumatized.
Character biography
At first, Chris seems to get along well with the Clarks, however, as the zombie apocalypse goes on, Chris's relationship with them worsens.
Season 1
, Madison Clark, and Travis Manawa choose to flee to the desert, and they want Alicia Clark, Liza Ortiz, and Chris to follow. The group returns to Madison's home to gather supplies. Chris’ bus is trapped in a traffic jam caused by a zombie shooting by the police. He films the event and joins in a protest against that and other recent fatal police shootings, when Travis and Liza meet up with him. A riot erupts after police shoot down another zombie, but the three Manawas find refuge with the Salazars in their gated barbershop-home. Travis tells Madison to take the kids to the desert without him; he will catch up. The group inside the barbershop remains trapped, while the riot outside intensifies. While a riot rages outside, a mob sets fire to the store adjoining the barbershop, forcing the Salazars and Manawas to flee. The group reaches Travis' truck and escapes, but not before Griselda is injured by a collapsing scaffold. Unable to reach a hospital, the group drives to Madison's house, where Nick, Madison, and Alicia temporarily flee. Nick leads Madison and Alicia to the Trans' house next door, where they take a shotgun. Travis arrives and is attacked by Mr. Dawson, who is shot and killed by Daniel Salazar. All three families decide to stay the night and evacuate in the morning. The next morning, as the Clarks and Manawas start driving away, the National Guard arrives and quarantines the block. While Travis says, "It's going to get better," Daniel laments that it's, "too late," as he watches a guardsman mark the neighboring house. Days after the National Guard quarantines the neighborhood into a Safe Zone, residents try to live normally. Tensions build under the military rule. Chris shows a video to Travis and Madison of a light signaling from the Dead Zone. Soldiers take Griselda and Nick to a hospital, but Nick's family protests his departure. Liza agrees to go to assist the medical team, despite not wanting to leave her son. Travis retreats to the roof and sees the signal from the Dead Zone. Seconds later, he sees and hears gunfire, followed by darkness. Chris is devastated that Liza left voluntarily to help at the hospital, but Travis promises to bring her back. Alicia and Chris get drunk in and vandalize the abandoned home of a wealthy family. After Nick and Strand was recused from the base, Strand brings the group to his house. Liza reveals to Madison that she had been bitten during the escape. Liza pleads with Madison and Travis to euthanize her before she turns. Travis promises to protect Chris before shooting Liza out of mercy.
Season 2
Shortly after the death of his mother that night, Chris along with his father, and Madison are on the beach due to the infected coming in while explosions are heard with the sky in orange. Chris kneels next Liza's corpse mourning her. Travis yells at Chris to go towards the water, but Chris says he's not leaving her, but as the infected starts coming towards them they go to the zodiac where Nick's at, Travis picks up Liza's corpse and Chris gets on the zodiac with the group and head towards Strand's yacht The Abigail reuniting with the rest of the group. Chris along with the group freeze in silence as they see from afar the military bombing Los Angeles, engulfing the cityin flames. The next morning, Chris is seen looking at his dead mother's corpse. He kisses her on the forehead and covers up the rest of her body. Chris goes fishing with Daniel, they empathize due to their loss. At Liza's funeral after Travis' speech on Chris being the best thing he and Liza did, Chris slowly walks over and angrily throws Liza overboard.
Development and reception
The second-season episode "Wrath" features the death of Chris Manawa. In a joint-episode review along with the second-season finale, Matt Fowler of IGN gave "Wrath" and "North" an 8.5/10.0 rating together, the highest rating of the season, stating; "Fear the Walking Dead finishes its shaky second season on a satisfying note with some nice, sinister surprises and big, brutal moments. Travis' extended beatdown and murder of Derek and Brandon was excellently done, as were the consequences of those actions. Over on Nick's side of the story, we all knew Alejandro would be exposed as a fraud at some point, but everything was handled well and Nick got to save the day without having to rush in and physically protect people like an action hero."
