This week’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead titled “Welcome to the Club”, is a much different episode than last week’s premiere. This is because Alicia, Strand, Charlie, and Daniel are in one of Virginia’s communities. The episode is focused on these four characters as they learn to adapt to The Pioneers’ way of living. Here is my review of “Welcome to the Club.”
It is career day for the four characters. But before that happens with them, a group of prisoners are tasked with killing walkers in a storage unit. What sounds easy on paper, is difficult in practice. That is because inside the storage unit, the walkers and the floor is covered with molasses. What I like here, is how the molasses is used during this deadly situation. I also thought it was clever on how the walkers grabbed and devoured the prisoners and that guard too. Sanjay was the only survivor there that survived.
What made me sad, is to see Daniel with memory loss and his mental state. Even though by the end of “Welcome to the Club” Daniel seemed to be in his normal state when he seen Morgan, How we see him before that moment is heartbreaking. He did not remember anything at all. Virginia had him under her complete control and I really felt for Alicia and Strand when they tried to speak with him.
Charlie was the one to finally trigger something in Daniel. When she played the same song that he taught her, I was thinking to myself that he has to come through now. Whether if he was acting or not the entire time, is up for debate.
Dakota is Virginia’s sister. I just also realized that their names are based on the states in this country. So far, I like what we see of Dakota and she proves to Alicia and Strand that she is a valuable asset. But she also slightly gets them both into trouble while they were doing their task. The task for Alicia and Strand, is to clear the walkers that the prisoners could not do. The difference here, is that Virginia told them both if they complete the task, there would be something inside for them. We also got to see what happened if they tried to escape as it happened right infront of them when a prisoner tried to escape. And that is, death.
So not only did Alicia, Strand, Sanjay, Dakota, and Charlie cleared the walkers, they came up with a smart strategy. The action really picked up here and I love those gruesome walker kills. The strongest dialouge on this episode is between Alicia and Strand. They both went back and forth about why they should not take orders from Virginia and lead their own way. Alicia is the voice of reason in this scenario and even her plan about escaping is far better than Strand’s plan. But the truth comes out as Strand secretly made a deal with Virginia.
That deal is for him to give her the map in order for them two to be kept together. This also escalated later on when Strand was given a key from Virginia. Virginia sees a leader in Strand and the first thing Strand did, is reassigned Alicia. This means that the two are splitting up. Strand wanted Alicia to forget who he is from this point on.
I can say that Morgan was not the only one that is in for a change this season. Strand also changed too. Especially when he got Sonjay devoured by walkers later which was part of his plan. Alicia tried to knock some sense into Strand and it did not work at all. Also, bonus points for the scene between Virginia and Dakota. I can tell that sisters around the world will also feel that because you would not want anything to happen to your younger sibbling.
Overall, I like the episode. It reminded me of “The Cell” on The Walking Dead back in season 7. I said this because everyone that is in that sugar factory had to adapt to the working life under The Pioneers including the prisoners. And on “The Cell”, Daryl seen first hand what is life under The Saviors like. Just like that episode on The Walking Dead, there are rules everyone has to follow and there are consiquences if they do not follow them. So far, the anthology structure is working. Morgan appearing at the end of the episode makes it connected to the ending of the last episode and I hope to see that in later episodes of this season.
Next week’s episode titled “Alaska” is focused on Dwight and Al. You do not want to miss that one!
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