This week’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead titled “J.D” is a tribute to John Dorie. While the mood and tone is sad and depressing, there are plot points that opened my curious eyes. With that out of the way, here is my review.
June is still grieving John Dorie as he was killed a few episodes ago. Sure she got her revenge by killing Virginia, but the suffering of John’s death is on full display on this episode. That also came with a nice and beautiful eulogy by June later in “J.D” when it was her and a few characters standing over John’s Grave. Jenna Elfman certainly made me a believer during this sequence, as I felt her grief at John’s death. I also feel this is her best performance since joining Fear The Walking Dead a few seasons back.
While John Dorie’s grief is on show throughout the show, I believe the introduction of John Dorie Sr. could’ve been better. I realize the franchise has a cliché of long-lost characters reappearing out of nowhere, but his appearance was too soon after John Jr. died. Of all the places for them to meet, it had to be during a shootout. What are the odds of that.
I’m not sure what else we can get out of the John Dorie Sr. character, but at least he has a cause to tell the group about Teddy. It turns out that John Sr. was the one who imprisoned Teddy in the 1970s, and Teddy is the same guy he was then. The apocalypse frequently alters people’s personalities. But his did not, which is a rare occurrence in The Walking Dead’s universe. Plus, John Dorie Sr. sure survived that gunshot wound pretty fast!
Another storyline development in this episode that I was looking forward to seeing was Dwight and Sherry’s. I had been wondering for weeks if these two would be on the same page. It’s now evident that Sherry recognizes that returning to Virginia to kill Negan is a waste of time. Sherry wouldn’t even know whether she’d come back alive if she did that, so why jeopardize her shot of being with Dwight? I am delighted for these two. I, on the other hand, am not thrilled to see another horse die.
Despite the fact that this episode is slower than the other two, I embrace it. A slower-paced plot with a new mood change was greatly needed since the previous two episodes’ tones were similar. This is a fantastic memorial episode to the late John Dorie Jr., and I really enjoyed it!
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