Garret Dillahunt as John Dorie, Jenna Elfman as June – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 16 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
This recap will be slightly different as I will put more of my input of my own opinion rather than recap the episode with my own eyes. Be warned, spoilers are ahead for the fifth season finale of Fear The Walking Dead titled “End of the Line”.
Now, on to the positives. I liked Dwight’s development on this episode. He is still convinced that Sherry wants nothing to do with him and even the radio call at the beginning of the episode got myself very excited to see Sherry. Although Dwight thinks that he is hearing things, I believe that it was her calling for him. The moment you know that he lost all hope on finding her is when he given John and June their wedding rings that originally belonged to Dwight and Sherry. I believe that they will reuinite in season 6 and at this point, it needs to happen. Sherry has not been seen in The Walking Dead universe since season 7 of the main show so her possible return is long overdue.
Another thing I liked about the episode is when members of Morgan’s group tried to direct the herd away from Gultch. There were cool walker kill sequences from Morgan while the walkers were on the field. Dwight almost got eaten by walkers and even while the walkers was devouring one of the horses (Also to note, Dwight found those horses at the beginning of the episode). That whole scene was worth watching and Dwight even tried to run away, but Morgan saved him from walkers approaching him since he was also injured. Alicia and Wes was painting the church that the wedding was going to take place and I wonder how much more things will she paint. At least she is no longer scared to kill walkers anymore. John and June’s wedding was beautiful and touching and I said it from the start of the season that their chemistry also kept this season going good for what it was. Jacob even officiated the wedding per John’s request on the last episode. Those are the great scenes about this episode.
Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark, Colby Hollman as Wes – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 16 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
With that out of the way, Morgan calling Virginia back was a mistake. His plan backfired as they all argued AGAIN while they were clearing walkers that they did not need for her to come and a few of the group was willing to accept her deal. They already did not trust her, and yet, Morgan makes the call to bring her back. This got ridicilous towards the last twelve minutes of the episode as Virginia plans to seperate the group as she did exactly that. Even Daniel and Skidmark was seperated too and went to different vehicles and seasons 1-3 Daniel would not let that **** fly. He has grown too soft this season and it hurts me to even admit that (also to note, the kids did not get any lines in this episode). Virginia even told Althea that she better tell her about the CRM group. Morgan and Grace were seperated and Grace did not want Morgan to express his feelings for her DESPITE that she feels the same way about her. After Virginia seperated everyone from eachother, it was only her and Morgan standing infront of the church. Virginia told Morgan that he is staying there alone. She pointed the gun infornt of him, they had a small scuffle, and boom, she shoots Morgan in the chest. Morgan then bleeds out and here is the moment that made my head spin in disappointment like when Vince Russo was writing WCW storylines in 2000. Over the radio, we find out that Grace does not have radaition poisoning at all. Grace is 3-4 months pregnant (are you seriously kidding me is what I said when I watched the episode). Morgan is left there alone and makes a speech all by himself while he is still bleeding from the gunshot wound. Then, walkers approach him and is inches away and the we cut to black for ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER!
Was this seriously needed? I would not be surprised if that damn helicopter group arrive in and save Morgan on the season 6 premiere. I seriously would not. It was a bad decision to pull a cliffhanger like this. If that happens, the difference between this and when CRM saved Rick is that Rick was saved on the fifth episode and this happened on the finale. You would think that they would learn their lesson for pulling the cliffhanger on The Walking Dead with Negan (Also, I still love that episode to this day for many reasons, but at least that cliffhanger was not as jarring as this one). Why do this when Morgan is shot?! If he was shown to die right there, I would have accepted it. I really would. Now that the group has been separated, how will they know about what happened with Morgan? I can understand the frustrations with the fans of the show and I can sympathize with them for this nonsense. I hope that on the next season, this does not happen ever again.
As far as Season 5 goes, I thought that this season is miles better than season 4 and John and June were the bright points of the entire season. Logan had potential, but his motive was not fully explored yet other than the oil field. Dwight also had a better transition to the show than Morgan did and he fits right with the cast. Alicia’s PTSD about not killing walkers was also a good development. The CRM group needs to be seen again in season 6 because we barely got anything with them after the first few episodes.
I also know that a large portion of the fans did not like the found footage, documentary style episodes, but I loved them since I like the found footage genre and the camera techniques. The season finale’s final half completely ruined the entire episode and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
When it is all said and done, season 5 is good despite the hiccups and I hope that the next season will improve. With the second spinoff coning next year along with The Walking Dead’s 11th season in 2020 (which will also have its 150th episode next fall), I do not know when next year that Fear will return. When it does, I will recap it again since I am a fan. If I had to describe this season in a few words despite my thoughts of the last episode, it is awesome, suspenseful, and absolutely great!
I will be livetweeting from The Walking Dead panel at New York Comic Con next week. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.
Colby Minifie is known for her roles on Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Amazon’s The Boys, Glee, and The Blacklist and now she is the leader of her group of horseback riders named Virginia on Fear The Walking Dead. She has so far wanted to help Morgan’s group and at the same time, had former members of her group go against her. With the season finale coming up for Fear, I got the chance to interview Colby Minifie as we talked about her role on the show and what can we expect from her in the future.
You are now on Fear The Walking Dead as Virginia. How did you react when you got the role?
Colby: I screamed of course. I officially booked it on the last day of an indie movie I was shooting and about 12 hours later I was on a plane to Austin for FEAR. So, yeah, it was a whirlwind, but the best kind of whirlwind. There’s a certain energy that kicks in at moments like that because everything you love is happening at the same time.
Colby Minifie as Virginia – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Have you done horseback riding before you got your role, or did you already knew how to ride horses?
Colby: I rode horses as a kid with my cousins. I remember flying off a loping horse once. But I hadn’t been on a horse in over a decade when I had to ride in as Virginia. Boom, my trusty steed, is a total pro so it was a breeze.
Virginia told Dwight that she knows that his wife is still alive. Will we find out if that is true within the next few episodes? Colby: That’s super duper secret.
Will we find out more of how Virginia formed her group? Colby: That’s also super secret but I’m gonna say yes!
What was it like to work with Lennie James and Karen David on the episode? and why should Morgan and everyone else give Virginia their full trust knowing that she has killed Logan and had some of her members run away from her?
Colby: Lennie was so wonderful. Acting with him made me a better actor in many ways. Some of the scenes we have together were very emotional for me and when I looked in his eyes I always felt safe. I didn’t get to work with Karen very much on this episode but she’s a total sweetheart! And Virginia wants to help as many people as she can. But she’s also a utilitarian, so if a few people have to die for everyone else to survive and thrive, she is willing to make that sacrifice.
Colby Minifie as Virginia, Beau Smith as Dom – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Were there any other costume ideas that were discussed before you got the cowgirl costume?
Colby: Not that I know of. Luckily, when Ian and Andrew described the character to me, I pictured something not too far from the final look that Jo Katsaras (Costume Designer) came up with. The pioneer/colonial style has a lot of history to it, which meant I could rely on the look to tell a lot of Virginia’s story. I felt so cool in that outfit.
Any funny stories working with the cast on this episode (5×14). Colby: I hadn’t had sugar in 2 months before I did this episode and all of a sudden I was eating jam. It was so delicious and I kept sneaking more finger-fulls throughout the scene so I could have more. And then the sugar high hit and I got giddy.
We are close to the season finale. Without giving too much away, what can we expect from you on that episode coming up? Colby: All I can say is it’s gonna be BIG. Virginia is a strong woman and will do anything to get her way.
Fear The Walking Dead airs every Sunday at 9:00 PM EST on AMC.
I will be livetweeting from The Walking Dead panel at New York Comic Con next week. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.
Garret Dillahunt as John Dorie, Peter Jaocbson as Rabii Jacob Kissner, Ethan Suess as Max, Cooper Dodson as Dylan – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Last week’s episode had a key element of looking forward to the future. But before we go to the future, we often look at the past. The truth or lies will always haunt one person and you will not know if you can trust that individual ever again when the truth comes out. Here is my recap and review of “Channel 5”.
The episode starts with a video being played of Virginia and her group. They are all interviewed talking about what Virginia did for them. It is done similar to the “Chanel 4” episode where Morgan and his group sent out a PSA to help people. In fact, we also see the person that repaired Morgan’s staff too. The video ends when Virginia lets the viewer know if they see someone with similar clothing as she does, let them help you. We are then shown Althea, Morgan and Tom as they all watched her video. They all made a comment about her lying in those videos. Althea tossed the TV to the ground for it to be smashed.
Most of this episode is also shown in camera view as we. June mentioned that they have been driving for five days and the reason why they are continuing to make videos is to show the viewers that they are not lying and want to show the truth. There is also only one more tank of gas as well. Morgan and Grace are talking as she made another comment about the jellybeans and Grace is dehydrated. Tom also reunited with Janice too. Al thinks that it could be from the radaition as she said that while she was interviewing June. Alicia was shown painting on a tree agaqin and she wants to keep doing it when they find a home and she says that it is the only thing left in the world that makes sense to her. Daniel radioed June and told her that the school is burned down. Wes thought that the videos of Morgan’s group were nonsense, but now he is part of it since he now believes that it is not nonsense. Grace, who is getting weaker, teaches Charlie how to play the guitar as she promised her and later in the night, they are all deciding on where to go. Victor tells tom to turn off the camera while they are discussing possible locations. A walker breaches through and Dwight takes down the walker. He found a key and a badge that belonged at Humbug’s Glutch. The same place where Dwight was found as John also stated to the group. Victor does not think that it is a good idea to go there, but Morgan wants to take the chance.
Colby Minifie as Virginia, Beau Smith as Dom – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
One by one, everyone is interviewed about going to the place. While Morgan is being interviewed, Charlie calls for June because Grace passed out. Morgan is worried if she can survive. June uses the ultrasound to check her neck and it she cannot tell if there is something wrong in that area. Daniel said that they should have taken everything from that mall regardless of what Grace said. Tom is then interviewed and he said that everything that Morgan did since they met, is not what Virginia did since day one. Morgan and John were looking for supplies for Grace’s care and they found nothing. John also thinks that Morgan and Grace are together and he wants to marry June once they settle in a pernament place. Althea found the things that are needed and a walker was about to take her out, but Alicia saved her. Grace awakened and is starting to feel better, but is not hopeful. Morgan is glad that she is awake too. They all also talk about the detour that they have to take in seperate interviews. A road block happens as they all noticed that the bridge has a hole so they come up with a plan to cross the bridge and fix it since the heavy vans could break the bridge. As they started to do this, the bridge started to break apart. Virginia and a few members of her group then arrive in a jeep. Virginia wants to offer to help fix the bridge, but nobody is buying it. She even mentions Sherry and Dwight wantst to kill her right there. She said that she was last seen a few months ago and knew that she was looking for Dwight. Morgan told his entire group if anyone wanted to go with her, they can. Nobody moved after she said that.
Virginia then ordered her men to shoot in the air to attract walkers since she seen a herd nearby. Walkers start arriving and Morgan, Al, Victor, and Dwight start killing walkers and the rest crossed the bridge and tried to fix it. Moments later, the gas truck fell through the bridge and as Tom was on the ground and still recording, the bridge collapsed and he fell too. Al and Morgan was watching his tape and the power runs out. Morgan had a speech with everyone about not giving up and moving forward since it is not the end of the road. They all travel on foot to Glutch and John wants Jacob to officiate his wedding with June and also wants Morgan to bet he best man. They all arrive to see that it has been overrun by walkers. At this point, everyone feels hopeless since they also have no food or water or supplies. Dwight wants to go on his own, and they all debated to either call Virginia or not. Morgan calls for Virginia on the radio for help as the episode ends.
Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
This episode is a solid one and I am happy to see the entire cast together as one again. This episode also reminded me of “Them” on The Walking Dead in many ways. We finally see that the group is now on the lowest point of survival and they desperately need help. One thing I also learned, is that bridges are not friendly in the universe of The Walking Dead too. Next week is the final episode of the season so who knows what will happen?
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Daryl “Chill” Mitchell as Wendell, Matt Frewer as Logan, Mo Collins as Sarah – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
I can count how many times I have seen everyone pointing guns at eachother numerous times in this episode, but it did not take away my enjoyment at all since I did really like this episode. Now that Logan and his crew are at the oil field, will they take it away from the group? Here is my review and recap of “Leave What You Don’t”.
The episode opens as we are shown a shot of Logan’s truck. As he is writing on a box, a woman named Serena says that she needs help over the walkie-talkie. Logan answers and told her that he is on his way to his save her. When he goes to the location of where she is, he finds out that walkers are devouring her which makes us thinks that she is dead. Logan kills the four walkers by shooting them and then leaves the place and cries because he could not save Serena. Moments later, a group riding horses approaches him The leader of that group Virginia, gives him his condolences and also told him that she has been watching him for a while.
Max and Dylan use the mice to put them in cages so that way, their makeshift oil refinery could work as the walkers are turning it around by being attracted by the mice. Lucianna and Wendell then have a conversation and then, Logan breaks through as him and his group are now inside the oilfield. Logan and everyone else gets out of the cars and truck and demands the oil. Alicia is painting a pheonix on a tree and strand makes a good comment about it. They also begin to talk about Wes and then, someone radios Alicia and gives her the location. Alicia asked June and John if they can get her, but they could not so Alicia and Strand decide to help her. Strand is curious if Logan is drawing them away, but Alicia does not want the gas to be wasted. Logan examines the oil field and the way the walkers are being used to draw the oil. Logan then burns Clayton’s journals and told Lucianna that he is helping people, but not the same way that they are. Lucianna also refused to show Logan how to make the gas. Rollie tells Logan over the walkie talkie that they have encountered a road block and Logan told him to get it out the way. As Rollie was about to, Sarah and Dwight trap them and Sarah even fires a warning shot when he did not want to listen. Sarah forced Rollie to come with them back to the oil field.
The fire at the oil field is getting stronger and if it gets bigger, then the oil will not be of any use. Dwight and Sarah arrive with Rollie and tells Logan and his men to leave. While Logan is not listening to them, John shoots down one of the walkers that were pumping the oil. Logan even made a comment that the show is just beginning and that they are staying. Logan goes back and forth with Lucianna, Sarah, and Dwight about who goes and who stays. Logan says that the kids can be let go. But they do not want to despite that they have to. Alicia radios the woman and lets her know that she is still on their way. The gas has run out in their car and Alicia and Strand decide to run to the location. Logan told Sarah about the person he tried to help over the radio recently and he told them again that they should go for good. John and June also notices the incoming walker horde from their distance.
Jenna Elfman as June, Garret Dillahunt as John Dorie – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Night time at the oil field and the walkers are walking off the cliff of the field. John is starting to shoot the ones down before they go to the cliff, but some of them (and ongoing) is still falling and many of them are splattered on the ground from the hard fall like watermelons. Logan tells his group to kill the walkers while he tries to pump the oil. Dwight and Wes debate about leaving or getting their weapons to defend the place. One walker tried to bite Logan at his leg and Doris (the female soldier) did not want to follow Logan’s rules anymore after he got obsessive about the oil. As Lucianna and the rest are about to leave, Sarah realizes that she cannot leave Logan behind so she goes back to save him. Alicia and Strand are still running to the place, and Sarah and Logan goes inside a shed. The woman makes contact over the radio and Logan realizes that Serena is still alive. Logan could not help her besides telling her where the gun is since the walkers are trying to break in from where she is. Serena told Logan that there is only one bullet left. Serena then decides to shoot herself at the head. Everyone hears one single shot over the radio and assumed that she killed herself, but more shots are heard as Wes saved her. John and June was also about to take down a walker and then Jacob, Charlie, and Tess showed up to help them.
Alicia and Strand finally meet up with Serena and reuinted with Wes as he told them how he tracked her down. Serena told them that she ran away from a group (I believe that she was part of Virginia’s group). John and Jacob clear up the rest of the walkers and Logan and Sarah talk about saving Serena. Then, Logan’s group come out to point guns at everyone and Logan ordered them to put their guns down as he thinks that they can now compromise with the oil. While he is still talking, out of nowhere, he is shot and killed along with his entire group. Shocking! Virginia and her massive group of cowboys and cowgirls on horses arrive and told Lucianna and the rest that she killed them because she thinks that he was lying and that she was watching them for a while as well due to the tapes. One key of note is that Virginia says that she knows that Sherry is alive and that gave Dwight hope as he wanted to go with her. The group is not convinced about her, but Lucianna gave her an oil tanker after the standoff. Lucianna then offers to help and stay at the oil field as the episode ends.
– Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Logan getting killed made my jaw drop as I did not see it coming at all. We almost went an entire season without a main character death until now so it is safe to say that it was totally worth it. He tried to help someone and at the end, it end up with him being dead. Now that Virginia is here to help aid the group, it opens more questions of how she can help other than making promises. If she really knows if Sherry is alive, then there is hope that Dwight and Sherry can reunite again. The entire night sequence is my favorite of the entire episode and seeing some of those walkers falling into the field to be smashed like watermellons is an awesome visual. John and June trying to help also got me engaged to the screen as I thought that they were going to succeed in clearing every walker. I also felt that the plot has moved forward very much on this episaode than the last few and I also think that watching the previous episode and this episode back to back is a better viewing experience. I also think that the way Dwight and Sarah’s roadblock that they caused was great too. And even the kids were not annoying this time around too which is a positive in my eyes. Overall, this is one of my favorite episodes of the season next to “Channel 4” and “Humbug’s Glutch” and I am looking forward to next week’s episode!
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Austin Amelio as Dwight, Mo Collins as Sarah – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 12 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Last week, We seen the possible romance brewing with Morgan and Grace, Dwight being captured, and Logan almost summoning “Clear” Morgan to kill him. This week’s episode, we meet a new person, we see Sarah and Dwight bonding, and Logan is still chasing the group. Here is my recap and review of the twelfth episode of the fifth season of Fear titled “Ner Tamid”.
The episode begins as a man lights up the church with fire since the light’s power is running low. We learn later during the episode that his name is Jacob Kessner. He prays in hebrew and then, the door bangs. He says if alive, he will let him in. The banging continues and he then unlocks the door and kills the walker with the blade of the gun (Funny how that the gun looks like one of the guns that The Commonwealth soldiers use in the comic book series of The Walking Dead. But I do not think that he is a member). He then walks to the front of the gate to lock it up. He then encountered three walkers and he took two of them down with the blade of his gun. After Charlie opens the door of the car she was hiding in, he shot the last walker down. Charlie questions Jacob’s current place as he invited her inside to rest for the night. The vehicles of Morgan’s group crush one walker and everyone sets up camp for the night. At least in this scene, we actually see how do they setup for the night in case of walkers coming by. Morning comes and June and John made a mention that they have 12 hours until sunset and that Morgan and the rest are separated from them for the time being. Dwight made a head count and realized that Charlie is missing.
Alexa Nisenson as Charlie, Peter Jacobson as Rabbi Jacob Kessner – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 12 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Charlie wakes up at the church and Jacob is still clearing walkers from outside. Charlie then asks Jacob where are the rest of his group and also asks why he still practices his religion. Jacob tells her that it is tradition for him to still believe in it and also tells her that he is the only one there. The battery of the light dies and Charlie radios June and told her that she ran away to find a place so that way, they can stay instead of moving from one area to the next. Charlie also told June to bring a car battery. After Jacob kills another walker, Charlie told him that her group is coming with the battery. He then examines the area outside of the church to see why walkers are coming through and he then notices an opening. He closes it, but walkers are trying to come through the glass door. Back inside the church as Charlie powers the light on. Jacob then meets John and June as they talked about the current situation. June kills a walker and her and Charlie debate on why they should not stay there even though Charlie does want to stay there. Even Jacob thinks that staying there is a bad idea.
Garret Dillahunt as John Dorie, Jenna Elfman as June, Mo Collins as Sarah – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 12 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Dwight and Sarah are drinking beer and scouting the area. Dwight also thinks that he lost track of time from the last person he talked to before he meet John and June. Dwight then notices Logan’s cars. Sarah then alerted June over the radio about Logan and this happened while Jacob and Charlie were talking about what lead her to come there. Jacob then told the story about the walkers that are outside and that they were all of the people that was in his group. He told them that he went away for a short time and when he came back, they all turned. John and June climbed down the ladder to the top of the car. They then placed the ladder to another car away from them and started to walk as if it is a bridge. John walked first, June walked second. Logan’s lieutenant then intercepted the radio conversation and this is when Dwight realized that he should have never let him go. John and June then work together to bring the ladder to another side of the car and they both did just that. John however, did fell, but he quickly got up and walked to the other side. John and June then proceeded to shoot down walkers and June signals that they need help, but Jacob does not want to waste any bullets.
Charlie does not want to give up the place and this is where Jacob told her that he ran from his people because he was starting to lose faith and is alive because of it. Charlie then asked him for something that makes noise. As John and June are still fighting off the walkers, a loud horn sound attracts the walkers into the church. John and June killed the rest of the remaining walkers outside and lock the church up. Jacob apologizes to Charlie for having her believe that she could stay there when he first seen her. They both then leave.Charlie then apologizes to John and June and after that, Jacob meets Dwight and Sarah and Dwight then realizes that Sarah is jewish due to her asking Jacob a few questions about it. The episode ends as Logan encounters a road block and decides to drive through it due to him finding the oil field.
Although this was another solid episode, I felt that the episode could have went a little longer. I can already see fans dubbing Jacob the “Jewish Father Gabriel” after the episode airs. My biggest positive takeaways of the episode were the sequences of John and June trying to avoid the walkers while they were on top of the cars as it really bought the tension up. We are almost finished with the season so I feel that something big is going to happen within the next few episodes.
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Colby Hollman as Wes, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark, Colman Domingo as Victor Strand – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Last week’s episode of Fear was a mission to help Chuck and although Morgan, Dwight, and Grace succeeded, it ended up making us question whether if Morgan and Grace will end up together. That might be explored a few episodes from now as Alicia and Strand are out to help Wes. What will happen when they meet Wes and also encounter Logan’s group? Also, was it Madison leaving those messages on the trees? You will find out on my recap of the episode titled “You’re Still Here”.
The episode opened with an overhead shot of the tree with the message Alicia seen. Alicia walked up to it to read it and as she does this, one walker approached her. Alicia was hesitant to kill it since she has not done that since they took off with the plane. The walker falls down as it is stuck and is trying to reach Alicia. Alicia calls Strand to take it down and another walker tries to bite her and Strand comes to the rescue to kill those two walkers along with killing the first one that Alicia seen. As you can see, she is still traumatized. Strand tells Alicia that they are running low on fuel and that they need to return and Alicia wants to look for the person that wrote those messages on the trees. Wes then radios in and Strand realized that he seen the tapes. They then meet and Wes told them about what happened to his motorcycle. He also says that his brother is waiting for him too.
Morgan and Althea enters a bank and they take down walkers. Morgan had a close call with one since he has a shorter stick. Althea tells Morgan that he might need a new stick as well. Althea then opens the large safe and Morgan killed the walker inside of the safe. Althea then told morgan that she uses that safe to store the tapes and she thinks that someone will watch those tapes if something were to ever happen to them . Back to Wes, Alicia, and Strand as they are driving to where his current hideout is. Wes asks Alicia about her looking for the trees with the messages and she tells him that she wants to look for the person who wrote them there. She then says the reason she wants to look is because she wants to know how do they do it along with how they see the world. She also says that she is sorry of what happened to him when he encountered Logan. We then get a shot of many walkers devouring an animal and that looked dusgusting as hell. Wes goes inside his hideot to see his brother. Strand and Alicia talk about the current situation and then gunshots are heard. A guy runs out of the door with a gunshot wound and takes off with their car and motorcycle. Wes tried to stop him as he got away and Wes and Strand begins to take down walkers by shooting them. One of the guns held a teargas grenade and the walker had been shot by one so the teargas went off which affected Strand’s sight for the rest of the episode.
Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Maggie Grace as Althea – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Alicia then pours water over Strand’s eyes and gave him a wet blanket for him to get healed. Alicia and Wes then argued about what just happened and Wes told her that her brother was dead and the man he encountered took something that belonged to him. They then go to the front of the building to see that they are trapped because the walkers are by the glass. Alicia made it clear that she does not want to kill the dead, but she wants to help. Morgan and Grace radioed Alicia and after that, they drive until they see a roadblock and it is Logan with his people. Morgan and Logan had a standoff and Logan told him that they will not cross unless they give up the location of the oilfield. Morgan and Althea tried to come up with a solution, but that was not happening at all since Logan is not convinced. Logan then makes a joke about Morgan’s wife and son and Morgan was about to snap and kill Logan until Althea calmed him down.
Wes and Alicia talk about what the guy took that was so important and then Alicia brings up that her brother also died. Although Wes told her about when was the last time he seen his brother, he does not want to relate to her at all. Grace then told Alicia over the radio that they are still far away. Alicia collects the guns and ammo from the locker and grabs her weapon as she think she is confident enough now to take down walkers. Wes begins shooting at the walkers from outside and one of the bullets cracked the window. Alicia and Strand looks for keys for another room and a walker breaks through the glass. Alicia, still in her paranoia state, tried to kill a walker, but Strand saved her and asked how many more there were. Wes then shot the last two walkers that entered the place.
Matt Frewer as Logan – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Morgan and Alicia talk in the car about what happened and about him talking about his family on the tape. He said that he wanted to get people to trust them if they watched the tapes. Althea also says that what they lost does not define them at all. Alicia radios them and here, is where we see that they found the car and the guy who stolen it. We are lead to believe that he turned, but he did not. Wes walked up to him and the guy tosses the bag towards him qand begins to choke him. Wes then stabbed him in the rib after he asked the guy for the manuscript that he stolen from him. He gives it back to him and told him “its really good stuff” and this is the first person that Wes killed. Wes says that he should have not radioed them and that people are people at the end of the day. Alicia wanted to give the book back to Wes nd he refused. They bured the man’s body and Alicia begins to read the book and she noticed that the ending quote is the same as the one on the trees. This is when she figured out that he made those messages on the trees. As Alicia made her own message on the tree, she stated that she will not do anything for strangers no more. Alicia, Strand, Morgan, and Althea look at the tree and commented how great it is. Alicia and Morgan talked a little more about his history as well. Alicia then finally killed a walker and seems to finally get back to her normal state for now. The episode ends as Logan and his group broke open the safe and found the tapes.
For everyone looking forward to Madison returning due to these messages, you will be disappointed to find out that it was not her that left it. Alicia’s character development has grown much more during this episode as she dealt with the curisoity of the trees, and being paranoid of killing walkers due to the scare from the radioactive walker. I also loved that we got a little bit of “Clear” Morgan in this episode and it is a reminder that he could snap at any minute and at anytime. My only gripe about the episode is that I still do not know what Logan’s motive is besides the oilfield and Wes just seemed like another survivor, but hopefully, his character is further explored during this season.
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Austin Amelio as Dwight, Lennie James as Morgan Jones – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 10 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
This week’s episode of Fear is another task mission for Morgan and he brings along Dwight, and Grace. Their adventure also leads to them getting seperated, a new romance building, memories of the past, and a toy car. After all that happened on their last mission, you begin to question yourself if it was even worth it. Here is my review and recap of “210 Words Per Minute”.
The episode begins as a shot of a bird going to its nest with a voice over happening over it. It is Charles and he said that he seen the videos at the gas station and he wants Morgan to go to his location and put him down due to him getting bit. He also says that he has a red jacket on. He also says that there is a lot of things at the place that he is in for them to take. Dwight is banging on the door to attract the walker to it and Dwight used his hatched to draw the walker to the wooden part of the door and he repeadly bashed its head to the door. After that, Dwight opens the door and Morgan and Grace enters as well. Dwight and Morgan also wants to know if it is enough to take back as well. Grace and Morgan examines one of the rooms and Grace found a note along with an old iPod. Morgan thinks that he tied himself up and turned and broke lose. Grace also tells Morgan that her blood sugar is low and Grace calls jelly beans “candied beanses”. Before they could continue their conversation about that, Dwight calls for them both to see the walkers below them. They all think that Charles might be with those walkers. Grace then passesd out.
Salazar notices the bullet shells and tells Tess to get back in the car. Back to Morgan as he wakes up Grace as they both made a joke about Grace calling jelly beans “candied beanses”. Morgan asked if her passing out had anything to do with the radiation and she thinks that it might be the beginning of the effects of it. Dwight turns on the radio to hear Salazar’s radio and he also thinks that it is a signal that Logan is very close. They come up with a plan to try to avoid Logan and Dwight gets water for Grace. Dwight and Morgan talk about the oilfield and brings up that he was on the wrong side of taking what people need before and Morgan assures Dwight that he has faith in him as he believes that they are not doing careful, but doing right as well. Dwight then proceeded to radio Salazar to tell him that he is heading south.
Austin Amelio as Dwight, Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Karen David as Grace – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 10 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Grace listens to the audio book on the iPod as she also looks down at the walkers. When she was about to go below to take the walkers out, Morgan stops her from doing it. Grace begins her talk about her believing that it is the beginning of the end for her and she then wants him to take her to the generator. Dwight stops on the road to take a leak and then, someone points a gun to the back of his head. Dwight asks if he was part of Logan’s group and the person says that he is. Dwight also tells him that he was hoping that he was looking for him and after the guy knocks Dwight out, he told him that he was right. Back to Grace and Morgan as Morgan uses a remote controlled car with ice cream scoops attached to it to lure the walkers away so that they can get to the generator. This worked for a short time until a walker stepped over the car. Grace noticed that one of the walkers has on a red jacket and we are lead to assume that it is Charlie. Grace took down the walker as Morgan calls her and they go to a fitness store and lock themselves up as the walkers are now outside of the store trying to get in.
Later that night, the person that kidnapped Dwight begun to interrogate him. After he hits him with the gun, Dwight told him to look at his face and see what he went through. Dwight assures him that his group will find him. The person leaves the truck and closed it as Dwight is still in there. After that, Morgan and Grace talk while they are eating the protien bars and drinking the shake. They both talk about their past as Grace loves horses and once rode a white mustang. Morgan asks her about taking the ultra sound and grace thinks that it might be cancer, but they will find out soon. Grace then asks Morgan about his son and tells him that she has not seen him smile before. She also seen his tape and wants to help him with his problem and Morgan replies with “this problem cannot be fixed within a day”. The glass of the store is about to break through as walkers are about to pour in.
Back to Dwight and Logan’s lieutenant as they have a conversation about Logan wanting the gas. He then begins to go through Dwight’s belongings and proceeds to burn one of Sherry’s letters and threatened that he would kep doing it if he did not give him information. As a walker approached him, he shot the walker down and that was the only chance Dwight had to try to fight back and he did. Dwight now has possession of the gun and was about to shoot him, but he knocked him out instead. Morgan and Grace are in the hallway and Morgan told her to turn off her headlight. Morgan killed some walkers in the dark, but one almost got him and Grace saved him by killing that one walker. They found the generator and Morgan tells Grace that he got his son the toy car becayse of his son getting good grades in school. He also goes over the memories of his first date with his wife too. Morgan asks Grace if she had somebody as well, but she did not besides one person that she worked with at the plant. They got the generator to turn on and that caused the alarm to go off and that made the walkers to go towards the sound. Grace and Morgan begin to clear the walkers and there was a cool sequence on the escalator where Morgan had a close call with a walker while he was laying down. They took down more walkers they were coming up the escalator and Morgan realized that they need to do something to block them from approaching. Grace then reversed the escalator and Morgan was about to fall into the direction of the walkers but luckily, Grace saved him. They both enter one of the rooms to see that Charlie is outside and still alive.
Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Austin Amelio as Dwight, Karen David as Grace – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 10 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Dwight tells Logan’s lieutenant to leave as he exiled him the same way Daryl did to him in season 8 of The Walking Dead. Morgan and Grace finally found Chuck as he wanted to see the stars before he dies and Grace turns on a projector that has stars. In the morning, they bury him and Morgan wants her to check the ultrasound and Grace told him that she does not want to know if she is dying. They then both go on the merry-go-round after that. Dwight, Salazar, and Tess and the rest meet up and Dwight tells Morgan what happened to him the previous night. Salazar then gives Dwight a much needed haircut and shave (This must explain why he had a haircut when I interviewed him a few months ago). Grace shows him protien bars and Morgan and Her talked about why they needed to seperate again for a while. The episode ends as Morgan seems to regret leaving her and I think that these two might be falling for eachother.
Although this was another solid episode, there were head puzzling moments that made me shake my head. The dialouge between Morgan and Grace was very choppy during the first half of the episode, but it got better as the episode went along. Also, who thought that it was a good idea for Morgan to tell Grace to turn off a light in the same room where walkers are in. That was ridicilous storytelling for that moment. I also loved that Dwight exiled Logan’s Lieutenant the same way that Daryl did to him and the fact that he is still haunted by his past really shows how far he has come. I also loved the escalator sequence as well as that scene bought out the suspense in me. Morgan and Grace bonding in that fitness store was also a great scene too and maybe these two will be together by the end of the season. Who knows?
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Fear The Walking Dead returned tonight with an episode that will be remembered for many reasons. It is one of those episodes that makes you question the production choices similar to that one episode where it was in the spannish language during the entire episode and I remember that episode being a good episode. With all of the members of the group finally making it across the mountains on the last episode, what will come next for them? Here is my recap and review of the mid season premiere of Fear The Walking Dead titled “Channel 4”.
Before I start, I would like to say that I love the production of the entire episode. I always love the found footage genre and most of this episode’s filming techniques reminded me of The Office and the grittier movie Cannibal Holocaust in terms of the camera zooming in and out and making motion along with the characters being interviewed as well as the monolouges that happens in place of scenes. Now that I got that out of the way, here is my review.
The episode begins as the tape plays the interview with Morgan as he talks about someone helping him back then followed by Alicia, Salazar, Grace, Strand, John, June, Dwight, Charlie, and finally Lucianna as they all talked about their previous situations before they all became together. At the same time, footage was shot of a walker approaching, a shot of the S.W.A.T van, the back of the open truck, etc. Morgan talked about the plane landing and not having to stop moving and helping other people ever since they landed there. As Althea was still interviewing Morgan, a walker comes and Althea takes it down. Althea is the. interviewed as she talks about how she got all of the cameras. Then, we see that John opens the truck to give Morgan the boxes so he can write messages on them. Sarah is seen filling the gas as she says that they got it from a few people in the oilfields. She also mentions that the gas is starting to go bad too. Sarah then talks about Logan wanting the gas for himself and then we see that the group left Logan behind. Dwight is filling the gas and talks about him doing the opposite of what he used to do and we then get a shot of him carving a chess piece along with him and Salazar playing chess. Salazar even mentions that Dwight would not let him give him a haircut.
Alicia talks about her being a sprinter as we get a shot of her and Morgan trainnig while Charlie and Strand filling up more gas (I noticed I said this a lot, but this is what happens). Strand then takes down four walkers with Alicia’s weapon. Althea interviews Strand and asks him about Alicia. After that, we get a shot of their current campsite and June mentions that everyone that they try to find is too far apart. Grace takes an invetory of how much food and supplies are left. While she does this, walkers break through the plastic gate as June takes them out. She also mentions on the interview that they had to keep moving to different locations because of this. Althea asks June about the wedding and June says that they are already married and John says that she has his heart. Grace is then interviewed and she worried every day that she wakes up to be sick before they meet and now she does not at all. While they are all driving, Morgan says on the interview that he never pictured that everyone would get this far. He mentions Tess and this is where I figured out that these interviews take place after they meet her. More on her in a bit.
They stop at Tess’ house that is very barricaded and Lucianna mentions that Tess tried to contact her husband on the walkie-talkie. Morgan tells Tess to come out, but she says that she does not know how many are outside. Before they trying to figure out what she is saying, a walker arrives to the house and then, an explosion happens as they all figured out that there are landmines underground on the inside of the barricaded area. Morgan asks how many more mines are buried underground, and Tess replies saying that she does not know.
Sarah plays and sings trucker music, and Charlie and Dwight says that is all she plays and Salazar hates it. Sarah says that the music is the anthem. Salazar also says on the interview that they should have shot Logan the second he opened his mouth. Back to Morgan as him and Tess are talking about her husband going to the drug store due to their son having asthma. Morgan tells her to come outside, and Tess sees the cameras from her window. Morgan wants Althea to turn them off, but she says that it is important that she still films so that way, people can see it. Tess also says over the walkie-talkie that she has not left that area since the apocalypse begun. Morgan tells her that it took him a long time to leave the place he was in as well at the beginning. As walkers were coming from the other side, John shoots them down with his revolver on his side.
At the drug store, June takes most of the medicine over there and tells Morgan that the inhailer is missing. Strand says that Tess’ husband must have it. Alicia finds a tree with a message on it and examines it. She says on the interview that her mom used to do things like that. A walker tries to get Alicia and Morgan takes the walker down from behind. Alicia also says that she has not killed since they got off the plane.
John continues to shoot down walkers from his side, to the other side and then John talks about him being a cop before the apoclapse begun on the interview. Morgan also says that him and John are relatable since they are not big talkers while they are on the job. Morgan tries to take down the walkers on the other side, but they break through and triggered the landmine explosions. John, Lucianna, and Morgan talks about the landmine situation on those interviews as well. We go back to the field as more walkers trigger minefield explosions. Morgan asks Tess if she was okay over the walkie-talkie and she says that she is. Strand on the interview says that the tree was not the only remarkable thing that they seen as they realized that the walker that approached Alicia was Tess’s husband as they also found the medicine in the bag too.
Morgan decides to run into the field at the moment due to the fact that he also thought about his wife and son as he explained on the interview. As another explosion happened right next to Morgan, he takes down a walker. But to only realize that he stepped on the mine and now he cannot move or else it will trigger an explosion. John checks on Morgan as he and Lucianna enter the field. Strand, June, and Alicia arrive as they see that Morgan has stepped on a mine. Morgan tells Tess that her husband is not coming back as he turned and for her to come out the house. June and Morgan talk about it being hard for Tess to say goodbye on those interviews. Althea wants to defuse the mine and John gives a smaller blade for Morgan to dig to see the mine. Althea then tells Morgan where the fuse is and she is 50/50 sure that it is the right one. Before he could continue, Tess comes out to give Morgan a pin for him to slide into the mine. He does this and lets his foot off the mine as it did not exploded at all until a few seconds later after Morgan left the area. Tess and her son finally come out the house and Morgan gives him the inhaler.
Later in the night, we get shots of them preparing dinner as Grace talks about the recipie she learned, and John making a joke about noodles and campfire. Tess and her son is then interviewed and seem to be happy to be surrounded by other people now. Morgan asks Alicia about practicing the next day, but she declines as she wants to know about who made the painting on the tree. Sarah, Dwight, Charlie, and Salazar arrive for dinner now and everyone is relaxing and eating like it is a normal night for dinner. I was happy to see this happen to be honest. In different shots of the interviews, everyone responds to the questions of how they want to figure out what could be next for them and what do they all need help with outside of the normal routine of the walkers. Then they all talk about what to do to help other people in seperate tapes.
After the final interview, the tape stops as we are shown a new character. Here, is when we find out that this character has watched all of the tapes that we seen. The new character fills gas in his motorcycle. Logan then arrives with his crew and they take his bag and gas. Logan then asks about the oilfield and asks the character if he was with Morgan’s group in which he said that he was not. After Logan takes his belongings, he gives him a walkie talkie and tells him to contact Morgan. His crew then shoots up his motorcycle leaving him without one for now as the episode ends.
This style of production for this episode is a risk and it could either have a good reaction, or bad reaction from the viewers. I personally liked it as I felt that it was unique. The interviews showcased more personality of all the characters in this one episode than some characters in other episodes. The episode had a simple concept of a mission of getting an inhaler and turned it into a situatiuon of how far would you go to get something for someone and they did just that while risking Morgan’s life. The explosions caught me off guard multiple times during the time that I watched the episode too. Also to note, there was not one score of music at all until after the new character turned off the tape. I liked this episode better than the mid season finale and hopefully, this plot with Logan moves very fast because I still do not know what his motivation is. Also, where did the kids go during this episode? And how did they get their vehicles back since they flew a plane over the mountains? Nothingless, still a solid episode!
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Danay Garcia as Luciana, Colman Domingo as Victor Strand – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 8 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
The final episode of the first half of Fear The Walking Dead is here and with last week’s cliffhanger, how could they follow that up? Will Alicia be dead in this episode? Will Dwight finally find Sherry, you will find out right here right now as I give my review for “Is Anyone Out There”.
The episode starts with a flashback to the factory. We see the beds all made and children’s toys ready to be played with. Morgan sits down at the radio in an upstairs room of the factory. A montage starts of the group individually taking turns calling out over the radio, looking for people to help. [The acoustic version of Depeche Mode Personal Jesus is playing the background.] No one is replying and the group is becoming visibly frustrated. The montage ends with Morgan exasperatedly calling out over the radio as Alicia walks in on him. She thinks there isn’t anyone to help, but Morgan won’t accept it. She convinces him to at least take a break to get some food. Just as they walk out of the room, a voice breaks through over the radio. It is a man calling out for help. Morgan and Alicia race back into the room. Morgan answers the radio and asks his name. He says Logan. The camera pans out the window and looks over the river. When it pans back, you see Logan standing in the same place that Morgan was standing.
The grounds of the factory have been dug up, and all the beds and stuffed animals trashed. Logan is staring at the desk in the upstairs room when a voice beckons him over the radio to come outside. Logan walks out of the room and out onto a platform that overlooks an open area that is pocked marked with shallow holes that have been dug by the group of people who are now standing around. A woman with a shovel informs him that they have looked everywhere and that they are unable to find it. She threatens him that if he doesn’t tell them where it is, the next hole they’ll dig will be for him.
Danay Garcia as Luciana, Colman Domingo as Victor Strand, Maggie Grace as Althea, Ethan Suess as Max, Jenna Elfman as June, Alexa Nisenson as Charlie – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 8 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
We see feet standing in a pool of water and blood. It appears to be a shower. It is Alicia. She is washing the blood off her body using the shower equipped on Grace’s truck. Grace tells her the water is almost out and hands her a towel. Grace thanks Alicia for getting the kids. Grace feels guilty that even though she has been in the area for months, she never bothered to go searching for people. She hands Alicia her weapon back, tells her it is clean, and that Alicia will be alright. Alicia doesn’t seem so optimistic, but Grace tells her that whatever radioactive blood got on her cannot compare to the nuclear disaster that will occur any moment now. Morgan is at the far end of the road keeping watch. The walker herd comes over the hill. They haven’t been able to lose them. He calls out to Luciana for a suggestion about where they might be able to lead them. She cannot help him. So he is just going to keep leading them away as long as they can until the plane is ready.
Morgan, Alicia, and Grace get back in the truck. Morgan comments about the annoying sirens, and Grace tells him that as annoying as they are, when they stop, the danger starts.
June is busy prepping the plane when Dylan, who is stilling nearby, asks her whether or not she thinks John will get back. She talks to him about how they might have seen a lot of bad in the world, there has to be good as well. June is hoping since they have had such bad luck lately, it is time for them to get some good luck for a change.
Bailey Gavulic as Annie – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 8 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
John and Dwight are at a used car dealership going through every single car, looking for keys, and hotwiring cars that don’t have keys. John keeps trying to check in with the others over the radio, but they are out of range. John is frustrated, but then he finds a car with a bunch of candies (the same kind of candies he has) in the car. He knows it will work, and it does.
Grace is slowly driving her truck leading the herd of walkers. Alicia is in the back seat. She is upset that she led the walkers away from the treehouse because she was unable to continue killing them. Morgan tells her that she shouldn’t feel sorry and he offers to help train her in the same martial arts that he learned from Eastman. Grace pulls past one of the barriers she had set up (and her and Morgan had opened in her attempt to get the generator back to the plant) and then stops the truck. They lay down to let the walkers go past them back into the radiation zone. But as soon as most of the herd passes them, the klaxon stops. Then an explosion is heard and a large black cloud appears in the distance. Grace tries to back up her truck and spin it around, but it crashes into one of the barrier cars and gets stuck. The walkers have turned back around and are now paying attention to them. Morgan radios back to Luciana and warns her that they are on their way, and a herd will be right behind them. He then grabs his stick, still wrapped in plastic, and takes a few head shots at walkers before he runs to catch up with Alicia and Grace.
Sarah is in her truck, on the radio, asking Wendell about the runway. He tells her “you can eat a Denver omelette off it, it’s so clean.” But Sarah is nervous. She pulls up to the gate of the factory and blocks it just as another truck is leaving. Sarah gets out of her truck as Logan gets out of his. “Mind moving your rig sweetheart?” “Nice shiner. Call me ‘sweetheart’ again, I’ll give you another one to match.” Logan assumes that she wants the factory back and he tells her that they were just leaving. Sarah asks “what happened to taking back what’s yours?” He tells her that he wanted it back so he could try to find something. They looked and couldn’t find it, so they are moving on. Sarah then tells him that she needs something from him. She lets him know that the group that flew over the mountains and crashed their plane to try to find him were able to fix the plane and they are flying it back. They are going to arrive tonight and she wants him and his group to get their trucks out at the runway to help light it up. Logan reminds her that helping people isn’t his gig. Sarah then makes a straight forward plea for his help. She explains how she stole his partner’s rig, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t regret it. If he doesn’t help out the people who went out looking for him he will also come to regret it. Logan doesn’t budge. He won’t stick his neck out for anybody. He gets back in his truck, and starts it up. Sarah swallows hard and goes back to her truck.
John and Dwight are driving down the road. They are about 15-20 miles away. They have plenty of gas, but the car just stops. Dwight says gasoline is starting to go bad. Then, John and Dwight see the black column of smoke rising from the power plant. They are now in range of June’s radio and hear her call. He tells her that they are not giving up, but they might not make it back in time. He tells her it is too far for her to try to come get them. She tells him the plane is ready and they are just waiting for Morgan and the others to return. John wants June to promise him that she will get on the plane when they are ready to take off, regardless of whether or not John and Dwight are back in time. John tells her that she is his reason to live and he wants her to have a reason to live whether or not he is with her. She promises. The radios cut out. Dwight feels bad that he is keeping John from June. He apologizes to him. Then John notices a tree painted with the words “If you’re reading this, you’re still here.” John suggests that maybe Sherry painted that as a message for Dwight. Back at the plane, Luciana checks in on June. She hands her radio back to Luciana. The wind has changed and the radioactive smoke is now heading in their direction. Just then, Morgan comes on the radio. He wants everyone on the plane now. He runs out of the treeline with Grace and Alicia behind him. There is a walker herd not too far behind them. Morgan asks if everyone is there. They tell him that they are still waiting for John. Morgan wants to hold out for as long as they can to give John a chance to get back to them. Back at the arrival runway, Sarah has returned with three flares. Wendell doesn’t understand. Out of the entire factory was that is all she could find? She tells him that Logan’s crew tore the place up and didn’t leave much behind, except for these flares. She isn’t going to give up though. She is going to figure out how to light up the runway for the returning plane. Just then, a truck comes tearing down the runway. Out pops Daniel. Sarah opens up Skidmark’s crate and the cat jumps out and runs up to Daniel. Sarah assumes he is there to pick up his cat. Daniel tells her he heard the chatter on the radio and brought some things from the warehouse to help her.
Back at the departure runway, the walkers are slowly closing in on the back of the plane. Morgan, Alicia, and Grace are staying between them and the plane. Al and Strand are in the cockpit starting up the engines. Time is ticking — between the on coming cloud of radiation from the plant and the engines now consuming a limited supply of gasoline. They have a very small window to leave and it is rapidly closing. Alicia pops into the cockpit to let them know everyone is strapped in and ready to go. Strand grabs her and tells her, “She’d be proud of you, you know.” Alicia smiles, “not just of me.” Strand purses his lips, nods, and turns back to the controls of the plane. The rest of the group is holding back the walkers the best they can. They are getting ready to start shooting them down. June stops them. She says she made John a promise. They need to get on the plane and go now. No more delays. So Morgan tells everyone to make a run for the plane. Just as they get to the back of the plane, a car horn starts honking. Dwight and John drive around the herd and skid to a stop and jump on the plane. Unfortunately, the front of the herd has made it to the plane and some of them are tangled up in the cargo netting that was being used to climb into the back of the plane. The weight is keeping them from taking off. Morgan and John eventually pull all the pins for the netting and it releases from the back of the plane. The nose of the plane pulls up and they are in the sky. The cloud is rapidly approaching forcing them to make a hard turn. But they get past the cloud, straighten out, and they are on their way home.
In the back of the plane, Alicia talks to Morgan about their adventure. She tells him he was right. It takes more than just calling out on a walkie to help people, you have to show people you are willing to help. She asks him what’s next. He tells her that they get home, and keep trying to help people, but this time, they are also going to make sure they keep living their lives as well. Alicia asks him how will that work, and he shakes his head and chuckles, “I don’t know.” Alicia smiles and laughs with him. Grace notices the blood at the end of Morgan’s stick (he had taken the plastic off of it when they were getting ready to defend the plane). She stands up in the plane and stomps on his staff, breaking it in two. She takes the end with blood, tosses it out the back of the plane for good measure, and then hands him what’s left.
June asks John about Dwight. He tells her that Dwight will be okay. They were able to find Sherry’s car, and John thought it was going to be a dead end. But then John came to a realization that there was so much he wanted to say and he couldn’t keep going without saying it. He pulls out a piece of candy, unwraps it, pops it in his mouth, twists the wrapper and proposes to June using the candy wrapper as a ring. She accepts and they kiss.
It is night time at the arrival runway. The runway is outlined with multi-colored outdoor bulbs that Daniel brought. Daniel and Sarah finish putting together the last strands while Wendell is at the other end of the runway looking after the generator and fueling it up. Strand radios down to Sarah and Wendell and informs them they are making their approach and running low on fuel. Then Al and Strand see the lights. Strand calls back to the rest of the group to look out the window so they can see the runway all lit up. They are bringing the plane around to make their landing. Sarah and Daniel are getting ready to head back to Wendell. Just then a walker appears from the tree line on the opposite side of the runway. Wendell leaves the generator and wheels himself over to the walker. He spins his chair around and extends the spikes just as the walker reaches the back of the chair. The spikes miss the walker’s head and now the body of the walker is impaled on Wendell’s wheelchair. Unfortunately, another walker appears on the other side of the runway and as it approaches Wendell it trips over the power cord unplugging the lights from the generator. Wendell takes out that walker with his shotgun. Meanwhile, in the plane, something is happening to the engines. A loud bang is heard, and the plane starts rocking side to side. Strand is yelling over the radio about turning the lights back on. Al has no choice but to start landing the plane with or without the runway lights. Wendell dives out of his chair and starts to crawl across the runway. He gets to the generator just in time to plug in the lights. With the lights now on, Al and Strand can tell the plane’s approach is too steep, so they pull back as hard as they can and bring the plane in for a bumpy, but safe landing.
The group exits the plane and greets Wendell, Sarah, and Daniel. Morgan and Sarah hug. Grace questions Sarah calling Morgan “mo-mo.” Morgan introduces Grace to the others. Morgan shakes Wendell’s hand and then meets Daniel for the first time. Al and Sarah hug. Daniel then jokingly tells Al he told her not to show his interview to anyone. She says she owes him more cat food then. John excuses himself to go throw up. Luciana leads the children off the plane, and Dylan returns The Little Prince to her and thanks her for letting him read it. Luciana and Sarah hug, then Sarah leads the kids away to raid the vending machines in the nearby building. Alicia walks out from the plane and is astonished to see Daniel standing there. She runs up to him and they embrace and laugh. They exchange pleasantries and he tells her he is sorry for what happened. She tells him that they are trying to make better things happen now. She introduces Dwight to Daniel. Daniel suggests Dwight might need a haircut and Alicia explains that Daniel is a barber. Dwight thinks he might take Daniel up on that offer. Charlie runs up and hugs Daniel as Dwight and Alicia walk away. Daniel explains that he needed to go in order to be able to say goodbye to Ophelia and now that he could, he returned (with all the good records). Strand walks up and Daniel admits he was wrong about Victor.
Luciana, Sarah, and Wendell are sharing a beer at the back of her truck. Morgan is out on the runway trying to figure out what to do with half a staff. A woman calls out over the radio. Morgan responds and she asks if it was his plane, and he tells her it was. He wants to know who she is. She tells him that she heard them before on the radio and seen the boxes, but didn’t think it was for real. But now that she knows, she is reaching out to him for help. Logan cuts in on the radio and tells Morgan they need to chat, just as Logan pulls up in a car and gets out.
The group all has their guns drawn on him. He tells them that they should listen to him before trying to help that woman on the radio. He explains because of the hurricane and general wear and tear, it is now more difficult to get around in the world. But Clayton foresaw the problem and set up a group of people that were tasked with cultivating a resource that would help solve the problem. Logan says he is talking about gasoline. Clayton wrote down the location in his journal. Logan thought he could find the journal at the factory. Luciana informs him that she has the journal. He tells them that if they give him the journal, he will take them to the location. But the group is skeptical. Logan then tells the group that if his convoy group knew he was talking them, they would kill Logan and all the others. Then he admits that he has stuff to make up for as well. If the group wants to help people, they have to get to those people. Pretty soon, they won’t be able to do that. So he asks for their help in getting to the location before the other group does.
Ethan Suess as Max, Cooper Dodson as Dylan, Bailey Gavulic as Annie – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
After a few weeks of questionable episodes, this episode is very refreshing as it also has my interest for when the season returns in a couple of weeks. In fact, this is my second favorite episode of the season so far as the third episode is my absolute favorite of the season. Having Dwight crossed over to fear has impacted very little so far, but I am hopeful for that his crossover will have a larger impact in thye second half. The scene where the lights of the pathway for thye plane to land coming off for a few seconds did really bought out the tension especially since it is dark in that area. Overall, this was a solid episode!
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Jenna Elfman as June, Danay Garcia as Luciana, Maggie Grace as Althea – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Let’s face it, last week’s episode of Fear was a big advertisement for beer that was right infront of our faces. It was mostly clunky with some good parts. We are nearly halfway through this season without a character death too, but one in particular could meet their impending doom. Here is my review for the seventh episode of the fifth season of Fear The Walking Dead titled “Still Standing”.
The episode opens with Alicia contacting the three kids as she is infront of the barricaded walkers that we have seen at the end of last week’s episode. After that, Alicia begins to take them out one by one, but before she could continue, Strand begins to shoot the walkers that are near them in that contaminated area. Charlie then tells Strand to get the propeller as she will distract the walkers. Morgan radios in and asked if they killed any of the walkers that was exposed to radaition in which Strand says no. Back to Alicia as she is still taking down the walkers and she notices that Grace is there. June then tells morgan that she will come to the area to help and also that she does not know where John went. But Morgan told her to finish the plane and then Morgan tells Grace that Strand and Charlie crashed into the contaminated area. Morgan told her that he crossed the road block and where he is heading to. Grace then tells Morgan that there is a house near by that has another suit for him to use.
Alicia then sees more walkers and Dylan appearas behind her and told her to follow him since she was going the wrong way. While Strand was dragging the propeller, more walkers that were exposed were walking towards him. Strand tells Charlie to power the balloon to make a wall to prevent the walkers from coming to them. Smart idea.
Alicia and Anne then speak after Dylan lets her inside the treehouse area. Anne keeps telling her that they did not want help and that Alicia was not supposed to be there. Anne asks Alicia about the weapon she uses and Alicia says that it is part of her past too. Alicia warns them that they will die if they stay there and Anne is still not convinced about the plane plan. Alicia says that she wanted to make up for the bad things that she did in the past and then, Anne asks her if she killed people in which Alicia says yes. Anne then says if the plane plan does not work, it will be blamed on her. Althea and June sees that the fuel is leaking from the plane and Althea lets her know that she knows where to get more. Morgan then enters the house to look for the radaition suit. Alicia then contacts Morgan to ask why are they still there and Morgan then says “everything comes with a return”. He then sees a walker on the window part of the door and then tells Alicia that he will get everyone on the plane no matter what.
June asks Althea if she was sure if the helicopter landed on the top of the cliff and Althea says that it did. June tells John that he needs to get back with them soon or else the reactor will melt down. Dwight tells John to leave so he can continue looking for Sherry. John was about to give Dwight the letter Sherry left him, but he put it back in his pocket after Dwight asked him if he would have done the same for June. Strand and Charlie think the balloon will not hold for long and Strand then tells Charlie that at first, he did not believe in the group at first and that they will not stop thinking of giving up. After that, Morgan kills the walkers on the other side of the balloon and he also has the suit on as well. While the kids were talking near the walkers in the woods, the walkers begun to break apart and started to approach them as they run.
Colman Domingo as Victor Strand – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Althea then looks at drawings of those walkers and asked Dylan if he drew them. Dylan says that he had nightmares of playing red rover before the apocalypse begun and he also states that everything is a nightmare now becuase of what happened. Alicia then brings up her mom and before she could continue, Anne yells and says that the walkers are coming. They got in, and closed the gates and there are now a swarm of walkers infront of their house. Grace is trying to power the generator and she tells Morgan that it could only hold for about 12 hours. Then Morgan tells Strand that he needs to take a shower and for both of them to get back and finish the plane. Althea and June loaded the fuel tanks in the back of the trunk as their mission was a success. June tries to contact John over the walkie-talkie and there was no response. Althea then opens up about Althea to June and lets her know that she cannot tell anyone about her.
Back to Alicia and the kids as they realize that the walkers are about to overrun the place and Alicia comes up with the plan to take them out one by one on the bridge. John and Dwight also runs out of fuel in the car that they were driving and tries to hotwire the truck that they seen across from them, but that did not work at all. John then finally admits that Sherry left him a note in the car and gives it to Dwight. This made Dwight mad as he took the note and left the truck. While that is going on, Morgan and Grace talk about the current situation of the reactor and then, we cut to Alicia as she is continuing to take out those walkers one by one. One disgusting looking walker with it’s eyeballs hanging out of the socket tries to bite Alicia, but she took that walker down. The problem after that, is that the walker was exposed to radaition and the blood got all over Alicia!!. Meanwhile, Anne, who cannot aim at all, starts to shoot down the walkers that were approaching the kids. Anne and Alicia then talk over the walkie-talke as Alicia tells her to leave the place for good or else they will get overrun.
Bailey Gavulic as Annie, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Later that night, the kids arrive to the area in a van right after Morgan and Grace speak. Strand asks Anne for Alicia as she was not with them. Dwight also came to realize that Sherry does not want him looking for her anymore. But he does not want to give up and is convinced that she is still alive. Alicia then wipes off the blood with the water in the lake and then Morgan asks her over the walkie-talkie if she is okay and she says that she is. Before they could continue, more walkers are seen walking to her location and then the reactor siren goes off as the episode ends.
After we got another cliffhanger last week, we do not need another one. And sorry to say this Morgan, but I will have to take Chris Jericho’s line and say “WILL YOU PLEASE…SHUT…THE HELL….UP!”. It is very frustarating to see him as the voice of reason 3 episodes in a row. And Alicia’s decisions have me baffled as well. The action scenes were also good, but the scripting behind it along with the dialouge was not good for half of this episode. I did like John and Dwight’s interractions along with Strand and Charlie’s as well. The first half of the season is about to end and I hope that the mid season finale leaves off with a bang!
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content and subscribe to The Wrestling Court as we talk about the latest in pro wrestling, pop culture, and comics along with our live watch reactions to past matches. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.
