fear the walking dead

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.

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.

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.

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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