When we look back on the long, weird and often insufferable post Season 3 legacy of "Fear the walking dead", several characters and plot lines stick out, both as good and bad. This will definitely settle itself into the 'bad' category' now that the battle for the tower is finally over, even though it basically never began. You have to give the show some leeway when you consider its budget is probably low and actually having several high budget action heavy episodes is difficult when you have little money to spread around, but at the same time, when we finally get given our 'battle' action heavy episode, its a massive mixed bag full of unfulfilled potential. Anyone that has read my views on the last few installments of Fear will know how much I'm waiting for Madison Clark to finally make her reappearance and maybe (I'm practically on the floor, begging) steer this practically sunken ship around.
The reason why I (and probably so many others) haven't abandoned the series is because of our investment in the original Clark's story. I love Alicia, she's one of my favorite TV characters and whether or not the actual stories she involved in are compelling, I feel an obligation to stay around until shes gone, after all, this is now her show (when it isn't Morgan Jones). Now, onto the actual episode itself. The cast for this show is huge at the moment, with so many characters on the list that even though Althea left earlier in the season, alongside John Sr's death (and now Wes' death), the cast STILL feels too massive to actually develop characters and make you care about them. I think I and a lot of other viewers were hoping that this episode would crack up the death count for the series and start to trim the cast heading into Season 8.
Look, its not that I don't like these characters, but what purpose has Grace, the Rabbi and Wendall actually served in this season's story line? They should've been some of the casualties of this ongoing war, to actually add stakes and make it feel as if characters can die in an unpredictable fashion, not long winded deaths like John Sr or Charlie (presumably, she'll be gone soon). Some fast, action heavy casualties would bring the suspense that this show has missed for the entire season, and allow other characters to come into the forefront and stop this long overused anthology format.
Strand and Alicia's relationship feels so weird now, he killed her love interest and also manipulated one of her closest friends (Wes) into becoming a psychopath, but after all this, she STILL (SOMEHOW) trusts him by the end of the episode's run time (before he turns the light off). This writing is bonkers. Strand has shown his true colors as an untrustworthy, evil, psychopath so many times yet Alicia is still going to trust him? Such a weird episode. All the stuff with Daniel's memory and his fight for his humanity in the decision NOT to kill Strand was actually fantastic, and the only redeeming features of this episode. The flashbacks to Ofelia from the early seasons were nice to see and the scene with Dan talking to Charlie was quite emotional by her bedside.
Overall, this is an extremely half baked, very plot hole filled episode that remains watchable only through the decent performances the cast give and some solid scenes spread throughout. Look, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm actually more invested in the cast remaining from this series (Strand, Daniel, Alicia and Madison) than the actual main series, so I'm hoping we get a somewhat compelling story for Madison when she finally comes back next episode (or the one after), here's hoping.
5/10.
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