Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 23, 2023
It takes a lot of creative, hard-working, and talented people to put together a television show — actors, producers, directors, crew, VFX, assistants, location scouts, janitors, etc. Everything starts with the writing, however, and when the writing is bad, you let all of those people down, not to mention the millions of people who watch the show and the hundreds of others whose livelihood depends upon its success.
The people who have been writing Fear the Walking Dead — and the showrunners, in particular — have been failing all of those other people for years. The series has managed to coast and sputter for eight long seasons on the fumes of IP and brand loyalty, but I do not know a single person who would admit to actually liking Fear the Walking Dead. The only people who are still watching it are doing so out of a combination of inertia and completism. After 108 episodes, there are only six left. That the finish line is so close is the only reason we are watching. We don’t even care how it ends.
But we’re also still here, hoping against all odds that Fear can find a small dose of magic. Based on the midseason premiere, that possibility seems highly unlikely.
When last we left, Morgan and Madison had dismantled the PADRE leadership and vowed to make PADRE what it was meant to be: A community to raise children and prepare them for a world infested with zombies. But first thing first: Lennie James decided to exit the series along with his character, Morgan, and Madison decided she would like to reunite all the children abducted by PADRE with their parents.
What Victor Strand has to do with that, I don’t know. But when the episode opens, Victor lives a tranquil life with a teenage son and a husband in what looks like zombie suburbia. He goes by the name Anton, and for some reason, he speaks German. He decided that, though there are no record-keeping capabilities, social security numbers, or computer tracking of any sort in the apocalypse, he needed to change his name to escape his old identity, which some may recall was as the villain in season seven (Colman Domingo was not in the first six episodes, because Colman Domingo has better things to do).
Somehow, Madison locates Victor, and though Victor is briefly happy to see her and reaches for a hug, he also denies to Madison that he is Victor, continuing his Anton charade in front of his husband and son. It is pointless, but also, within 20 minutes of her arrival, the idyllic suburbia has gone to sh** because a group of people have followed Madison to Victor’s community on behalf of someone else: Troy Otto.
Troy Otto was a villain in season three, the only consistently good season of Fear the Walking Dead. Madison hit him in the head with a hammer and left him for dead. But because no one ever really dies in Fear the Walking Dead, Troy is back and has somehow relocated from the Mexican border to the Georgia area.
Troy — now missing an eye because of Madison’s hammer — has decided that, since Madison took his home (the ranch) back in season three, he’s going to take her home now. He’s about to force Madison to reveal the location of PADRE when Madison’s people — Daniel, June, Sherry, and a bunch of red shirts — arrive in time to rescue Madison and Victor, who by now has revealed to his husband that his life with him and his son was a lie.
Troy also says he’s the one who killed Alicia, who was about to die the last time we saw her. Madison says, “No way! You lie!” He pushes a duffel bag over toward Madison and tells her to open it. The show clearly thinks this is a “What’s in the box?!” moment, but the discovery of Alicia’s metal arm is silly and anticlimactic. Then Troy asks Madison, “What are you even fighting for?” and the episode abruptly ends.
Has anyone ever quit a series with more than 100 episodes with only five episodes remaining?
