Althea is still alive
- running from zombies, alone until she runs into Martha who has a mission for
her - she wants Althea to take a message to Morgan
Althea’s not having
that
So, after a scuffle,
Martha knocks her out - but does safely deliver Althea (she doesn’t hate Althea
because Althea doesn’t help people - she trades for their stories which isn’t
the same as help) to the rest of the gang with a video of Martha saying… well
the same thing she’s always been saying. Let’s face it, Martha isn’t exactly a
person with multiple messages and themes.
But the gangs
together and Morgan tells them all about Alexandria and it’s time to head there
- but on the way they’re going to Polar Bear’s truck stop so they can pick up
boxes and still help people.
Except Morgan wants
to help Martha, even though she’s sick, even though she’s dying, even though
she continually trying to kill them over and over and over again. Morgan wants
to help her and decides to go off alone to do that. John agrees to wait with
the rest at the truck stop for 2 days before coming to find him. That gives
them time to reflect on moving on, building a new future, making up for the bad
stuff they’ve done and for June and John to have an “awww” moment.
Morgan and Martha
meet up with Morgan killing zombie James and she’s clearly very very ill,
unable to stand and generally sick. He insists on trying to help and offers her
medicine and she continually refuses. He forces her into a police car so he can
drag her back - while she struggles and fights and resists
He rightly concludes
she’s lost someone and she tells him about her dead husband Hank. He tries to
tell her how it’s all not her fault she doesn’t have to do this - and Martha
isn’t to blame and is who he used to be etc etc etc they’ve been saying the
same words over and over since she first appeared
But drama - all of
the gang at the Truck Stop are suddenly horrifically ill and awful and call
Morgan to say something’s wrong. It turns out that Martha has poisoned the
bottled water with antifreeze as punishment for them helping people. Morgan
steps on it to try and get back as soon as possible to tell them (his walkie
doesn’t have the same range as the Truck Stop’s transmitter) - and Martha
drives them off the road.
After the crash
Morgan has something impaled in his leg and is all woozy as Martha draws on his
face as she does all her prezombies with “Lose someone lose myself” just in
case we missed the oh-so-subtle message here. Morgan again tries to save her
and she reveals she’s been bitten
She made sure he couldn’t help her. And now he has to kill her to help his friends. He fights her but he’s utterly terrified that if he kills her he will change back to what he was. He’s also afraid that if he loses everyone, suffers another loss, he will also go back to the evil Morgan. This was why he left Alexandria in the first place - he didn’t want to lose more people he cared about and was afraid of what he would become. He refuses to kill her and instead leaves her handcuffed to the car so when she turns she can’t hurt anyone else
Really? She has been
BITTEN. This is a point where putting her out of everyone’s misery would be
quite reasonable here Morgan
He then staggers off
on foot (did he even try to drive the car?), fighting zombies, hobbling,
desperately trying to help his friends. He does get close enough to call them
and tell them what they’ve been poisoned by - and June knows ethanol is the
cure. They have a tanker of that but when they all fight to recover it, working
together, rescuing each other, they end up losing it when Althea has to use the
Big Guns on her truck to clear out the zombies.
Or apparently lose it
Sure there’s a lot of
bullet holes in the tanker but the liquid is flowing out - it’s going to take
at least a few minutes for it to drain empty - go! Collect the flowing liquid!
So everyone despairs
and prepares to die and Althea looks at her old tapes and there’s lots of sad
bonding until Morgan arrives! And he has a truck of beer! And not just beer but
it’s James’s beer! And he rides a unicorn and shoot rainbows
Yeaaah I’m cynical but this hail mary ending is a little dubious. And is there even sufficient ethanol content in beer for it to be the cure? Especially American beer? Personally I think making dying people drink American beer is just additional cruelty.
Everyone is back,
Morgan wipes off the “lose someone lose yourself” written on his forehead and
all is good. He even tracks down Martha’s zombie to kill and bury her
But he doesn’t want
to go to Alexandria
Which I can understand because the writers have to realise they can only drag out “travel across country in a big truck” for so long.
Morgan decides that
the whole reason Martha became what she was was because she needed help and
no-one was going to offer her any. He wonders how many people out there need the
same. Also most of the cast (not quite so much Sarah and Wendell) are seeking
redemption or amends at some point. And Alicia wants to rebuild her mother’s
legacy of creating a safe space for people to grow and develop - and so they
take over the denim factory that Polar Bear was based from and decide to use
all of Althea’s interviews to find people who need help and help them.
Awww
And looo we have the
season finale and I have complex thinky thoughts about this season. I very much
like where it’s going. I like that we’re seeing a dystopian zombie apocalypse
that is hopeful for once - where survival isn’t going to be the be all and end
all and we don’t have 8,000 reiterations of “we need to do evil stuff to
survive”. I like the new positive slant and I like how they’ve massively
transformed Fear the Walking Dead to tell this story - and this is a
huge reboot. I want this story - I do want to see something more hopeful with
help and strength going in
I also like Morgan as
the protagonist and hope he stays that way - and here is where I do worry. If Fear
the Walking Dead is truly rebooting then Morgan will live and this will
become a whole new story with a Black protagonist and a positive, moral
outlook. If this is just an interlude, then Morgan as moral centre and a Black
man is going to die which is a problem.
I do like how we’ve
seen Wendell who both adds to the racial diversity and brings some much needed
disability representation to the show in a way that continues to uphold him as
useful and capable. They didn’t bring in a disabled character for him to be a
burden or problem for the group - he contributes and helps and is a valued
member of the team. I also really appreciate that they have chosen an actor who
actually uses a wheelchair and aren’t using an able bodied character to play
disabled.
Luciana and Victor
both also add to the racial diversity of the show which is a diverse cast for
so few characters - but both are very much extras at this point. Luciana was
pretty much an addition to Nick’s storyline and is rather in limbo now and,
after the loss of his boat and his biplay with Madison, Victor has never really
had a role. I also think his sexuality is at best a footnote and there’s a
decent chance you could go most of this season (and the last season) and not
even realise he’s gay (and I will throw Martha, John and June at anyone who
says “this is a zombie movie we don’t have romance!”)
My main issue with
this season is it felt forced. The whole transition was somewhat convoluted. It
started before the midseason with Madison having an almost complete
transformation to set her up as this moral beacon which everyone should aspire
to. Morgan is see-sawing emotional back and forth to such utter extremes that
it almost reaches comedy (his investment in Martha is borderline bizarre). The
character of Martha herself is almost a caricature - she wasn’t a character,
she was a moral lesson. It’s almost ironic that she existed as a moral lesson
for Morgan when Morgan has existed almost entirely a moral lesson for Rick.
John himself seems to be, again, perhaps too nice and too good. While June and
Alicia have both had break neck character shifts. It all feels like… the
writers had an idea where they wanted to take the show. So they’re taking the
show there even if they have to force it. I like the shift but I have a feel of
square pegs being forced into round holes about the whole thing
