The Writing On The Trees
After last week’s stylish bottle episode, Fear The Walking Dead returns this week with more characterisation and plot progression, with a pretty good episode, despite some illogical character choices. Sensing the group is far too big to effectively portray them all, Fear takes a clever approach with its latest episode, condensing down the group to a handful of survivors, allowing for more concise character arcs. We begin the episode with Alicia staring up at the tree, contemplating where the writing may have come from. Calling out for Strand to help her, she fights off several zombies, clearly rattled by her previous encounters with them. As they continue talking, Wes crackles into life on the radio, prompting Alicia and Strand to go and pick him up while Morgan and Al fight off zombies of their own. They break into a bank vault, allowing Al to store all the interview tapes in a safety deposit box, her way of salvaging the past. As they drop Wes off and look set to head back to the group, gunshots ricochet around the building before a man charges out and steals their truck. Before they can head after him, zombies dressed in riot gear surround them, prompting Alicia and Wes to head inside while Strand tries to hold them off, tear gas stinging his eyes. As they scramble for cover and close the door, Alicia confronts Wes about his story, which happens to be completely fake. It’s here she learns he doesn’t have a brother but unfortunately they have bigger fish to fry as the building is surrounded. As Morgan and Al head down the road, they find Logan blocking the way with his rig. He gives them an ultimatum and refuses to move, telling them what he’s doing is bigger than him and them. Morgan confronts him and it looks set to erupt, before the situation diffuses. Meanwhile Wes, Alicia and Strand take a stand and decide to fight off the walkers to get out. Wes heads out the back with a bag full of guns, picking them off one by one, while Alicia tries to find the right keys. Having flashbacks to the blood spatter from the infected zombie, Alicia hesitates in killing a stray walker until Strand manages to save the day. It’s here they catch up with the man who stole Wes’ stuff, having successfully escaped the building. As they wrestle on the ground, Wes stabs him in the stomach as Alicia incredulously asks him if he did all that just to get his book back. Given he died for it, Wes scoffs at the idea of taking it from his fingers and walks away, telling her people are people and he died for that manuscript so he can keep it. In a strange turn of events, it’s revealed that Wes was the one who painted the trees and, inspired by his work, Alicia decides she’s going to paint her own message. “No One’s Gone Until They’re Gone”. Spying where they left the tapes, Logan breaks into the bank vault and begins snatching up valuables. Unfortunately they fail to find the journals they’re after but do manage to get their hands on Morgan’s tape, which may prove to be far more valuable in the future. Fear The Walking Dead is still a shadow of the show it once was but its latest episode continues to deliver a pretty enjoyable story. It’s still methodically paced and littered with plot inconsistencies, but there’s at least a bit of progression here which is nice to see. Alicia’s flashbacks to her fight in the nuclear zone is a nice throwback, especially given all the characters seem to have completely forgotten that chapter of their life, quite where this will lead going forward though is still up for debate. Still, if you’ve made it this far then you’re likely going to see this through to the end. Unless something changes drastically, Fear The Walking Dead is likely to go down in much the same way as the previous season – a missed opportunity and a shadow of the show it was when it peaked back in Season 3.
