Fear The Walking Dead – Season 5 Episode 8 Recap & Review

 

Mid-Season Madness

Acting as a mid-season finale, Fear The Walking Dead appears to wrap up its nuclear subplot with an underwhelming resolution yet a strangely satisfying one involving our fellow plane fixer-uppers.

We begin with Logan eventually communicating with the group via radio after all our crew have given up trying to find anyone else out there.

With the sirens wailing, we return to present day with Alicia having a hot shower and wiping the blood off her. Ignoring the possible threat of her contamination, Morgan fails to lose the walkers and they try to come up with another plan as soon as they can while the finishing touches are applied to the plane. Morgan and Alicia lead them down the road with Grace while Dwight and John hot-wire a car, following Sherry’s leads.

Having come up with an idea, Alicia and the others stop the car by the side of the road and let the walkers pass. However, one of them spots Alicia and begins banging on the glass prompting Grace to attempt a 180 degree handbrake turn…consequently crashing the car in the process and forcing the group out the car to fight.

Meanwhile the rest of the crew wait patiently for the others to arrive while black smoke crowds the horizon where, we assume, the reactor has blown. However Dwight and John pay it no mind as they run into more car trouble on the way as their hot-wired car fails to start. After saying his emotional goodbyes to June on the walkie, he happens upon a tree right where the car has stopped with a ladder and a reminder they’re not far off from their goal. This, as it happens, is Sherry’s way of showing them where to go.

However, back with the plane the group run into trouble as Alicia and Morgan charge through the trees and lead the zombies right where they’re all located. Hundreds of them. As the truckers wait for Morgan and the others to arrive at the runway, the group plan a counter-offensive. They hesitate, backing off despite a whole line of guns and eventually decide fighting is futile and get on the plane without waiting for John and Dwight. As the propellors whir into action, John and Dwight arrive at the last second and manage to hop on-board the plane. After losing the dead weight, they make it into the sky, away from danger.

Here, John asks Junes to marry him before they realize they’re low on fuel. Thankfully Daniel arriving at the runway gives them just the advantage they need to find the runway at night. However they don’t count on zombies crashing the party and they trip the wires, causing the lights to go out. After dispatching the walkers, Wendell plugs the lights back in at the last second and saves the day as the plane lands safely.

After warm reunions, Morgan gets a call on the radio from someone saying they need help before its intercepted by Logan saying they need to talk too. He proposes an alliance where he can help them, especially since the fuel appears to be going bad.

Despite starting brightly with its first episode, Fear The Walking Dead ultimately shuffles back into old ways with an episode chock full of illogical character decisions and forced drama. As Grace spun the car around I genuinely sat here thinking how crazy it is that these people have survived this long in the apocalypse. Given how most of these people should be battle-hardened survivors by now, the loss of Madison and Nick have really highlighted how far the show has fallen.

While I’m not against killing off main characters in a show, losing the core central glue to Fear really hurt this Walking Dead spin-off and unfortunately Alicia can’t quite carry the load on her own. Dwight’s inclusion is certainly welcome but aside from fan service, he hasn’t really contributed anything of note to the group over the past 8 episodes. Still, there are positives here and the plane storyline across the episodes has actually progressed quite well, even ending with a nice little redemption arc for Daniel at the end.

Having said all that, Fear The Walking Dead still has a long way to go before it hits the lofty heights of its excellent third season. The show really hit its stride then and since that moment, Fear has been on a steady decline. Although I did actually quite enjoy this episode, moreso than some of the others this season, the lacklustre finish to the nuclear meltdown saga and an uncomfortable amount of illogical decisions hold this back from being the show it once was.

With a 3 week hiatus upon us, there’s enough time to digest what we’ve seen but quite whether Fear will hit its third season stride again remains to be seen.

 

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  • Episode Rating
    (3.5)
3.5

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