Fear the Walking Dead: Good Out Here

First Aired April 29th, 2018

After being captured by Nick (played by Frank Dillane), Alicia (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey), Strand (played by Colman Domingo) and Luciana (played by Danay Garcia), Althea (played by Maggie Grace) breaks free of her restraints and attacks Nick. The commotion as well as walkers on the road cause Luciana to crash the truck.

Althea, Morgan (played by Lennie James) and John (played by Garret Dillahunt) tie up the others but the truck is trapped in a ditch. Luciana offers to help get a tow truck, and Althea wants the group’s story to add to her collection so they reach a tentative truce. While Luciana leads the group to find the tow truck the injured Morgan stays behind to watch Nick who was injured in the crash.

When a car drives by Morgan attempts to hide in the truck, when Nick spots the car he attacks Morgan, he rigs the horn to honk attracting walkers and runs off. Meanwhile the others find a truck stop and find one for their needs, while scouring for gas Strand questions Althea’s motives for collection people’s stories; she believes the truth matters even if nobody is around to hear it. Nick is nearly killed by walkers but Morgan saves him and they go to find somewhere safe to lie low. Interspersed are flashbacks to the stadium and their attempts to get by, Madison (played by Kim Dickens) and Nick go out for supplies as the Vultures continue camping outside.

It might take a while but there’s potential for these two groups to come together if they can stop attacking each other. This is the first time we get to see everyone interact and it’s always fun to see different characters sizing each other up. In particular Morgan and Nick because they both have emotionally volatile pasts and it will be good to see how they mix. Althea is so passionate about her End of the World documentary you kind of hope it will amount to something, even though we all know they’ll likely just collect dust somewhere. So far the Vultures don’t make for the best villains if anything they’re like annoying houseguests who’ve overstayed their welcome. The saving grace is clearly something happened at the stadium to displace everyone so they’re not going to remain passive (and boring) for long.

While out searching Nick and Madison run into Ennis (played by Evan Gamble) from the Vultures picking a house clean as well as Charlie (played by Alexa Nisenson) the girl who betrayed them to the Vultures. Nick almost slits Ennis’ throat when he makes a snide remark but Madison talks him down. In the present, Nick and Morgan find an abandoned shop and Nick questions why Morgan saved him and Morgan says he doesn’t kill. Nick wants to after the car they saw (which belonged to Ennis) and dismisses at Morgan’s attempts to talk him down. The others find the van but Althea refuses to leave it and her tapes, Luciana and John go off to search while Alicia and Strand help free the van. Strand demands that in exchange Althea takes them to where they found the Vultures flag and Althea wants to film their interviews and everything that happens. Morgan runs into Ennis and tries to urge him to leave, Nick shows up but Morgan holds him back from attacking him. Nick makes it clear he is determined to kill Ennis and Morgan reluctantly lets him go ago and leaves, in the struggle Nick impales Ennis on the antlers of an overturned deer head.

It seemed that Madison didn’t want to kill Ennis in front of Charlie but the girl clearly chose the enemy over them. These Vultures aren’t violent (yet) but they’re keeping supplies away from you and your family so Madison should have considered all of that. Althea has stepped up from just conducting interviews now she’s like a war reporter documenting the fight with the Vultures. Althea keeping up with her former life as a journalist is one of the more interesting things about her character but it her fierce protectiveness of her videos seems like foreshadowing. She’s made it her life’s mission to film people and I can see a scenario where she dies trying to protect them. They dynamic between Morgan and Nick is similar to the one Morgan had with his Aikido teacher. He taught Morgan how to value life and Morgan clearly wanted to do that with Nick, clearly he has his work cut out for him. Whatever happened between Nick and Ennis the score was settled although with Madison still out of the picture her being captured or dead is a pretty safe bet.

Morgan goes back and explains to Nick he understands how he feels because of all that he lost and gives him a book to read on peace, eventually the others show up in the truck. Nick looks at a blue flower and reminisces finding a field with Madison as a sign that there’s still beauty in the world. Charlie appears and shoots Nick but runs off before the others can catch her, Alicia and Luciana try to save him but he dies.

Nick was one of the more complex and interesting characters on the show, and his bourgeoning story with Morgan was something I wanted to see play out. But it is a full circle moment in that when someone finally let Nick go after Ennis it was his undoing and getting shot by Charlie of all people was a big surprise. Instead as Alicia and the others mourn Nick we will also see how Morgan handles losing yet another person he began to bond with and if his traumatized psyche can take it.

Quotes/Thoughts

“I know who you are Nick, cause I was there. I didn’t know how to make it stop. I didn’t know if I wanted it to stop.”

Seriously the Vultures ‘wait them out’ plan is as lazy as it is boring.

“You’re a puzzling creature.”

Nick’s story is over but with the flashbacks we’ll still get to see him for a while, that should soften the blow of his death.

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