Reunited at last, Dwight and Sherry spend time together. But when it becomes apparent where Sherry has been and what’s she’s planning, Dwight is again on the wrong side of history.

This episode really shows just what an artistic identity all its own Fear The Walking Dead has now. Not just in the intensely intimate stories and the Western iconography its Austin locations allow it, but in design. Each one of the episodes so far has had a different colour scheme and figure in the opening credits, representing who the spotlight is on. This time it’s Dwight and Sherry, a mask dangling from her fingers.

That mask becomes vital to the episode in two different ways. The first is in the way Sherry has become a part of the masked group of ‘throwbacks’ Virginia has no use for. This is exactly what she and Dwight did with Negan, except for the fact this group are ruthless but not actively abusive. Their intent to take back Al’s MRAP (or destroy it) and assassinate Ginny is understandable but, as everyone else knows, they don’t have the resources or any certainty of success. Worse still, Sherry and Dwight are so wracked with survivor’s guilt that they go out of their to stop the other from putting themselves in harm’s way. In Dwight’s case this manifests in a cheerful willingness to go back to his fondness for torture, learned from Negan. For Sherry, it all comes to a head when she yells ‘I could have stopped him!’

Not her.

Not them.

Him.

Negan.

This is deep range exploration of PTSD and it’s done with equal parts subtlety and horror; Christine Evangelista and Austin Amelio do phenomenal work throughout and their styles mesh perfectly. Evangelista’s Sherry is driven, furious, calm. Amelio’s Dwight is amiable, kind and desperate. The tragedy of them is they’re perfect for each other. The reality is that they know they can’t be together. At least not yet. This leads to a nicely tense action sequence, and a moment at the very end of the episode where Amelio shows us Dwight accepting he’s back at square one, but he at least has hope there.

This is a subtle episode that moves the war with Virginia towards its beginning but does so with the caution of Morgan and, to his astonishment, Dwight. It also shows us the consequences of living in a world like this and how far someone can go, and still have to go, in Dwight and Sherry. It’s gentle, low key, but also gripping, tense and clearly building towards something.

Verdict: Once again, a really impressive hour of TV. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart