Spoilers

The tower has fallen, the Nuclear Walkers are here. The only way to survive is to escape on the ocean and hope that the rumours that there’s something approaching safe haven out there are true.

Alicia is dying. But Alicia wants to save a little girl before she goes. A little girl only she can see…

Michael E. Strazemis excels at lyrical direction and this episode gives him a chance to stretch his wings and fly. Literally in the case of the bird that leads Alicia back to the tower and the almost impressionistic shots of Al’s SWAT truck, Madison and the mysterious masked girl. Fear The Walking Dead has always excelled at this sort of beauty in ruins. This episode all the brakes come off and it works a treat. From the use of Alicia’s frequent fainting spells as chapter breaks to the bitter conversation she has with a (probably?) dying Victor in a smoke-filled room, there’s nothing easy here.

Alicia and Strand have lives filled with ghosts and now, at the end of those lives, they finally get to look those ghosts in the eyes. The moment Alicia comes within seconds of suicide is hard to watch for us and her as she flashes on everyone she’s lost. They’re interspersed with the people she still has and her mom’s video testimony (and isn’t it great that those play back in?!) and they do the last thing Alicia wants and the one thing she needs; give her the will to continue and to look under the mask. The little girl she’s frantically trying to save, who saves her over and over? Is her. Her innocence, her determination, her compassion. Even maimed and using her own bones as a weapon. Even dying and facing the end of everything, somehow, yet again. There’s a moment where the younger Alicia says: ‘I wasn’t lying when I said I survived the bite. I’m still in you.’

That is one of the most powerful beats the show has ever used. Determined and exhausted. Pragmatic and compassionate. Deeply pissed off and never for a second letting it get in the way. Alicia Clark, embodied.

All of which leads to an incredibly simple and deeply moving closing sequence. As the Walkers head for the beach the flotilla of rafts is launched and Alicia, convinced she’s going to turn, sends Strand on his way. They say ‘I love you’, he rows off, waves and she waves back. And then, at last, Alicia Clark lets herself rest.

And to her amazement, wakes up without a fever. The younger version of her appears, shows that the bite on her wrist has gone and they chat about how Alicia feels like herself for the first time in a while. She heads back into the mist to find the people who heard her message and use her time wisely. Because that’s what counts; not the time but who you help with it.

Verdict: Is she dead? I don’t think so. Will we see her again? Almost certainly. But for now this is a wonderful, compassionate send off for an iconic character. One more episode to go. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart