Months after the bombs fall, Morgan, Grace and Baby Mo are relatively safe but have dwindling supplies. They can only survive outside for six hours but Morgan has other ideas…

How do you follow a Shakespearean descent into the heart of a character’s wounds? With another one! Joking aside, this episode really removes any doubt as to how the show is dealing with its new status quo. ‘Unflinchingly’ would be the short answer and ‘better than its characters’ the frivolous one. This episode steers so hard into post-nuclear bleak it’s almost unbearable. It isn’t, and it’s worth persevering with, and here’s why.

Not many people are going to talk about this I suspect but the fact we’re two episodes into season 7 and had two characters break down due to sheer existential horror is one of the bravest things the show has ever done. Persistent environmental stress is something we all have to deal with right now (honestly my anxiety spiked a little leaving ‘right’ out of that sentence so point made) and the show explores that with clear eyes. Karen David does excellent work here as a woman who has been pushed far past anything the post-apocalyptic survivors have faced before and is just Done. The early moment where she apologizes to Mo but refuses to sing to her is a particular standout as is the ending. There’s a dangerously creaky message here that ‘trauma cures depressive episodes’ in much the same way that electroshock therapy and vigorous exercise were once claimed to. It doesn’t, and the show is going to need to engage with Grace’s struggle in future episodes to not cheapen this. But right now, the sight of her deciding she needs to live only long enough to make sure Morgan and Mo are okay is powerful, calm and brave.

The crucible that spits her out is a combination of Morgan’s usual frantic invention and circumstance. Michael E. Strazemis, who is always a good choice to direct one of these shows, crafts a fantastically tense and gooey standoff in the third act which sees Morgan having to fight off a pair of burned survivors who are also allies as well as a mysterious third figure and a collection of dripping radioactive walkers. Oh and the six hours they can be safely exposed is running out and the only way they can communicate is through cans on strings. It’s low fi, slow and panicky and it’s a brilliant set piece that changes everyone involved. It’s also crushingly bleak as we find out why the survivors are obsessed with Mo, what they want to do and how little Morgan and Grace can do about it. Until that ending, and a song, and a moment of catharsis that feels less like it’s earned and more like Grace has simply decided to do it. Like I say, nuanced and complex and I don’t know if it’s going to work but damn does it ever try.

Child death, radioactive burns, even more hazards in the environment and a dubious late reveal on the series’ big bad mean this episode is a lot. That reveal by the way is Demetrius Grosse returning as the twin brother of his character from last season. Yes that’s asking a lot. Yes it’s something that I’m not sure will work and yes, I’m hoping it does. It’s a hell of a swing and it comes at the end of an episode that’s intense, bleak and, perhaps hopeful.

Verdict: This season continues to take no prisoners and wait for no one. Impressive, ambitious and, hopefully, successful. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart

 

Fear the Walking Dead airs on Mondays at 9pm on AMC BT in the UK