Dwight and Sherry (Austin Amelio and Christine Evangelista) are forced to locate someone for Victor (Coleman Domingo). But when they find Mickey (Aisha Tyler) they also find out why Strand wants her back and what he’ll do to keep her and them in line.

At this stage, having seen two episodes ahead as well as this, I’m prepared to call it: this is the best season Fear The Walking Dead has done to date. There’s a new found sense of creativity that doesn’t always work (the very obvious soundstage from a few weeks ago) but when it does, works brilliantly. There’s a beat in episode 7, ‘The Portrait’ which is the perfect combination of horrific and absurd and you see another one here as Dwight and Sherry and who they think they are collides with who Mickey hopes she is and who Strand knows all too well he is.

Dwight and Sherry first off, who have recreated themselves as principled outlaws since the nukes went off. This is such a great idea, and director Lennie James has massive fun with the western stylings of their new found career. It also gives tremendous poignancy to what they’ve both suffered through in the past. Dwight wears his mistakes on his face. They’ve both made choices that they aren’t sure they should have survived and so their desperation to do the right thing is deeply endearing and all the more heart-breaking when it fails. They feel like a real couple for all their cowboy self-image; absolutely in love, absolutely comfortable with one another and absolutely willing to call the other on their nonsense. Amelio and Evangelista are also deeply credible action stars and just fundamentally likable so this episode’s off to a good start.

Mickey’s arrival kicks it up several gears. For a start. Aisha Tyler has no idea how to turn in bad work and her former professional wrestler turned post-apocalypse MacGyver is no exception. Mickey is tough, straight-forward, terrified and ingenious and the episode does its best work exploring how the world has changed through her. Dwight was a huge fan of her and her husband as a kid and there’s such joy in him when he works out who she is. But Mickey isn’t just her persona anymore and the damage the end has done to her is just as bad as the other two. Her big idea – taping phonebooks to herself to act as armour – is brilliant, intuitive and incredibly dangerous and there’s no comfort or safety here. Instead there’s three people using the other characters as a lens to look at what they do and how they do it. All of them find themselves wanting, at least in isolation. As the episode closes, what becomes clear is the core concept of all these shows, once again; we’re stronger together. Even outside the ring and definitely inside it. That makes the reveal that Strand has offhandedly killed the family Dwight and Sherry have been working with hit all the harder. They are, for all their outlaw status, deeply trusting. This episode we see what that gets them and what it costs them.

We also get the single most fun ending of an episode this season. Mickey and Sherry are pinned down by a herd at Mickey’s old wrestling school, which, brilliantly, is called The Grapple Chapel. Using the ring as high ground, they’re joined by Dwight and as ‘Welcome to Jamrock’ Damian Marley, the three fight back. In fact, to use wrestling parlance, the three lay the smack down on every single one of the undead’s candy asses. I did not know I needed to see Aisha Tyler tombstone piledriving a zombie until this week but I did, and I have, and it’s fantastic. Better still the fight never once feels showy or safe. They’re in serious trouble, constantly, and only get through it because they have each other’s backs. Which, again, is the lesson of the episode.

Verdict: Character driven, brutal, tragic, funny and weird this episode is Fear The Walking Dead in a nutshell and I’m really happy to see the show blossom like this. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart