Fear the Walking Dead midseason premiere recap: Documenting the relief efforts
Only you can prevent the world from being a total crap hole.
After a brief time jump since Fear the Walking Dead‘s fifth midseason finale, Morgan and the gang are trying out a viral marketing campaign to spread the word about their good deeds. When they landed the plane, people saw that as proof they were actually trying to provide relief efforts. So, with help from Althea, they raided “a big stop” and scavenged as many cameras, tapes, and batteries they could find, all to make a documentary to show people what they’re trying to do. Most of the midseason return is us watching the finished documentary. In other words, you’re not missing much if you choose to skip over this one.
Here are the main new developments.
The caravan has expanded with more vehicles, more people, and one massive tanker filled with gasoline, the one presumably detailed in Clayton’s journal. As Sarah says, they didn’t believe Logan turned over a new leaf, so they drove away with the stash and left him on the side of the road. The one thing he was right about, though, is the dwindling gas supplies in the area. That means more people will be looking to kill for it. Daniel, having left his lonely life at the warehouse behind, now rides with Sarah, Dwight, and Charlie to protect the gas supply.
June and Grace are in charge of “the caravan,” a group of people who needed their help. They are transported between various outposts they set up along the road, but June is determined to find them all a permanent place to call home. (No, she and John still haven’t had a formal wedding ceremony since the midair proposal.)
Annie and the kids, meanwhile, reside with Wendell at “Tank Town,” a secret spot hidden for their safety and one they certainly won’t mention on this documentary.
Alicia has been practicing her staff work with Morgan. Since the tree fort incident, she hasn’t killed anyone or anything, including walkers. It’s interesting (or maybe it’s more odd) how she still thinks of killing walkers as somehow adding more red to her kill count. Alicia gave Victor her blade and he’s been clearing out the walkers when she can’t. They, as well as Luciana, are part of the “sprinter” team, which rides out first on the road.
The group no longer operators out of the mill. They routinely split up to cover more ground in search of more people to help.
The main incident documented in this film is Tess, a woman who radios out in need of aid. Tess, her husband Ben, and their son haven’t left their house since the outbreak. A fence fortifies their home on all sides and, should anything get through, Ben rigged the lawn with numerous landmines, too many to count. The problem is, Ben went out to get an inhaler for their asthmatic son at the pharmacy. He hasn’t come back since and walkers are now starting to break through the fence and blow themselves up on the landmines, which then attracts more walkers.
June, Victor, and Alicia go out in search of Ben, while Morgan, John, Luciana, and Althea stay to help Tess and keep the walkers at bay. It’s a mission that hits a lot of emotional notes for Morgan: a parent left alone to care for a child. June doesn’t find an inhaler at the drug store, which leads Victor to believe Ben already grabbed it and started walking back. Alicia stumbles on another tree with a message painted on the bark: “If you’re reading this, you’re still here.” It’s a message she spotted once before this season. A walker comes after her at this spot and though she can’t bring herself to kill it, Victor comes up behind and does it for her. They learn the walker was the remains of Ben; it still carries the backpack with the inhaler inside.
At Tess’s home, a herd of walkers has gathered on the other side of the fence. By the time Althea (still recording everything) and Morgan get there, they break through and fall on a cluster of mines. More walkers break through, stepping on more explosives. Tess doesn’t know how many there are in the yard. Only Ben did. When one walker gets too close to the house, threatening to hurt Tess and her son in another explosion, Morgan runs after it. Careful to step in the craters left by already detonated bombs, he kills the walker, but in doing so steps on a mine.
The others work to disable the mine with Morgan frozen in his spot. Morgan explains to Tess that Ben isn’t coming back and, after a moment of denial, Tess decides to step outside her home for the first time in years to help Morgan. She gives him a pin she saw Ben use numerous times to disarm the mines.
Tess and her son join the others later at an outpost site as they all share a cookout with Grace’s pad thai recipe over a campfire.
The documentary ends with a message from everyone in the group, leaving instructions on how to reach them should they ever need help. A man is seen watching the tape at a TV station set up inside a gas station. He picks up the walkie but decides not to call them over channel 4. Instead, he takes some gas to refuel his motorcycle. Soon, however, Logan and his people ride up, believing he’s part of Morgan’s group. He’s mad, having walked miles to get back to his team. They are still looking for the oil fields written about in Clayton’s journal. He strips the man of his supplies and instructs his team to open fire on his motorcycle. Logan realizes this man isn’t a part of the trucker group. With a herd of walkers fast approaching, he tosses the man the walkie before riding off. Logan advises that he reach out to Morgan for help. When he makes contact, Logan suggests he inform the group they are making more enemies than friends, and that Logan has more bullets than they know what to do with.
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