by Rich Cross
The half-time breakpoint of Fear’s final season begins with an enticing conceit. Morgan has escaped incarceration on PADRE’s medical train and laid waste to a crowd of walkers. He’s done so while in the thrall of a ‘red mist’ that, in conditions of intense stress, overwhelms his rational brain turning him into a killing machine that acts without compunction or mercy.
Madison had found Morgan in the throes of such an episode and kept him at bay until that all-consuming rage receded and his normal sense of self returned. Those early exchanges, in which a concerned Madison and a hyper-animated Morgan argue about what to do next, are the highlight of this story. Lennie James is in fully committed mode, while Kim Dickens relishes the most emotionally tuned-in section of the script.
The writers use Morgan’s mental dissociation and his blackouts to inject ‘jump cuts’ into the plot as he returns to consciousness in alarming and unexpected situations. It’s a disorientating storytelling technique that adds a welcome sense of momentum and tension. But other elements of the finale are confusing for all of the wrong reasons, as the showrunners again insist on stacking arbitrary changes in characters’ motivations one on top of another.
At the end of last week’s episode, Mo had broken away from Morgan to lead a Prefect assault on the walker-infested container yard. Sadly, the long-foreshadowed showdown at the port occurs off-screen, with only a few undead stragglers left shuffling around when Madison and Morgan arrive. Skirmishes are continuing deep within the swamp as Mo and her compatriots are pushed back by the escaped walker horde.
This is the cue for the pro- and anti-PADRE players to head in their direction, all threatening each other over their walkie-talkies as they relocate. The nature of the priceless resource that Shrike has been fixated on retrieving from deep within the infested quayside is at last revealed – and it’s something intimately connected with her distortion of PADRE’s original intentions. Given everything that has preceded the moment, Shrike’s paralysed reaction to seeing the animated cadaver of someone close to her is completely unconvincing.
More bizarre still is the nonsensical shoot-out between Daniel’s militia of wronged parents (who’ve had their children stolen by PADRE’s collectors) and the Prefects’ patrol (made up of those stolen children). If it were better scripted, it could be a moment of agonising tragedy. But as it’s triggered by another random Fear plot flip, it makes little sense, ending in a bloodless victory for one side, whose leaders then threaten their prisoners with summary execution. But that’s nothing compared to the number of contradictory positions that Morgan takes in relation to Mo, as his view of what’s best for her changes in almost every scene.
Daniel gets little in the way of story time, while June is essentially sidelined, along with her experimental radiation treatment, which now appears to be only palliative at best – despite being at the heart of several of this season’s life-or-death dramas.
If the threat posed by PADRE simply fizzles out in All I See Is Red, the episode is not without redeeming features. In what is Morgan’s departing story, James delivers a bravura performance. His reconciliation with different characters, his renewed interest in the fate of Rick Grimes and his return to a certain graveyard are all poignant moments. Sherry and Dwight experience two life-changing events, reacting to both with trademark understatement. And with numerous storylines wrapped up, the way is clear for Madison to step up and fill the vacuum left by Morgan’s departure.
The closing moments hint at the identity of the new nemesis that the survivors could face when Fear returns for its final run of episodes. Freed of PADRE baggage, the showrunners have just six stories left in which to demonstrate that this particular incarnation of The Walking Dead franchise deserved a last hurrah.
SEASON 8 of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD premiered on Mondays on AMC in the UK
Read our previous reviews of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD below:
Season 8, Episode 1, REMEMBER WHAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU
Season 8, Episode 2, BLUE JAY
Season 8, Episode 3, ODESSA
Season 8, Episode 4, KING COUNTY
Season 8, Episode 5, MORE TIME THAN YOU KNOW
