The half-time finale of Season Seven of Fear the Walking Dead heralds the much-anticipated return of Alicia, one of the last living members of the Clark family. She’s a feisty kick-ass survivor who appeared in the very first episode of the show, but who’s not been seen since the tumultuous events of the season six finale. The events of Padre fill in her untold storyline and, through a series of time jumps, move beyond her fateful meeting with Morgan and the overrun of her nomadic group’s encampment by the contaminated walkers.
Plot-wise this is a more substantial and meaningful adventure than many of its current season contemporaries. The return of Alycia Debnam-Carey as the impassioned and resourceful Alicia is a potent reminder of how much her recent absence has been to the show’s detriment. There are several well-rendered set-pieces in the mix (especially one that unfolds in a cramped underground crawlspace), and what feels like a genuine sense of jeopardy at key moments (given the series’ gleeful commitment to killing off characters). What remains evident throughout however is the writers’ and showrunners’ wanton disregard for consistency or attention to the series’ world-building (or should that be world-wrecking) canon. That’s become an unwelcome recurring season motif that’s been exposed in wild fluctuations of character, jarring lurches in tone, and plot holes large enough to march a zombie horde through.
What saves this episode from some of those worst excesses is that Ian Goldberg’s and Andrew Chambliss’ script tones down some of the overwrought character traits that have marred recent stories. Victor Strand is not that interesting when he’s drawn as a cartoonish dictator. In Padre, Strand is a more uncertain figure, prone to moments of self-doubt and vulnerable to being outwitted. Morgan too is softer, less of a proselytizer and more of a confused accomplice to Alicia’s strange and unsettling plans. And Alicia herself is revealed to be struggling with a secret burden that will redefine the relationship between all three of them. If only more of the show’s recent instalments had shunned the bombastic and embraced this more absorbing style of storytelling.
The events of Padre introduce what will be widely seen as heretical breaches with two of the show’s established truths. As these are the episode’s bombshells, they are best left spoiler-free in this review. Suffice to say that while one of these ‘heresies’ might be explained away as a personal delusion (something that someone wishes were true, but is not) the other is a more difficult sell. It would feel like a more intriguing invention if confidence in the attention-span of those hunched over their desks in the writers’ room was higher.
Although its focus is not what the episode title suggests, Padre rallies the flagging fortunes of the season with sufficient momentum to deliver a promising cliffhanger. So far this has been a problematic and often frustrating season of Fear, with the impact of the strong opening episode frittered away in a series of inconsequential and arbitrary diversions from the main event. Those stories have left the show’s ensemble scattered and disconnected. The second half of the season is in pressing need of greater clarity, more ambition and a renewed sense of rigour: exactly the characteristics its parent show continues to exhibit in its eleventh and final season.
Season Seven of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD is screening in the UK on the AMC channel and to rent on Amazon.
Read our previous reviews of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD below:
Season 7, Episode 1, THE BEACON
Season 7, Episode 2, SIX HOURS
Season 7, Episode 3, CINDY HAWKINS
Season 7, Episode 4, BREATHE WITH ME
Season 7, Episode 5, TIL DEATH
