Movies & TV / Reviews
Fear the Walking Dead 4.16 Review – ‘…I Lose Myself’
Loading...Tonight on the Season 4 finale of Fear the Walking Dead Martha overstays her welcome, Morgan manages to maintain his integrity and sanity, the gang found a new calling, and we all learned that ethanol will stop your body from metabolizing antifreeze.
The plot: Althea escapes an encounter with Martha and Walker Jimbo to be found by the rest of the gang, and they all head out of the city. But Morgan just can’t get helping Martha out of his head, so he goes back to give it one last shot, intending to meet the others at Polar Bear’s gas station in Mississippi. He finds her at the mile marker 54, where her husband died, takes out Walker Jimbo and captures a badly injured and dying Martha, tossing her into the cop car and heading back to his friends. On the way, she tells him what happened, and back that gas station, the rest of the crew is struck ill. Martha crashes the car, admits to putting antifreeze in the water, and after nearly killing her, Morgan cuffs her to the car and continues on foot so he can get in range to tell them. The gang almost gets the antidote, ethanol, but don’t, and then Morgan finally shows up with a truck of Auggie’s Ale to get them drunk and well again. He buries Martha and goes to the denim factory Polar Bear worked out of, and they all decide to stick around here and grow the network the man was trying to build in the first place instead of going to Alexandria.
I was not a fan of this episode. It was, frankly, a hot mess of dumb plot decisions. Morgan’s obsession with trying to help Martha just didn’t ring true for me. That he wanted to help her previously I was willing to go along with, and he’s nothing if not stubbornly and dedicated to a fault. But the implication of connection between them just didn’t hold up for me. Maybe if we’d seen more interaction between them somehow, or maybe if Martha’s ‘origin story’ was stronger, or if we’d actively seen Morgan struggle more with his own past insanity and issues with violence, this would’ve worked better. But as it was, I couldn’t help thinking that Jimbo was the only one who really did see through Morgan’s facades: he wasn’t looking just to help, but for a way out. This week, instead of suicide by starving on a rooftop, it was suicide by insisting on going after this insane women bent on breaking him or killing him, and dammit, I wish John Dorie had called him out on that. Or at least called him out on putting this woman above the people who also needed him, the ones who had come back for him, to get him out of the situation that she had put them in and which cost Jimbo’s life! I’m not saying that we had to see Morgan kill Martha and break his code, but seeing him essentially choose her over them is something that should’ve been remarked upon by someone.
My bigger issue with the episode overall, however, was the series of bad decisions, idiot ball moments, and plot holes. Beginning with Althea not killing Martha the second she knew Morgan was still alive and then being knocked on by one whack to the head, moving along to Morgan leaving and John not calling him out, and going on to include:
– Why didn’t June have any idea what was poisoning them? I know she was a nurse and not a doctor, but considering she immediately knew the antidote, I feel she should’ve had some idea of what the cause was, even if only by looking around the store to narrow down the possibilities.
– Why did they consider the ethanol to be completely lost after Al shot up the tank? It was pouring out fast, sure, but maybe just, you know, hold a bucket under the stream and bring it inside? Heck, given that Strand couldn’t get the spout open, it seemed like Al kind of solved that problem for them.
– Martha grabbing Morgan’s arm and causing the crash: Don’t police cars not have windows that open that fully specifically so things like that don’t happen?
– Would beer really work to halt the metabolizing like that? Also, did none of the first aid kits have ethanol in them at all?
I will grant that without going back to get Martha, no one ever would’ve known what was in the water and they all would’ve died there, at least (if you ignore the plot hole where June had no idea what was wrong with them).
And finally, while the conclusion feels a little awkwardly placed to keep the two shows separate for a while longer, Morgan wanting to put something together to more effectively help others does feel on brand for him, and I can buy the others deciding to go in on it. I would still like to see the two shows come back together at some point, but looks like next season isn’t going to be that point!
To talk about some things I did like: I’m very glad that everyone lived, because if they’d killed them all off, I would’ve been pissed off. And inane plots aside, Lennie James is selling it as Morgan 110% as always. I liked the little moments people had in the gas station together, June and John in particular. Strand’s new drinking buddy being Alicia was a nice touch, and he had the line of the night with, “Just when I stop trying to drink myself to death, I finally succeed.”
Thanks for joining me for this back half of Fear the Walking Dead! What were your thoughts on this half-season? What are your hopes for the future of the show? I hope you all join me for this season The Walking Dead starting next week!
