[RECAP] Season 4, Episode 7 of Fear The Walking Dead, "Wrong Side of Where You Are Now"

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By Carolina Gallardo (@carolgallardo)

Based off of last week's episode, "Just in Case", we were left hanging on the fate of John Dorie, after being shot by Alicia.  Unfortunately, this episode, "Wrong Side of Where You are Now" didn't do much in terms of resolving that story line but rather, we again revisited the past to get closer to the ultimate question: What the hell happened to Madison?

When we start off the episode, we are greeted by flashbacks, specifically of moments between John Dorie and Naomi: John and Naomi in the row boat, John and Naomi eating dinner, John and Naomi fishing, John and Naomi playing scrabble.  We then harshly cut to the present, with Naomi trying to keep John alive by applying pressure to his wound, in the midst of this firefight between The Vultures and Strand, Alicia and Luciana.  Naomi says that she's going to get medical supplies and she makes a mad dash attempt to get onto Mel's truck, which apparently is holding some medical supplies.  Before Naomi can manage to get on, Mel starts to driving away to get away from the gun battle but his truck is promptly blown up, care of Alicia's space age gun. Alicia then takes aim at Naomi who is able to physically fend her off and run off.  We then see Luciana come across a crouching Charlie who simply and sadly says, "Sorry".  A conflicted Luciana then struggles with the decision on whether or not to kill Charlie then and there...but ultimately has to shoot and kill another vulture, giving Charlie the opportunity to escape.

In the midst of all this, Morgan manages to make his way to Althea, who is the process of filming the battle between these two groups.  Morgan pleads with her to take them all in her SWAT vehicle to the stadium, where Naomi assures them the necessary medical supplies are located.  At first Althea resists, not wanting to play a role in all of this, but inevitabily her conscious wins out, especially since John Dorie desperately needs immediate medical attention.  They all get in the truck, even Charlie who listens to Morgan and joins them, despite the fact that she wanted to stay and ensure Mel's okay (there definitely seems to be affection between these two, in a brother/sister way).  As they start to depart, Alicia realizes that a firefight with Althea's armored vehicle is not a battle she's going to win.  In light of this realization, she stands down and the SWAT vehicle rides off, with Alicia, Luciana and Strand shooting at the car (to no avail).  Mel eventually crawls out the blown up van, only to be savagely killed by Alicia with her makeshift weapon.   DAMN.  Well, wasn't expecting all THAT to happen so soon, with Mel and Ennis BOTH no longer in the picture.  But anyway, RIP Mel...we hardly knew ye.

We then move into the past again, and we see how the entire community came together to work on planting all the seeds and/or crops that was salvaged from the FEMA Center.  Madison and the group hear that someone is at the gates and it turns out to be Charlie, asking for her help.  Apparently Mel and Ennis got into a fight and then Mel and Charlie drove off, only to crash with another abandoned vehicle.  Charlie wouldn't come unless she urgently needed the help and expresses that.  Nick is wary of trusting Charlie but Madison sites her evolved relationship with Naomi and as example that foes can become friends.  And with that, they follow Charlie to the crash site.  Naomi examines him in the vehicle and determines that he has a bruised lung and cracked ribs and would likely not survive being out here on this own.  They finally decide to take them back with them, rather than leaving him to certain death.

Once back at the stadium, specifically the infirmary, Naomi tends to Mel's wounds, while keeping him handcuffed to the bed to be safe.  Madison is present as well and Mel insists that this place is not safe and he wants to be released, before Ennis arrives.  He warns them that Ennis is determined to MAKE the stadium fall and no longer just wait for it to happen.  Madison is confident that they can handle any threat that would be directed their way but Mel insists that she has no idea of what's heading their way.  Even after Madison leaves, he continues to try to convince Naomi that he is being perfectly reasonable and that she knows as well as anyone that his place will likely fall.  Naomi ignores him but we find out later that secretly, she agrees with Mel.  Once she has a moment to herself to speak to Madison privately, she tries to convince her to abandon her current plan of reinforcing the stadium and instead, fold up shop and keep moving to a new location.  Madison insists that she built this environment to give her children some semblance of stability in this post-apocalyptic world and she's not going to abandon it all now.  Naomi understands where she's coming from, but is hopeful that she will change her mind.

This conversation seems to stay with Madison, though, and she decides that Mel is essentially a cancer that could spread internally and kill the hopes of all in her community.  Because of this, she drags him out of the infirmary, still not fully healed, insisting that if he wants to leave so badly, he can leave right now.  In reversal from their earlier sentiments, Nick and Strand are not agreement with Madison's decision, however, they do not push her to change her mind.  Mel insists that the walls will not hold against the threat headed their way so he will go, but all he wants is Charlie and he'll be on his way.  Madison refuses to let him take Charlie with him and after some back and forth, he eventually drives off, much to everyone's disapproval.

Later Madison and the group start to realize the scale of the threat heading their way.  Strand and Cole share that the Vultures would capture and lock up walkers in trailers, silos, etc and then mark the container with a flag stating the number of walkers contained within.  They tell Madison that these containers are currently empty and if one adds up the individual totals from the flags they collected, they are looking at potentially being attacked by thousands of walkers.  Madison instructs them to continued to reinforcing all the walls in the stadium, in anticipation of this threat.

During all of this, Charlie is incredibly concerned over Mel's whereabouts, since he was injured when he left.  Luckily (or not luckily, depending on how you look at it), there was a walkie-talkie in the Range Rover and Charlies attempts to connect with him.  Unfortunately, she can't make a connection which leaves Charlie incredibly worried for him.  Alicia and Nick decide for themselves that the right thing to do is to go and retrieve Mel and bring him back so they convince Strand to open the gate and off they go.  They eventually find the Range Rover on the side of the road and they immediately get in the car, ready to drive back...when they see headlights.  They turn off the car and hide and see Ennis' caravan of tracker trailers heading to the stadium, presumably carrying the thousands of walkers speculated.  They use the walkie-talkie to radio back to the stadium and warn them about what's heading their way.

Eventually they all return to the stadium and they all remain frozen, unsure of what is about to happen with these trailers.  Very methodically, the vultures set up a stream of gasoline in front of the stadium as a sort of Phase I of their attack.  Phase II is when ramps are attached to each of the trailers right before they lift up each of the latches and release the full force and magnitude of all the captured walkers.  Many of them begin to swarm Nick and Alicia's car and they essentially radio back to the stadium to say their goodbyes, not anticipating surviving this. That is all that Madison needs to hear and she states that she needs to get out there and get her kids.  Strand and Luciana insist that they'll join her and the gates open to a fiery scene that I suppose we'll see more of next week.  Flaming walkers, I'm guessing?

We then head to the present day and see the SWAT vehicle pass by the original ice cream truck that released the gasoline at the stadium.  It is almost completely torched.  They see the stadium up ahead and upon Naomi's insistence that there are indeed medical supplies still inside, they hold on tight as Althea drives the truck through one of the wooden barriers that had been erected.  Once inside, the smoke eventually clears and the dust settles...and they realize that they are completely surrounded by thousands of charred walkers.  Not a good situation.

The episode ends here and with the midseason finale coming up next week, we have to anticipate that we will finally get an answer to Madison's whereabouts and the fate of John Dorie.  At least we hope so.

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD AIRS ON SUNDAYS AT 9:00PM EST ON AMC.

[RECAP] Season 4, Episode 6 of Fear The Walking Dead, "Just in Case"

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By Carolina Gallardo (@carolgallardo)

This episode of Fear the Walking Dead entitled "Just in Case" again, plays around with time, which is the only way that we get further visibility to Madison and her potential role within this scenario.  Unfortunately, we still do not have answers as to where in the world is Madison or if she is even alive at this rate.  But this episode will likely serve as another piece of the puzzle that will eventually fall into place (we hope).

We start off the episode by John Dorie and Morgan still walking down the road and coming across a man who we eventually uncover to be a vulture.  Prior to his run in with them, we see the man enter a building and completely strip it of any and all useful parts and components.  This includes goods, of course, but also light bulbs and even the metal hinges off of a door frame (very odd).  As he exits said building, John Dorie and Morgan creep up on him for behind with a weapon, causing him to raise his arms.  This is an interesting moment of tension considering that we only see this scene from the point of view of the vulture, but we don't actually SEE John Dorie and Morgan here, but rather, only hear John's voice, describing to the vulture what his options are.

Inevitably, things take a turn for the worse and, much like he had to do in his past, he fires a "warning" shot at the vulture, shooting off a finger.  He becomes incensed and holds him against a car, demanding information on where he is going and on Laura's whereabouts.  They finally uncover a hand scratched map from him that they decide to follow to see what they can uncover.

We then move into the past where we are exposed to more of Naomi and Madison at the stadium.  Naomi is proving herself useful by using her nursing skills to remove shrapnel from Alicia's arm.  It's at this point that Madison shares that they are running dangerously low on food and she's going to have to go out and venture out to see what can be found.  In the meantime, we see that the Vultures are still hanging out outside the stadium...waiting.  Talk about ominous and persistent.  Madison and Strand take this all in while talking and taking swings from the same bottle of alcohol.  Eventually they hear some commotion and when they run down, they see that Naomi was attempting to leave.  She insists that she knows of a place where they could get seeds and other items they need so they let her proceed...but accompanied by Madison and Strand.  

Nightfall hits and their vehicle stops at what appears to be an abandoned motel for the night.  It's during this time in the motel that Naomi reveals that her original intention for this trip had nothing to do with getting supplies back to the stadium, but rather to return to the FEMA outpost she came from.  Strand is livid over Naomi's wishy-washiness and demands her car keys from her, for safe keeping.  Little did Strand know that Naomi is an expert at hot wiring cars which is exactly what she did as they slept.  True to her word, she drives until she backs it back to the FEMA outpost she mentioned.  She eventually enters and finds a trunk full of various useful items (maps, instructions on gardening, landscaping etc), but as she continues to explore the space, she begins to notice the random dead bodies on the ground and the finally children's artwork hung up on a fridge.  It's the sight of this artwork that brings Naomi to her knees and creates a noise disturbance attracting the heard of walkers already inside.  She runs and climbs an interior scaffolding that allows her to sit perched above it all, tearfully apologizing to the walkers below.   

Luckily for her, eventually Madison and Strand burst into the building and, after a tense makeshift zip line, Naomi is rescued and they all leave the building.  Once outside, Naomi finally shares her story: She and her daughter once lived at this FEMA Center with many others that became their friends.  Sadly, her daughter inevitably became very sick, forcing Naomi to go out and score the area for antibiotics.  She eventually was able to get antibiotics but by the time she returned with them, her daughter had taken a turn for the worst and she died.  She couldn't bring herself to kill her before she turned and that decision allowed for the FEMA center to fall apart from the inside.  It's for this reason that Naomi carries this immense burden of guilt and remorse, primarily because she feels largely responsible for the death of all these people.  Ironically, it's Strand that reassures her that if he was not beyond salvation, surely she is still redeemable, at least in their eyes.  

They then load up a Range Rover and a truck with all the supplies found at the FEMA Center including goods, seeds, and various other agricultural supplies that are critically needed at the stadium.  They then all return to the stadium triumphantly with their newly found goods, much to Mel's surprise.  Madison and him have an exchange and while he and the vultures collect themselves up and leave, it is not before Mel gives Madison an ominous warning that things could easily go bad very quickly.  This seems to stick with Madison since while everyone is in a celebratory mood, prepping the land for all the seeds that will need to be propagated, she stands at a post looking around at the landscape.  When Alicia comes to her to see what she is doing, she instructs Alicia to take some of the goods and supplies and pack them in the Range Rover.  Just in case.

We finally return to the present day where we see that Morgan and John Dorie have arrived a track of some sort.  They are surprised to find our crew in Althea's SWAT car ALSO arrive at he same spot, apparently all following the maps drafted by the vultures.  Alicia holds John Dorie and Morgan at bay with her space age looking gun (though for reasons not completely clear to me since she knows who they are).  It's at this point then, that we see a caravan of cars and trucks arrive and we realize the vultures have arrived at their apparent meeting spot.  Mel immediately exits and we get a sense of anguish and emotional pain on his face.  Everyone has a gun raised at each other and Mel manages to tell Alicia that he's sorry about her brother (Nick).  Unfortunately, Alicia says she's not sorry about his.   SAVAGE. 

This moment of high tension however, is broken by the sound of a woman's voice on the walkie talkie, asking Mel what's the hold up.  The owner of this voice then arrives.  In a Range Rover.  And out of said Range Rover exits Naomi, looking more powerful in a leather jacket and hair done in plaits.  John Dorie immediately says her name, Naomi says his and he goes to her, Alicia (for reasons again, I'm not entirely clear on) shoots John Dorie on the side.  He immediately goes down and we are left with the image of Naomi and Morgan tending to him, as his life hangs in the balance.

So what happened between these two groups to cause this level of emotion?  At this point, it seems to go far beyond one group simply wanting the other group's "stuff".  And again, where is Madison?

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD AIRS ON SUNDAYS AT 9:00PM EST ON AMC.