There Are Spoilers In Our Fear The Walking Dead Laura Review – Episode Discussion
So the latest episode of Fear The Walking Dead just aired and this week we see the show focus primarily on the character of John Dorie, who is quite new to the show and also his relationship with Naomi aka Laura.
I was interested to see what they’d do with this week’s episode. But it’s hard to know where the show might head when you think of the future because this season is constantly flashbacking to the past. Although last week ended with Alicia and the rest getting their guns and getting ready to attack the vultures, we instead focus in on John Dorie and his origin story the following week later. I guess there was a little bit of a lead in with John learning that Naomi was dead last week to and we as the audience don’t really know their connection at all. But like, a whole episode on just John Dorie and Naomi? I never expected that at all.
Much of this episode is focused in on John, who lives out in the middle of nowhere basically in isolation. We watch him have breakfast, polish his gun, go out to get food and kill walkers and try maintain his position at home. One day an injured Naomi turns up and is severely wounded and needs stitches. John saves her life and stitches her up. It takes some time for her to heal and we watch the two character bond and slowly start a relationship.
We learn a lot about John, but I found him to be an awkward character to get to know. For much of the episode we see him polishing his gun, but he refuses to use it, even when he got into danger. It’s obvious that there’s another past beyond the past we just visited with a story about why he doesn’t use that gun, but that’s not for us to know. It takes some time for him to use the gun again and it’s not until Naomi is about to be killed by a small herd of walkers that he does and she doesn’t really appreciate it and the next morning leaves. That’s it pretty much.
It’s not really clear if they meet up again before she dies or her leaving was the end of her and John. I guess he’s gone out to try and find her and just learnt it was all for nothing. It’s possible that Naomi isn’t even dead either, I haven’t forgotten that Salazar returned last season after being dead nearly 2 seasons.
One of the things I did like about the episode was the actors. John Dorie is well played by Garret Dillahunt and i’ve enjoyed his performance since the first episode he appeared in a few years ago. If you’re wondering where you might have seen Garret Dillahunt before, you might recognise him for his work in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles where he played John Henry in quite a few episodes. Jenna Elfman is also putting in some good work as Naomi, but I feel that it’s possibly quite a loss that they’re killing her off so soon, she could of been a good character and the show does need good characters, especially with the void that Nick will leave.
Although I don’t mind getting to know John Dorie and Naomi, I didn’t really see them as the main characters of the show at this point. I’m a little disappointed that we didnt’ get to see anything from Alicia’s group and what they’re up to. Also not just that, but another week has now gone by and it’s been some time since we’ve seen Madison at all, apart from a flashback with Nick in the episode he died. Where is Madison and what’s she up to? What happened to her? It wouldn’t bother me so much if it was any other character, but apart from Nick, Madison actually is the most central character of the show and as the leader the group she’s just as important as Rick is in The Walking Dead, but she’s been in hardly any of it this season and it’s a shame because Kim Dickens does a great job with the character. Now that the John Dorie origin story is out of the way and the question of his relationship with Naomi is answered. I do hope we can focus on Madison or any of the main cast members next week.
Fear The Walking Dead airs every Monday on Showcase on Foxtel at 1:30pm and 7:30pm. Weekly reviews and episode discussions on Resident Entertainment.
