There Are Spoilers In Our Fear The Walking Dead: Now One’s Gone Review
This week’s episode just aired and it’s an important one as it’s also the mid-season final for the show. We are finally seeing the flashback arc come to an end and this episode answers some important questions about what happened to Madison and the rest at the baseball settlement.
Coming into this episode, I was quite excited to see what they were going to do. I had guessed last week that we were going to go back and discover what Althea’s backstory was all about. This week we did actually do that, but Althea’s backstory was not really a background for her character, but more of a bridge so that we could integrate Madison into the story. In some ways I don’t actually like this because as we know Althea came into Fear The Walking Dead earlier this season and joined in with Morgan and we’ve been watching her journey in the present for the most part. But we do a flashback of her just once and she is talking to Madison of all people. I find it a little hard to believe that Althea was just there when Madison was a little lost in the time period before she found the baseball settlement.
If the season in chronological order, Madison’s finding of the settlement with Althea maybe would have been one of the first scenes, or one of the very early ones as the flashback is before everything this season happened. Althea does interview Madison and we hear from her character about all the things she cares about, mainly looking after her family. Madison as a character we’ve gotten to know over four seasons is mainly motivated by caring for both Alicia and Nick. That side of Madison’s character is reinforced very strongly in this episode through the interviews with Althea.
I had been waiting for Madison to return to the show all season as she’s probably the most important character in the show. With Nick gone early on this season and both him and Madison being more of the leaders of the show, I felt that there’s quite a void this season. Sure Alicia has stood up and done very well, but without Madison there in the group it feels a bit empty. My hopes of having Madison back in the show were dashed however as it seems the writers decided to do away with the character. Which seems to me to be a massive loss for the show. We finally get to learn about the final moments at the baseball settlement and learn that Madison heroically led the walkers into the stadium and away from Alicia and the rest in the Land Rover. This basically saved her family and everyone in the core group, but sadly Madison was trapped in the stadium and never made it out. It’s a sad day for all fans of Madison.
After watching the episode I had thought that Madison probably could return to the show as we never saw her body actually dead like we did with Nick early this season. Fear The Walking Dead people will remember what happened when Salazar was dead and surprisingly brought back. I had thought maybe we’d see Madison when the show returns because we didn’t see her die at all. But I did see on Kim Dickens’ Instagram, she did post saying she’s done with the character. So that’s it! I do wish to say that I thought that Kim Dickens did a fine job with Madison this season and for the whole time she did play Madison on the show. Madison and Nick were the most interesting characters to watch in the show and it’s going to be tough watching it when it returns with them gone. Alicia is one of my favourites too, but now the show has lost the family element which it had since it began. With all the new characters, it’s almost like a new show now.
Other parts of the episode featured Alicia being very ruthless and aggressive towards Althea and the rest in the SWAT truck. There’s a confrontation between Alicia’s group and Althea’s group while Laura and Morgan go to search for medicine for John Dorie. The action scenes in between the two groups are pretty good. It was interesting to see Althea blow away all the walkers with the guns from the SWAT truck. Also when Alicia got actually into the truck and started threatening Althea things got quite tense.
I have to say, I am liking this more ruthless Alicia character. I also did enjoy Morgan in this episode. Morgan is a little less violent than most characters and his ability to calm Alicia and the contrast between the two characters at the moment is interesting. I would be interested to see next season how Alicia and Morgan interact and what situations they get into when the show returns.
Overall the episode was interesting and it’s nice to finally have this flashback arc come to an end. I don’t really enjoy flashback storytelling at all and this one was a little frustrating to watch at times. I hope the next arc doesn’t continue with this method. Where Alicia’s character is at the moment is a tough place, but I think the character has a lot of potential to grow when the show returns. Hopefully the writers do something interesting with her. On the other hand, I don’t really like that Madison is out of the show completely, she’s basically the lead character and her presence this season was very minimal. There wasn’t much in this season for Madison make a big impact and there’s no major moments for her character really at all except for in this episode where she saved everyone. To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed about that. I’m looking forward to the show returning, but without Madison and Nick there’s a massive void to fill. Who will step up and lead the group?
If you want to discuss the episode with me or others, be sure to comment below with your thoughts about this week’s Fear The Walking Dead.
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.
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