There Are Some Spoilers In Our Fear The Walking Dead Season 3 Finale Review – Discussion
So the final two episodes for Fear The Walking Dead season 3 went to air this week and in it we see all plot lines from Season 3 come to an end and a little of what we might possibly be able to expect looking into season 4 next year.
For me the final two episodes actually seemed to move at a much faster pace than I was used to so far for this season. It is not long before all major characters seem to culminate at the dam, which is to be the setting for this years final.
Interestingly there was a new character introduced in episode 15 “Things Bad Begun”. This character is known as Proctor John who controls a powerful gang in the region surrounding the dam’s territories. It seems after much planning, the gang members want the water resources for themselves. The have apparently been collaborating with Victor for some time and by episode 16 “Sleigh Ride” we see all of this unfold as the gang starts to move in to take the dam.
As a new character Proctor John seems to be positioned as potentially a major villain for the next season. Although for these two episodes he is the major threat. Like most villains with power, he seems to abuse it. Early on when he is introduced we see Alicia first meet up with him and somehow she gets the job as his nurse. It seems Proctor John is sick and needs a tumour removed and for some reason, Alicia is the perfect person to do this. Although Alicia does seem to take an immediate dislike for Proctor John, he seems to become fond of her rather quickly, but their relationship quickly turns sour towards the end of the finale.
As a new character, I found Proctor John to be a little low energy. I’m not sure if it’s the way the actor wanted to play him or if it’s just for these first appearance episodes because of his illness but he just didn’t seem that energetic and it was a little difficult to feel threatened by this character in the more dramatic moments.
As far as character deaths go, this is a major episode for Troy fans. Although it seemed the character in the last episode had been turning over a new leaf and was possibly becoming good through his friendship with Nick. It is through much questioning from Daniel to Nick about what happened with the horde and who brought it to the ranch, that we were all reminded just how bad this character has been. Nick eventually goes and chats about his conversation with Daniel to Madison, who is shocked about what happened with the horde. She does not care for this information at all and it seems Troy feels not one bit of guilt from what he did. “It was my home” is what Troy keeps saying and he’s shortly killed by Madison with a hammer. It is really actually quite brutal, Troy is right in a way, they were visitors there, he did take them in and now everyone there is dead. It’s horrible what happened there really.
I in no way expected any of this to happen to Troy. I had been thinking, especially after last week that he might become a permanent fixture in this group. Where this character was heading I wasn’t too sure, but he does know how to survive so it looked like he might stick around. They didn’t show any scene of him turning into an infected and we didn’t see Madison take him out so that couldn’t happen. Will this character later become like Daniel and return? I am not too sure of that or what they could use him for, but with the dam exploding at the end, I’m not sure Troy would survive that, he was at the place where the bombs were. But overall Daniel Sharman did a great job with this character throughout the whole season.
As a two part finale, it seemed to be one of the biggest episodes for Victor’s character so far. The man is pushed to his absolute limits and it seems with all the moving parts to his plan, it was the little things which made it come undone. Victor in this episode plays the part of some type of silver tongued snake and slithers all over the place trying to survive. Interestingly it is pointed out that he isn’t a killer and this episode does test that in his character. Victor has a rough confrontation with Daniel where he shoots him in the head, but somehow just grazes him. He is horrified by what he did and thinks Daniel is likely dead from this incident (he isn’t). This event is likely going to have major consequences going into season 4 and as both Daniel and Victor’s characters develop, I imagine this event will be a major part of that.
For Madison in episode 16 “Sleigh Ride” her character has a bit of a symbolic dream about death. She’s thinking about the dead who have long passed this season and also maybe what could be to come with Alicia’s name left on a tombstone. The entire family, Madison, Nick and Alicia don’t do too well in this episode and we are left wondering if any survive in the end. While we see Madison on shore after the dam disaster, I don’t see Alicia anywhere. I don’t think a character as big as Alicia would be killed off like this, but we won’t know until next year. But that grave sign in Madison’s dream is a major worry.
As a finale episode, I enjoyed all of the actors performances. Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Colman Domingo were as impressive as they’ve been all season. But I found Rubén Blades to be one of the major standouts of this one. He did get some pretty great moments and his character, after some time of me not liking him that much, I finally do enjoy watching Daniel in this show, the character has really come a long way.
Overall this was a decent finale for a season which has gotten significantly better as it went on. While I did find the pacing a little quick and the introduction of Proctor John to be not really a high energy moment, things were certainly interesting all throughout the show. These two episodes contained a few major consequences which will push over into season 4 and with characters now displaced yet again, due to the dam explosion. I wonder where they might wash up when season 4 begins. Season 3 for me was so far the best season yet for the show and if season 4 is anything like it, Fear The Walking Dead is sure to become something great.
Fear The Walking Dead airs on Mondays at 1:30pm and 7:30pm on the FX channel on Foxtel
