'Fear the Walking Dead' Recap: 'Good Out Here'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

​The more time I’ve had to ponder upon the wonderful transformation that Fear the Walking Dead has undergone for its fourth season, the more I’ve come to realize that the series is working toward something important when it comes to this year’s bold new story, but what that is exactly, has managed to remain elusive for the audience, and that’s not a bad thing. After all, it’s important to establish this revamped universe in proper fashion and set everything up for quite the big payoff and well, the series has been extremely successful with that in the past two weeks.
 
Because at this point, the fans are asking questions and chatting away about everything they’ve seen thus far. Which means we are invested at this point and curious as to what comes next, which is why last night’s episode, ‘Good Out Here’, ended up being such the devastating surprise. Because while it was lovely to see that the series tipped its hand as to what exactly it’s going to be exploring story wise in season four, it did so in the ugliest way imaginable, by saying farewell to an important character in stunning and heartbreaking fashion.
 
But, before we say our farewell to the character in question, it’s important we talk about the buildup to their goodbye, simply because…all the darkness and sorrow in this episode comes down to a particular theme/question that’s been quietly brewing behind the scenes in season four in that…is it at all possible for anything good to happen in a world where the dead walk the earth? It’s a valid question to say the least, one that was quite frankly handled in fascinating fashion over the course of the hour as the story rolled on. 
 
On one hand, the series made a strong case for the fact that yes indeed, the world can be a better place when everything has gone to hell, provided that what’s left of mankind takes the time to work together since Al and her newfound ‘friends’ found a way to level their antagonistic playing field and utilize their talents toward a common goal, in this case getting the Death Van out of a jam. And through some deal making and productive moments of blind faith and trust, wonders were accomplished, and understandings were found, and the positive side of things were explored further by way of more flashbacks. 

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​Because Madison made an important point to her son back then. In that, there’s beauty to be found everywhere in the world, even after it has come to an end and all that one has to do to uncover it; is to take a moment and look around and well…as these little lessons presented themselves to us, I came to realize that the series was outright sending a message toward the audience, inviting us to take a page from everything playing out on screen, and well, I appreciated this in all honesty, because this genre is at its best when it has something to say about the human condition and it was lovely to see this series offer up some beautiful thoughts, before it dropped quite the warning into our laps.
 
After all, from time to time we all need to be reminded of the fact that revenge is something that’s dangerous to indulge in and that was explored by way of Nick in this tale, who spent a fair chunk of this episode chasing his past by way of a Vulture named Ennis. This mystery man, who is also apparently young Charlie’s surrogate father, antagonized Nick while the group was still at the Baseball Stadium and he knew exactly how to get under Nick’s skin back in the day. But the fury that Nick displayed in his eyes toward this man indicates that the bad blood between them goes deeper than a few psychological jabs and while we weren’t privy to all of their history, we were witness to Nick’s darkest hour, wherein he finally caught up with Ennis in present day and he made Ennis pay dearly for his transgressions and well…this was savage and powerful, and it led to Nick’s untimely demise.
 
But his end was not brought by Ennis’ hands or an injury suffered in their scuffle. No, instead, the lessons laid bare in this tale came around full circle in the closing moments of the episode. For if trust engenders trust, then revenge engenders revenge and young Charlie, exacted her own upon Nick by putting a bullet into his chest, giving him a painful and heartbreaking sendoff as he died in the arms of his sister with Strand and Luciana present as well and Nick’s passing served as a solid reminder that while there is good to be found in this world, bad things can and will happen at any time and I’m not sure this loosely tied group will ever be the same with Nick out of the picture.
 
After all, Alicia has always drawn strength from her family whether she wants to acknowledge it or not, and Nick was loved by Lucy and Strand always saw him as an equal, meaning they too will be shattered and Morgan…well, once again people are dying around him and that can’t bode well for his psyche either. In the end however, this was in fact, a brilliant but painful episode. One that left us with plenty of food for thought and some seriously emotional moments as well and it should be interesting to see how the show will address the whole notion of whether or not the world can ever be a good place again in the weeks to come, and if these rattled souls can find peace in the slightest. Until next time.  

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