‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘Is Anybody Out There?’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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I suppose that if there is one complaint about season five of Fear the Walking Dead that has some genuine credence to it, it would be that this season has been relatively light on the scares and the danger. Because for the past seven episodes, the story really has focused heavily on redemption and kindness and finding a way to come together after the end of the world and it’s honestly something that I think has been quite refreshing when all is said and done. For horror rarely goes to positive places, and I’ve been fascinated by everything that’s played out on screen this season. But I get where people are coming from when they voice their concerns about the lack of terror present this season on social media, and I’m glad to see that the show took the time to address that complaint during last night’s episode.
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For the mid-season finale of this series, ‘Is Anybody Out There?’, finally brought tension and scares to the forefront of the story in the easiest way imaginable. Because this particular tale featured an absolute race against time for the group to escape their current location, since the nuclear reactor was closing in on meltdown status and well, for a moment there, it seemed as though this particular tale was going to extend the threat of that looming disaster to make this an hour filled with tension. Because the group was still slightly scattered to the wind and it was going to take some serious effort for everyone to come together since Morgan and Alicia and Grace were dealing with the herd that followed Alicia away from the treehouse and John and Dwight were still working to figure out a way to get back to the Truck Stop.

Which bring us to an unexpected surprise that this story had in store for us in that, it only took ten whole minutes of screen time for the reactor to blow, and the resulting cloud of radioactive dust that came out of that explosion, added an incredible sense of urgency to this story. Because it was only a matter of time before the fallout covered everything and everyone in the area and that prompted everyone who was away from the plane to get their butts in gear to meet at the rendezvous point as quickly as possible and that’s where the danger came into play in this tale. For there were no guarantees that anyone was going to make it back in time for takeoff and that allowed for some surprisingly moving moments to come to the surface of this story, especially when it comes to John and June’s love affair.

Because Dwight and John came to learn that gasoline is starting to go bad, and because of that new problem, they found themselves stranded further away from the runway than they’d like and the genuine possibility that they would never see the plane, brought about the feels in question. For John took the time to pour his heart out to June, in an effort to offer her a proper farewell, just in case he didn’t make it back. And this was handled in beautiful and classy fashion and it made me truly wonder if we were about to see the exit of a lead character, since it truly seemed as though there was no hope for John or Dwight. But despite the danger surrounding them, this dynamic duo rolled the dice one last time, because there was a chance that Sherry’s car might still be okay. 

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But while that segment was tense and uncomfortable in its own right, it oddly paled in comparison to what came next in this story. For Morgan and Alicia and Grace made it to the plane, complete with their undead friends and well, it was simply now or never. For if they didn’t get on that plane in the next few minutes and take off, the dust would settle upon them and that would be that, and reluctantly, they all agreed to start the takeoff sequence, with or without John and Dwight. But thankfully, John and D came rolling in at the last possible second and made it on that plane and in a thrilling sequence of events, the group managed to take off with everyone aboard, and avoid the radioactive cloud in the process. But they weren’t quite out of the woods just yet.
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After all, they needed a safe place to land, and with daylight running out, they needed a grand assist from Wendell and Sarah. But sadly, they were struggling to find a good way to light up the landing strip and they were so desperate to make this work that they even reached out to Logan to see if maybe he would join them in their quest to pay it forward and after brushing them off, they were left without any solid ideas on how to save their friends. However, fate it would seem was smiling down upon everyone in this tale since Daniel returned from his little sabbatical, and he had everything that Wendell and Sarah would need to provide the plane a safe landing and thanks to Daniel, and Wendell’s bravery at the last second, the plane was able to land and everyone was saved.

But a happy ending is never really this show’s style and despite being able to share some warm moments and beautiful reunions, since Daniel and Alicia said hello to one another for the first time in years, Logan showed up at the end of this story to finally explain himself before offering up a fascinating and ominous proposition. As it turns out, he reclaimed the group’s base of operations in the hopes of finding a little information that his partner left behind, specifically the location of some oil fields that would allow their owner to create fresh fuel for the wealth of cars scattered about the countryside. Which meant Logan wanted to work with the group to find those fields and help them create said fuel since gasoline is starting to go bad and also to pay penance for his mistakes as well and while this sounds like a genuine attempt to make things right, there’s danger waiting behind this deal. Because there’s no guarantees that Logan won’t double cross them again, and the people he’s been working with are desperate for a win and willing to hurt folks to get what they want.

If anything, that’s definitely a unique way to set up the back half of season five, because the failure and lack of resources is something that most zombie stories never get the chance to address and of course, fuel is paramount to Morgan’s mission, so joining forces with Logan makes sense at the moment. As to whether or not it will pay off in the long run, well we will find that out in the weeks to come and thankfully, we don’t have to wait all that long to see where this new wrinkle in the journey will take us. For Fear the Walking Dead is only taking a short break this go round, allowing for us to pick this story back up in a couple of weeks, allowing for us to learn if there are indeed any lingering effects from everyone’s exposure to radiation after all and we will soon discover if Logan is being genuine about doing the right thing for a change, and I’ll definitely be counting down the minutes until August 11, when Morgan and the team resume their quest to make a devastated world a better place. Until next time.  

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