‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘J.D.’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 613 of ‘Fear the Walking Dead’.
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It is quite the wonderful time to be a horror fan right now, for several reasons. Because the genre is at an all-time high popularity wise, and that has brought forth a glut of horror films and shows to please the masses, with a fair chunk of them being of the upmost quality, as everyone works to keep the horror craze going strong. Plus, this demand for more scary stories has motivated the creative minds that drive the genre… to try new things out storytelling wise. Which has in turn, given life to some supremely unique tales of terror, the kind that genuinely stand for out for their creativity and that’s also led to a staple of this genre to up its game as well.
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Because these days, it isn’t enough for a horror story to provide its audience with social commentary, it also needs to deal with some of our more intimate fears and problems as a society and one particular franchise that continues to lead the way in regard to that, is The Walking Dead Universe. For the last few years has seen all three shows in this storied saga, work to examine with all kinds of fascinating topics in regard to the human condition and some of the interpersonal problems that have plagued us for ages on end and really this is top of mind today, simply because Fear the Walking Dead opted to dive deep into an issue that accompanies a rolling theme on this series that is rarely talked about in any genre. Specifically, how trauma and loss can motivate us to withdraw from the world and punish ourselves emotionally.

A feat that ‘J.D.’ accomplished in a fascinating manner, by having three characters deal with this particular problem. For instance, Sherry revealed to her beloved in this tale, that the devastating losses and overall events of the ‘All Out War’ arc continued to haunt her and made her firmly believe that the only way to find any peace… was to return to Alexandria and outright murder Negan. Which spoke volumes to the fact that rather than deal with the pain of those events, Sherry instead allowed for the anguish and the fury over being a pawn in Negan’s plans to consume her. To the point where she believed her only option was to enact revenge in order to set her emotional world right since she couldn’t deal with the fact that she ‘allowed’ for Negan to thrive when she could have done something. Which made for some powerful moments for certain, the kind that informed us that Sherry has a touch of survivor’s remorse, and it will take a lot of self-care to free her from it.

As for the other characters that dealt with self-punishment, well that was June and her new traveling companion. For her hunt for Teddy’s apocalyptic followers, brought her into contact with a stranger that was both familiar and bold. Since he was full of the same no-nonsense attitude that John Dorie exhibited during his time on the series and there was good reason for that. For he was John Dorie Sr., and he apparently survived the end of the world just fine and was currently hunting Teddy as well. But more on that in a moment. Because the more time that he and June spent together, the more we came to realize that June’s loss of John Jr. was motivating her to isolate herself and avoid reading his letter in an effort to punish herself for not doing more to stop Ginny, since she was convinced that would have somehow prevented his death and dear old dad… well he punished himself for far different reasons.

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For he genuinely believed that he failed his boy and his wife by not putting Teddy away for life and that he was a titanic failure for running from his family, and that helped him to form a world view where the only way to atone for his mistakes and his cowardice… was to stay in isolation and keep others at bay in the hopes of never letting anyone down ever again. In fact, he was quite eager for some time, to leave June behind in his renewed search for Teddy and his apocalyptic followers in order to keep that mantra going. But these two ended up forging a fascinating partnership, in the hopes of finding out more about what Teddy’s group had planned for the future and well, that was a wonderful thing for certain, since it allowed for the story to examine exactly how we get away from punishing ourselves for the pain we experience. 
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Because eventually, all roads in this tale led back to the cabin that John Jr. once called home, and once one of Ginny’s lieutenants spilled what he knew about Teddy and was dealt with accordingly, everyone had a moment to breathe and process all the fresh pain that this search brought to the surface and that brought forth the solution in question. In that, we have to take the time to acknowledge that we cannot punish ourselves for things we cannot control, and we simply have to make peace with the chaos that the universe sends our way and move forward in a positive light and honor those we lost. And in the event, one runs and hides in a manner similar to John’s father… well then one has to confront the fact that what is done is done and the only way forward is to atone for that mistake and find a way to make things right, something John Sr. did do at the end of this tale.

For he made his way to Morgan’s community with June and offered Morgan the same facts about Teddy that he offered the audience earlier in this tale and boy… did he provide us with some scary facts about Teddy. For it turns out that he has always viewed the end of the world as his salvation, since it would allow for him to stand tall and suck others into his utter madness and well, now that he has achieved full strength, hopefully John Sr’s views on how Teddy thinks and how meticulous he is in his planning will help Morgan and his friends fight him properly. The only question that remains now, is how much time they have to stop a catastrophe, since Riley has that submarine key, and it is only a matter of time before the group uses it to deploy a nuclear warhead or warheads… the kind that could lay waste to a great deal of the gulf and our heroes.

If anything, this was just another fascinating and brilliant tale. One that really did do a fine job of once again exploring an aspect of the human condition that we don’t talk about all that often for obvious reasons. Since the self-punishment we inflict upon ourselves is quite sour and negative in nature, making it difficult to stomach in most mediums. But that is what makes horror so special and so worthwhile, and it will be quite interesting to see if the final three episode of season six are going to dive deep into more philosophical concepts in regard to the human psyche, or if action and adventure and the horrors of mankind will be put on full display. As Teddy and his twisted group of zealots begin their quest to bring forth a new beginning for a broken and rotten and fragile world. Until next time.  

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