‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘The End of Everything’

7/1/2019

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

If there’s one thing that Fear the Walking Dead has done a wonderful job with in season five, it’s moving the plot along at a wonderfully brisk pace. Because in the past, big mysteries and important twists were drawn out at times, or more or less relegated to the season finale to keep things interesting. But here, everything’s been coming forth at a breakneck pace. After all, Dwight arrived three episodes into the new year, something I wasn’t expecting to happen that early, and for that matter, we found out why there were radiation signs everywhere early on in this season as well, and we were quick to learn exactly who was behind the roadblocks of the dead surrounding this area.

But of the many mysteries this series has managed to either progress or resolve this season, only one has remained; the fate of our favorite intrepid reporter, Al. Because her disappearance in the season premiere hasn’t been updated or resolved in the slightest and honestly, considering how things looked with that mysterious helicopter taking to the skies in the last episode, I got the funny feeling that the series was going to purposely push this plot thread to the wayside, allowing for a grandiose adventure to take place to rescue Al from her captors. But as it turns out, the series felt the need to address this little matter sooner rather than later, since ‘The End of Everything’ allowed for us to find out what happened to Al a few weeks ago.

As it turns out, she quickly found herself in a world of trouble, shortly after we last saw her. For the mysterious soldier that knocked her out was handling a little clean-up work when Al came to and well, seeing a corpse be set on fire never bodes well, which prompted Al to run for it, unsuccessfully, and her journey only became more complex from there. For the woman who captured her, had little to say to Althea, outside of barking orders and demanding she surrender the tape that she recorded, the one that featured the map and the armor surrounding the resurrected soldier and of course, Al had no intention of handing that over, not without making a deal to maybe get a little information from this mysterious person, first, and well, that certainly seemed like a good idea at the time.

Because while a tentative deal was struck to learn everything there is to know about this mysterious soldier, the fact that she continued to say nothing, and continued to make threats and push Al around, made it seem as though this interaction was going to end badly when all is said and done, and while Al gave it her all to try and remove the walls surrounding this woman, she instead flipped the tables and ended up putting Althea in quite the compromised place. One where she was forced to risk life and limb to gain any shred of trust, and one where she was forced to open up over the fact that back when the world came to an end, she made a powerful choice, in that, the story mattered more than anything else and by covering mankind’s final moments, she missed an opportunity to say farewell to her family.

Which was quite the eye-opening moment for Althea. Because if this was the end of the road for her, she suddenly felt as though she’d wasted precious hours and minutes on stories rather than living in the moment and seeing the world for what it currently offers, and that prompted Al to try a few new things for a change. Including fighting back and taking her captor, prisoner, in order to ensure her safety and to finally get some answers about why this woman had to be so secretive and why she was so hellbent on ending the life of someone that was supremely supportive and helpful and well, as the old saying goes, be careful what one wishes for, because Isabella did indeed spill as much of the beans as she could about her organization, and what she revealed was chilling to say the least.

Because this group, is a well-organized machine, one that features inventive and practical weaponry, armor that cannot be chewed through and it would seem, just about endless resources, since they have supply drops in places for their troops and they are working on something big. In fact, it would seem they’re planning to put the world back together, and that’s really all we got out of Isabella when it comes to this group and this place, because she also made it clear, that they like to operate in the shadows, and they don’t tolerate failure, and the fear in her voice as she explained this, was enough to satisfy Al’s quest for knowledge, but it still didn’t resolve the danger since Isabella made it clear that she still needed the tape in question, and that she needed to put down Al in order to cover her tracks.

Which made their final moments, under the stars while sharing a beer, about as foreboding as one might expect, and the long march back toward the river where they first met, made it truly seem for a moment there, as though this episode was going to serve as Al’s farewell tale. But that is precisely where the episode surprised us all. For rather than let her die, Isabella explained how important and wonderful it was to have someone treat her like a person again, and make her feel special, meaning that Al had helped someone along the way, and won their heart as well since they shared a deep and passionate kiss and all it cost Althea, was the tape showing evidence of this mystery group, and the tape she made of that fateful day since she left it with Isabella before returning to Morgan and everyone else, content to honor her promise to keep this strange operation a secret, and this experience also taught her, that it was time to live in the moment and enjoy this second chance at life.

However, while this episode does end happy and this was a magnificent story through and through, Isabella’s organization and everything she had to say about them, hangs heavy on my mind a day after this tale. Because she said a lot about them, without going into details and what has me fascinated and terrified about this group, is the sheer fact that they’re working to better the world, in silence, and none of that sounds helpful or good in the slightest, especially since she spoke of this place with fear in her voice. Which makes me wonder, do they have some kind of grand plan for the future of mankind, and they’re not sharing it with anyone because they plan to impose it by force? Because that could lead to some ugly moments and a bleak future for so many if these folks just rush in and take people to a new home with the expectation that they abide by new rules or pay a penalty.

Granted, that’s just conjecture at this point, but The Walking Dead universe is rife with people who offer protection and hope with the best of intentions before delivering the worst possible results, so it’s quite feasible that this group meets that particular qualification. But, as to whether or not we discover more about them later this year or in another TWD adventure remains unclear, since this tale seemingly saw them fade into memory, so in the here and the now, it’s best we celebrate a lovely character study, one that saw Althea grow like never before, all while staying true to the mission, and now, with this plot thread neatly wrapped up, it’s on to an escape from this strange place and quite possibly, a showdown with Logan. Until next time.

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