Title: Fear the Walking Dead: “No One’s Gone”
Network: AMC
Air Date: June 10, 2018
Genre: Horror
This weeks episode of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, No One’s Gone, was the mid-season finale. We learn the truth of what happened at the Stadium through flashbacks, flash-flashbacks, and current timelines. The writers this episode have chosen to wrap up the fall of the Stadium in a neat little bow, however, getting there was convoluted and frustrating. The double flashback involving Madison and Althea was a nice attempt at spicing up the storytelling, but in my opinion, fell flat and did not resonate the impact I could feel the writers were trying to push. So lets recap where the remaining characters have been left.
Alicia, Strand, and Luciana
I’ve been pretty vocal lately about my feelings regarding Alicia’s ‘transformation’ this season, and I have to say this girl is giving me whiplash. She is the most wishy-washy character I’ve seen in a while. I get that she’s having some emotional struggles lately, what with the loss of her entire family, but come on girl, make a choice already. You are either going to be a heartless killing machine, or not. It seems at the end of this week’s episode of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, No One’s Gone, she has made her choice, but I fear that come the second half of the season her character will again be left in a void of emotional blither. Luciana and Strand have been reduced to background characters and have zero emotional strings to bare, is it just me or did Luciana also lose a loved one, why is her character not allowed to have the depth of pain and loss that Alicia is given?
Morgan, June, and John
The three characters worth giving a damn about this season, there I said it… I feel better. Morgan finally got the two factions to break bread, or ramen, together. His emotional baggage from The Walking Dead has been laid to bare and put to rest, leaving his character free to continue anew in this series. I am honestly hoping to see the show focus almost entirely on him and John, if not these two men need a spinoff of their own. Which brings us to John, he is for the time being out of woods and on the road to recovery, but that’s about all we get from him in this episode. Legit question, How many names is this woman gonna have?! Laura/Naomi/June has finally revealed her real name and it IS June… at least for now, I think I’m just gonna start calling her LaNaJu and as more names get added we can scrabble together a new name… get it? with the Scrabble reference, man I’m funny. Anywho, on this weeks episode of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, No One’s Gone, she is finally able to tell her side of things and through an act of heroism on Morgan’s part is left to live another day, with a new name… just kidding, I’m gonna let it go I swear.
Madison
One of the biggest questions this first half of the season has been about the fate of Madison, on this weeks episode of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, No One’s Gone, we finally get an answer. I have so many things to say about this but don’t want to spoil it too much. I am also not going to be overly critical and give the scenes attempts to attain a strong emotional response it’s due. This episode did make an impact emotionally, and yes it was sad and filled with bittersweet moments, but… and I am going to preface this with the fact that I have been on more than one occasion compared to a robot with a heart of stone, I was not moved as much as I wanted to be. It could be because there was such an obvious out for Madison that her sacrifice to me anyway felt hollow and just thrown together. Either way, she was given a nice send-off and the story has been wrapped, now we can all move on.
Althea and Charlie
Still, through to this episode, Al remains the least developed character. We delved a bit further into her backstory, learning about Twisted Round and her escapades on the “other side of the world”, but it’s all still too little, maybe too late. Unless we get an Al-centric episode soon I fear her character is going to be forgotten and left to die on the writer’s floor. I am also disappointed in the showdown between Alicia and Al, it was pathetic, to say the least, she literally got slapped to the floor and that was it, really? this woman is supposed to be a badass wartime journalist and that’s how she gets defeated? It was weak, weak for her, weak for the story. It comes across as quick writing and it makes the story feel cheap to me. Anyway, on to Charlie, oh Charlie, what to say… I am not a fan of this kid. She’s irritating and kind of a d-bag. She is always doing one of two things, whimpering or plotting. I, again have been called a heartless robot, but totally would have put a slug in her brainpan a long time ago. Sorry kiddo, times are tough when zombies are trying to kill you, don’t need the living ones doing it too. Let’s hope the end half of the season will change my mind because I really don’t enjoy her at the moment.
So what did you think about this weeks episode? and is it true? Am I a heartless robot? Let me know down in the comments!
Verdict: AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, No One’s Gone has left me wanting to be gone. The writers have taken a back seat to driving home a story that has any emotional impact and instead are looking to just tie up loose ends. There feels to me to be little thought to the character’s being given any depth or rooting in the real world, they are just that, characters.
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