Morgan’s Group Is Ready to Fly on ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Fear The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 8, “Is Anybody Out There?”]
After seven episodes of preparation, Fear The Walking Dead is finally ready for the inaugural flight of Morgan Jones Airlines.
Unfortunately, the first voyage is going to have some turbulence, if it isn’t indefinitely delayed. Sure, the plane works, but everyone’s in different locations—and some of the group might not be able to make it back at all. Alicia, meanwhile, is dealing with the knowledge that she may or may not be dying from radiation poisoning. And the nuclear power plant is melting down.
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Is Anyone Out There?
The episode opens with a flashback of all of the group members trying to reach someone over the radio (hence the title of this episode, “Is anybody out there”), and eventually connecting with Logan. Then it switches to the present day, where Logan, in the factory, is confronted by the rest of his group. Apparently he’s looking for something, but it isn’t at the factory.
On the road, Alicia takes a radiation-nullifying shower. Though it won’t un-expose her to whatever amount of irradiated blood she swallowed, Grace reassures her by saying she’ll be all right (so all the panicking about Alicia last week? For nothing). They’re still being followed by her horde of walkers, and she, Grace and Morgan make an attempt to lead the flesh-eaters toward the sound of the nuclear plant alarms. Though everything seems awful, Alicia manages to make light of the situation, saying, “A nuclear plant is melting down, but I did just have a hot shower. So there’s that.”
The alarms stop at just the wrong time, and the walkers turn back toward them. At this point it’s either head toward the plane or be left behind, so they warn the rest of their group that they’re arriving with some unpleasant company.
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Find Something to Live For
John and Dwight are having trouble finding a suitable car until they locate one with John’s favorite Werther’s Originals, which, of course, starts up just fine. They make it on the road a ways, but since gasoline is going bad, their full tank doesn’t get them far. June radios John, and he tells her that if he doesn’t come back, he wants her to get on the plane without him. “Find something to live for and live,” he says. Tearfully, she agrees to do so.
At the denim factory, Sarah tries to convince Logan to help them light up a landing strip for the plane. “You walk away from people who really need your help,” she says, “and you’ll spend the rest of your miserable life regretting it.” Logan doesn’t feel too inclined to assist, saying that he’s alive because he hasn’t done what his business partner did. Thankfully, they get help from Daniel, who arrives in the nick of time with Christmas lights aplenty.
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Wheels Up
The kids get on the plane while Strand and Al get everything ready to go. June waits outside for John, and Morgan, Alicia and Grace show up with their walker followers. Fighting them off, they continue to wait for John and Dwight, who show up right as they were going to be forced to leave. The plane struggles to take off because of walkers attached to the ladder, but Morgan and John dispatch them, and all is well.
When they get back to the airspace above the denim factory, their luck wavers. The landing strip lights shine only temporarily, and they’re running out of fuel. As it turns out, Wendell, who was monitoring the lights, was attacked by a walker and the lights came unplugged. He has to crawl, without the aid of his wheelchair and with walkers on his heels, to plug them back in. He does so, and the plane makes a rough landing, but nonetheless—it lands.
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A Successful Flight
Many happy reunions occur. The group greets each other like family, and, finally, Alicia and Daniel meet again. These cheery celebrations are short-lived, however: Logan shows up, alone. As it turns out, he’s not so okay with breathing and not helping. He went to the factory because he was looking for directions to an oil plant that are hidden in Polar Bear’s journal, which Luciana has.
Gas, he says, will be impossible to use soon, but if they can get to this refinery, they can keep helping people and driving to them. The only problem is, Logan’s group is also looking for the refinery… and it seems they’re not so altruistic.
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Other Observations:
- Man, I wanted Logan to be the villain for the second half of the season. He seemed really interesting, and he was menacing without being totally cartoonish. Alas, this show is unwilling to have villains with depth, so it’ll be Logan’s Group vs. Logan and the Good Guys (which sounds like a cool band name).
- So there are no consequences for Alicia’s exposure to radiation? They’re just sweeping it under the rug? Not that I wanted Alicia gone—I absolutely don’t—but I do wish this show carried the repercussions of characters’ actions over from one episode to the next. That’s been a trend this season, what with John keeping the information from Dwight and telling him not even a full episode later, Strand and Daniel patching things up in a meager hour, Morgan getting his stick back this episode despite having to leave it behind, etc.
- “She’d be proud of you.” “Not just of me.” Does anyone else get emotional when this show acknowledges the pre-existing relationships between these characters before the Morgan crossover? Alicia and Daniel’s reunion was the best part of this episode, along with this brief conversation between Alicia and Strand.
- I have to say, spending the entire next half-season searching for an oil refinery seems like a little bit of a letdown for a main plot. It’d be nice if we got to see the group settle somewhere and have to defend it, or settle somewhere and make runs for supplies.
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