Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 16 Review: The Beginning

Is Fear the Walking Dead preparing for another soft reboot?

Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 16 showed all of the characters in truly perilous situations, but the developments were a little too rushed.

The creative forces clearly wanted to go the extra mile to leave fans with many cliffhangers, but adding another 30 minutes would have allowed the finale some breathing room to give us some more of the character-building we’ve come to expect.

One of my biggest annoyances with this series is that Morgan continually finds a way to survive. In the final few episodes alone, he was thrown into a pile of walkers and somehow escaped unscathed.

Surviving the initial blasts by hiding under a truck was completely and utterly ridiculous, even more so when the walkers in the vicinity were charred. It would have been way more believable to have him, Grace, and the kid hides it out in the submarine.

At least then they would have had some level of protection, but maybe there is still a reality in which Morgan Jones dies.

If you watch Fear the Walking Dead online, you know that’s two consecutive season finales we’ve had his fate left up in the air, and quite frankly, he needs to go.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 started the process of repairing the character. It’s too bad that he had yet another dramatic heel turn in this final few episodes that rendered him one of the most tedious characters in franchise history.

Grace and Morgan preparing to kill themselves instead of being consumed by the nuclear blast could have been such a great scene, but the execution could have been better.

Grace has been struggling ever since losing Adena, so I can understand why she thought she could hear her daughter. She’s never going to get over that loss.

Karen David has been killing it as Grace. She’s truly one of the best characters introduced since the current showrunners took over. We’ve had so many characters that take up valuable screen time without actually doing much.

But there’s a lot of uncharted territory with Grace, and if she dies to prop up Morgan’s character, it would be such a terrible decision.

The writers need to nurture Grace and give her a lot more to work with on Fear the Walking Dead Season 7.

The zombified Rachel, holding her baby and being led to Morgan was a shocking scene, but it would have held much more weight had Rachel not been relegated to the periphery the entire season.

After a decent introduction at the beginning of the season, she didn’t do anything of note. Even a few more scenes would have helped me feel like she had been a developed character, but she was more of an extra.

If the writers are going all-in on Morgan and Grace looking after this child, they need to go about it correctly.

June: He didn’t come alone.
John Dorie Sr.: She’s an even better shot than me.
Dakota: Why are you here?
June: I forgive you, too. John was right what he said. It’s not too late, even if you only believe it for however long we have left.

If Lennie James sticks with the show, seeing Morgan and Grace raising a child growing up in the apocalypse might be a nice direction for them.

Speaking of relationships, Fear the Walking Dead handled Dwight and Sherry’s realization that the connection remained between them very well.

These characters originated on The Walking Dead, and putting their fraught relationship under a microscope has really elevated them into top-tier characters.

Sherry has been running for so long that she’s struggled to make sense of her relationship with Dwight.

After the horrors of the Sanctuary under Negan’s rule, she’s struggled to believe she can have a relationship with Dwight and be happy.

We’ve witnessed the way she wants to get revenge, and it’s been handled well, but I’m excited to see how their relationship will continue to develop next season.

All they wanted to do as the world was ending was find some beer and pretzels, but helping the family get their shelter back allowed Sherry to utter a perfect line.

Enjoy the view, asshole.

Sherry

After Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 15, it seemed like a big showdown between John Dorie Sr. and Teddy was not in the cards, but damn, it was so worth the wait.

Daniel: Why should we believe him?
Rollie: You got a better idea?
Daniel: Yes. I was with the radio; I heard a voice. They were casting coordinates, and the voice said it was a safe place to go to. I wrote them down.
Man: Who said that, Daniel. Was it Morgan? I didn’t hear him say anything about coordinates.
Daniel: No, someone else. I know that voice. I just don’t know who it is, and then it cut out.
Rollie: You sure you’re not just confused again, old-timer. You remember what happened last time we took your word.
Luciana: We don’t have time for this. Daniel, are you sure you heard what you’re telling us?

There was understandably a lot of tension between them due to how long John had been tricking the mysterious cult leader, but I didn’t expect Dakota to be the one to pull the trigger.

Zoe Margaret Colletti played every beat of Dakota’s harrowing journey to perfection, and I did not expect it to culminate in her letting herself die in the explosion.

Dakota struggled from the moment she first arrived on the series and realizing Teddy had been using her was the final straw.

She felt like everyone had betrayed her and that they wanted to mold her into someone she isn’t. Deep down, she was a young girl struggling with very negative emotions, and the only way for her to be at peace was by killing herself.

The visuals throughout everything that happened with Dakota on the finale were perfect. The bomb’s detonation, incinerating her, was probably one of the best scenes of the series.

The big surprise throughout this plot was that June was ready to allow Dakota to exist in the same place as she did, even trying to save her at the last minute.

That came out of nowhere, and my best guess is that June realized Dakota did not have the best start at life, and having someone like Virginia raising her was hardly a good upbringing.

Rollie’s betrayal took me by surprise. He was a snake in the grass, and I’m thankful it didn’t turn out that Daniel imagined him copying what Riley said.

There was a lot of potential with Rollie, but at least he went out in a truly shocking manner.

Daniel not imagining the message from Althea was also a surprise. The CRM helicopter, likely driven by Isabelle saving Daniel’s group, seemed like the setup for The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2 or the long-gestating Rick Grimes movies.

The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead have only been giving us subtle hints about this group, and I don’t expect that to change any time soon.

There’s a good chance Isabelle went rogue to save the group because we’ve seen the inner workings of the CRM thanks to The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 1, and they really don’t like outsiders.

Wes: How’s it looking here?
Luciana: The basement is a no go. You find anything?
Rollie: Yeah, a bunker.

Then again, maybe Isabelle has a higher authority than we’ve been led to believe.

This brings to the Victor Strand of it all.

Strand has all the makings of a villain, throwing characters to the wolves when they don’t serve a purpose any longer.

He’s been out for himself since the beginning, and now that he’s survived the initial detonation, he seems poised to take on the villain mantle on Fear the Walking Dead Season 7.

One of the concerns I had was Strand declaring he was Morgan Jones mere moments before the explosion. If he was truly at peace with who he was, why did he lie about his identity?

It’s not like the man in the complex would have cared enough to do anything. The world was literally ending.

There’s been much debate about whether Madison is returning, and something tells me it’s possible if the series is embracing the villainous side of Strand.

Wouldn’t it be perfect if Madison showed up to take him down? I know Kim Dickens was treated terribly by poor storytelling, but it would be excellent if she returned to take him down.

Could you imagine the possibilities?

“The Beginning” was decent, but there were many issues, including the aforementioned plot armor for Morgan and the blink, and you’ll miss them moments, but it did set up the coming events well.

What did you think of the nuclear detonation? Do you think anyone will be dead when the series returns?

Are you as tired of Morgan as I am?

Hit the comments below.

Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC this fall.

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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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