6.03: Fear The Walking Dead - Alaska

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Al and Dwight go rogue on a recon mission for Ginny to follow a lead thought lost, but Al must choose between what she has now and what she's chasing.

 

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First of all the episode was directed by Colman Domingo and just like the previous episode it is very different to the low points in the last season. I really, really hope that we are not let down by the AMC, because these episodes are the stuff that we should've seen last year. But didn't because road to nowhere was more important than character lead story development.

I know that I'm harsh again, but I've reviewed most of the Kirkman's world with the zombies and I don't want to post another facepalm moment. So please, please, please keep the momentum going.

I am so glad to see Morgan smiling again. It's been a long time since he was a daddy-o last time, and I think in his heart he is still one. So keeping Rachel as wifey and Morgan as baby he has essentially as family, one that rescued him and not the other way round.

It is kind of amazing to also see that he'd managed find a razor from somewhere, or then Daniel managed to talk him around about having a bushy beard, which I really liked. It symbolised his change and the anger inside him more than the story he told to Rachel.

We know that he's "been in sixteen different bodies since it all began," and he must feel hurt at the inside. I felt the same way, when Viv lived and I can still feel the pain, the sorrow and the longing to be with her, even if it was painful some times.

Rachel is right, he is "still the man they knew," even if he's wielding a halberd now instead of the old stick. It kind of symbolises his change.

"Damn." A go-pro, but not a go-pro. The production team must have taken notes from our TWD criticism. I know we, especially me exposed a few of the tools that were too modern to show up in the show, but as we are living in modern days, the bodycams have become a norm. Not so much in the TWD world, but they could have easily acquired something that Al and Dwight are currently wearing.

Another note on Dwight's mask. It is so well done that it doesn't really show, when he pulls faces. I know that in the TWD they didn't how he got the scar, but let me just reveal that it was a present from Negan. A reminder to not go against his rules. But Dwight isn't that man any more.

He has a purpose and he's happier than the man Morgan found on road. And it's not about finding the rare Alaskan driving license. Or formadehyte filled dead with a perfect look.

Speaking of which she was most silent dead type I've seen for a long while. She didn't stumble or even make a noise on her way to bite Al. And when she fumbled I was screaming, "Call Dwight, girl. Call Dwight!"

I guess I have developed emotional feeling for Al's well being.

I also loved that the beer made it back in the Fear. It really aided the conversation about important things, like it always does. Both Dwight and Al needs their woman to make the full. Love is hard in the post-apocalyptic settings, and distant love even more so, because you cannot express it. It's more as if you're in love with the thoughts and romantic fantasies than with the reality. That you're not with her.

Plague, of all the things that can kill you in Kirkman's world, that one is horrible way to go and it potentially makes the Dead even more dangerous. It is transmitted via a touch or through aerosols with a mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent on subjects, if they're not treated.

You know how hard it is to find antibiotics in the world that has gone through a pandemia and failed. During our one, you might remember what India did. It is plausible situation that the antibiotics ran out during the epidemic phase. But now, an infestation in a house filled with rats, sick and dead people.

The chances for it to develop inside there is minimal. Bubonic Plague is carried by fleas, but I cannot recall an incident of it in the States. Meaning that the only way the Black Death would present itself in the "New World" is through intention. Someone released it.

So, while Ginny's instruction of find out the cause of death is a dump it is also kind of important, because of the mutations in the dead. I did do a little google, and it is really rare to get a bubonic plague in the States with a hundred year average been around a thousand cases. Therefore, if the major population of the survivors would get infected it would be catastrophic. Even more so then it is now, because there's no easy way to provide good sanitation.

The fact that Dwight got it outside the house tells us that it's spreading.

God damn, CiPro. The Helicopter people are loaded with the supplies and I kind of guessed that they would have stored them in the drop sites. The rule #2 after Always Double Tap should be #The Importance of the Loot.

The amount if antibios in that box could treat thousands. But the problem with the Black Death isn't just the poxes, but the fact that you soon after them showing up start to develop a gangrene. So the antibios might help but there's a lot more caring after the treatment.

Love helps. Here's <3 to Dwight and Sherry.

A perfect episode.

 

[REBerg]

I guessed wrong at least twice.
I thought that the episode would be one of the promised character "deep dives" into the latest Morgan situation. His creation of a staff-hatchet hybrid weapon indicates that he does not intend to live happily ever after with his newly adopted little family. His new mate already shows significant separation anxiety when he heads out the door.
Morgan's plan to spring the rest of the gang from Ginny jail and bring them to the new safe zone seems unrealistically ambitious. Even if he should prove successful, how safe is a place that can be quickly sniffed out by any psychotic bounty hunter with a bloodhound?
I also thought that Al would be reunited with her whirlybird girlfriend and fly off into the night. Her vision may have been as pie-in-the-sky as Morgan's, considering, as she told Dwight, that she had only spent two nights with the woman she was seeking.
It was fortunate that she changed her mind. The pilot probably surmised that Al would find the antibiotics to save the plague victims when she checked the box for the promised beer.
Once again, ale is what cures ya!

 

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Morgan's plan to spring the rest of the gang from Ginny jail and bring them to the new safe zone seems unrealistically ambitious. Even if he should prove successful, how safe is a place that can be quickly sniffed out by any psychotic bounty hunter with a bloodhound?

Pretty safe since he's now moving with the bounty-hunter's car and has his dog. How many bounty-hunters Ginny has in her back pocket?

 

[REBerg]

How many bounty-hunters Ginny has in her back pocket?

Unknown. Dutch, Johnny and D'avin are looking for work.

 

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Unknown. Dutch, Johnny and D'avin are looking for work.

Somehow I might even believe that Ginny is the source of the infection. It is kind of clear that they are clearing places from the living so that they can get their things, and places. Maybe they have a huge stockpile of antibios, I just doubt it because of our pandemia and in the Kirkman's world, there's so, so many people still scavenging for stuff.

 

[REBerg]

Somehow I might even believe that Ginny is the source of the infection. It is kind of clear that they are clearing places from the living so that they can get their things, and places. Maybe they have a huge stockpile of antibios, I just doubt it because of our pandemia and in the Kirkman's world, there's so, so many people still scavenging for stuff.

Along with driver licenses, wasn't collecting causes of death one of the objectives of their explorations? Maybe the Ginny Empire is experiencing the plague, and she is getting desperate.

 

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Maybe the Ginny Empire is experiencing the plague, and she is getting desperate.

I don't now. They don't really show her POV. But it's kind of obvious that she's going bonkers with power, thinking that she's a dictator and everyone should bend on her will. But, is she desperate enough to start a biowarfare campaign in the middle of the zombie apocalypse?

 

[REBerg]

is she desperate enough to start a biowarfare campaign in the middle of the zombie apocalypse?

I wasn't thinking weaponization. I meant that her captives might be going Bubonic, which would be a problem she would want to solve quickly -- especially if her ranger goon squads were being thinned out by the plague. A dictator needs enforcers.

 

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I meant that her captives might be going Bubonic, which would be a problem she would want to solve quickly -- especially if her ranger goon squads were being thinned out by the plague. A dictator needs enforcers.

Yeah, that's the risk with everyone they capture. I doubt Ginny has given anyone orders to wear mask and wash their hands. It's 2020 again in the small screen. I wonder what they think about hoarding the toilet paper or having a stockpile of hand sanitiser?

A plague outbreak in Ginny's communities could be absolutely devastating. It would be Black Death again with nobody really dying, just turning to a nightmare zombies. But I do wonder if the victims go gangrene, what it will do the walkers? Are they going to be able to walk around with bits that have rotten to the core?

Note that it was interesting to see a rat nibbling a zombie corpse, when other scavengers has been none existent. There's not even flies laying eggs on the Dead.

 

[REBerg]

There's not even flies laying eggs on the Dead.

It's a No Fly Zone.

 

[Jeffbert]

I was glad to see Dwight reunited with his wife.

 

[nixie]

Rats creep me out more than walkers. When Al and Dwight crawled through them made my skin crawl, give me a horde any day

Happy Dwight was finally reunited with Sherry, wonder what one we will lose?

Will next week show us John, June or Sarah, Wendell or Grace and Luciana?

 

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Will next week show us John, June or Sarah, Wendell or Grace and Luciana?

Yes. I believe I saw John in the preview.

 

[Dave]

My biggest take from this episode was how good antibiotics are against Bubonic plague. It seemed to work even before the patients had swallowed the tablets!

I also thought that Al would be reunited with her whirlybird girlfriend and fly off into the night.

That surprised me too.

The pilot probably surmised that Al would find the antibiotics to save the plague victims when she checked the box for the promised beer.

I hadn't thought of that. I know it was a radio, but "beer-lady" gave no hint of recognition.

Ginny is the source of the infection.

Very probably!

Happy Dwight was finally reunited with Sherry, wonder what one we will lose?

That's the way it goes I guess. The large cast needs to be weeded out somehow, which is why I expected Al to leave.

 

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My biggest take from this episode was how good antibiotics are against Bubonic plague. It seemed to work even before the patients had swallowed the tablets

Yeah, they cannot get everything right, but they're doing a pretty good job on making these episodes interesting.