Fear the Walking Dead’s latest episode was a weird one.
It wasn’t terrible, but it did cause a few head-scratching moments. There are some questions about the area’s size and the main characters’ judgment abilities. But there’s also another question that’s worth asking – did this episode just reuse a storyline from its parent show? Warning, spoilers for both ahead.
The Walking Dead added Father Gabriel to the cast after the Terminus arc. The meek pastor seemed to have more to his story than he told fans, and that was confirmed later on. Turns out he locked out his congregation from his church in an act of cowardice, leaving them to be killed by the hordes of walkers roaming the world after the apocalypse took hold.
The latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead shows a rabbi in a synagogue – and to make a long story short, he did a variation of what Gabriel did. After abandoning his faith, he abandoned the area and left his followers behind. When he returned, they were zombified. It’s not the exact same storyline, but it is pretty close.
This episode had some problems in terms of continuity. While the entire season has been built on the fact that the group needed a plane to get around the enclosed region they were in, and that a melting nuclear reactor nearby was posing a new kind of threat, Charlie apparently wants them to set up a home at this synagogue.
Also, it’s worth noting she doesn’t know this rabbi. The only thing this little girl knows is that she saw a light in the building, and the stranger she just met told her “god brought her there.” It’s a weird way to try and weave a poetic, meaningful storyline in and it just feels kind of forced.
The episode develops with John and June coming to find her, only to get surrounded by zombies as they end up trapped on a car. Thanks to the quick-thinking rabbi’s shofar skills, the horde is distracted and all four of the characters escape.
They bring the SWAT van back just in time to get Logan’s crew off the trail of their friends, though it’s still curious why they didn’t just stay at the mall if they were looking for a centralized location. Staying on the move isn’t serving them well, but there have to be other places than an abandoned synagogue to call home – especially since the mall had food, generators, and probably a ton of things to keep them occupied.
With only four episodes left this season, it’s clear the battle at the oil fields will be the climax of this arc. The oil fields have been talked about in great detail, though the characters only seem to lack usable gas when it fits the story. Either way, someone is either getting shot or blown up in the next four episodes.
Does the new character seem interesting enough to keep around? Why was Charlie so keen on staying there? Will a main character die when they meet Logan’s group at the oil fields?
