Fear the Walking Dead Review: Episode 313 – This Land is Your Land

TV Description: Alicia is thrust into a position of leadership where she's forced to make life-changing decisions.

[Warning: Spoilers Incoming]

PREVIOUSLY ON FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

Troy come backs with a massive horde of infected heading straight for the ranch. Nick and Jake try to stop Troy, but Jake’s final threats to his brother cause Nick to hit him to the ground where he is bitten by the infected. The attempts to stop the horde from getting into the ranch fail and Alicia, Ofelia, and Crazy Dog bring the living into the massive pantry to hide. But how long can they hold out?

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After the failure to stop the dead, all of Broke Jaw Ranch is stuck in the pantry. And what’s worse is that something got into the vents, so pantry is now on a time limit before everyone runs out of air. And in this hour of need, Alicia Clark, played by Alicia Debnam-Carey, plays her character like never before. She was more alive than ever this episode, presenting a young woman who was bold, yet vulnerable to the actions they have to make in order to keep as many people on the ranch alive as long as possible. There are plenty of bitten people in the pantry, so her plea to ask for them to step forward and give their lives for the rest was just a huge request. Those who got bit did step forward, allowing Alicia to, in a very peaceful way, take their lives so they would not reanimate. It was incredible and heartbreaking to see her suffer in doing this, even though she knew doing so would help buy time for the rest of the ranch. She is becoming a leader, a leader that other characters and the fans can really get behind.

While Alicia is taking care of the bitten, Ofelia and Crazy Dog are attempting to fix the vent. It surprised me how long it takes them to get to the vent, and it angered me that the two are held up because Crazy Dog is unable to fully turn himself around so he can land feet first on the ground. Ofelia could have helped him down since she could turn herself around in that cramped space, but somehow they just have to wait for Crazy Dog to get himself adjusted. It’s a race against time you two, people’s lives are on the line! Maybe if there was more shown of those two in that vent I’d feel better about the time spent there, but maybe it was also good there wasn’t much shown. Alicia was main character in this episode and what she showed was incredible!

After Alicia gets done with her killings we get a really great conversation between her and another rancher named Christine. In this room of dead bodies and suffocating living the two remember the times before the dead began to rise. I was especially intrigued by how Christine talked about the events of 9/11, how afterwards she and her husband fled to Broke Jaw Ranch and hid away from the world, and how most of all she wished she had not done so. There were some incredible plans she wish she could have acted on, from touring the world to going to concerts. And then one of the last things she ever says to Alicia hits me like a brick to the face: “Promise you’ll never make decisions based on fear.” Those words made such simple talks of singing songs and going to new places mean so much. I realized how many decisions made in this show were based on fear and how those choices have led to people dying and communities falling. Horrifying though these are the last words Alicia hears from Christine before she almost blacks out, just as the ranchers begin to turn.

On the outside the dead are still infesting the ranch. And just like Alicia’s plan, things don’t go as well as hoped for Nick and Troy. Quickly they go from riding over infected to being trapped in a helicopter that can’t lift off. All of this though didn’t seem to bother Troy though, he just kept on laughing like it was all fun and games, like he was a kid in a candy store. That has dashed most of my hopes of him transforming into a more moral character, as it seems his destructive and unbalanced nature seems to once again be flourishing. One could compare Troy to Walking Dead characters, Daryl and Carol, whose lives are now much more successful in this apocalyptic world. But unlike them, Troy enjoys, even glorifies, murdering the dead. It’s keeping us wary of Troy and if he starting to change his ways or will continue to be who we’ve known him as.

At this point, when all hope is lost, when Alicia is on her own in a tomb of slowly reanimating corpses and Nick and Troy and surrounded by the horde we see Madison finally returns to the ranch. My god it was the first time this season so far that I was happy to see her. With Strand and Walker they get Nick, Troy, Alicia, Ofelia, and Crazy Dog out and away from the horde. Reveals are done then, with Ophelia learning of her father still alive, where the horde came from, and what happened to Jake. Now this last one is the final straw for Alicia and she decides she wants to go out on her own. My jaw dropped at this. She realizes that wherever her mother goes, destruction follows. And amazingly Madison lets her go with little complaining. Now Nick says he’ll keep an eye on her with Troy, but even so this ending was just heartbreaking.

Overall Analysis:

My final conclusion of this episode is that Alicia should be the new leader. I know people say Madison is the Rick Grimes of Fear, but I have seen her more as Cersei Lannister. First I thought it would be Travis, then Nick, but now I believe Alicia is this show’s Rick. As one of the best episodes of the series so far, we have seen this young woman make some seriously hard decisions and actions that would equal some made by the main cast of the main show

The very last part of the show, when we can hear Woody Guthrie sing his famous “This Land is Your Land,” was the cherry on top of a dish of worry and death. The ranch is overrun, most of everyone there is dead, and bonds between characters are more damaged than ever. And watching all that with this normally uplifting song was just a tearjerker.

As I said last review that Fear the Walking Dead is continually keeping me excited and scared for every new episode, and now with only three episodes left, the tension and destruction has no intention of stopping. I cannot wait to see what’s going to top this amazing episode.