Fear the Walking Dead - Season 3 Finale Review

[Warning: Big Spoilers]

PREVIOUSLY ON FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

Alicia lives well on her own and eventually encounters a new survivor named Diana. With the main group however it is discovered that Ophelia was bitten by the infected in the vents and dies just before her father arrives to see her. Daniel still allows her and her group to come live at the dam. At the market Nick relapses and returns to his drug addictions, taking Troy on a journey with literal adrenaline glands and danger. And lastly, Strand makes a mysterious deal with the leader of the Proctors, Proctor John, possibly resulting in doom for the dam.

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Part 1/ Episode 315: Things Bad Began

TV Description: Nick discovers a new threat descending on the dam; Madison faces a horrifying revelation.

For the second to last episode of this season, Things Bad Began was an excellent use of building up the tension for the season finale. We saw some great conflict between some big characters, the attack by the Proctors, and everybody getting together in the same location, bringing the stakes up to a whole new level. There was gunfights, verbal fights, and a fight of will as characters began to hurl towards an inbound disaster towards the dam. This danger quickly made Walker and Crazy Dog depart, giving a final goodbye to Madison before parting ways.

The one to bring about this disaster would be the evil Proctor John, played by Ray McKinnon, who we finally get introduced to face-to-face. He is a cold-hearted, cruel, and cunning villain, and with a great amount of power behind him, he’s definitely capable of harming and killing people. With him owning the marketplace and a majority of the resources in the area, along with an army of mercenaries, he’s a perfect villain for Fear. Now while we do see him meet Alicia and have her take a part of a surgery to remove a tumor from his spine, we see him capable of judging people pretty well as he recognizes Alicia’s survival instincts. Beyond this, Alicia’s part in this episode is rather small. Her partnership with Diana is cut short when they are rammed by a large car driven by some bandits. Both Alicia and Diana fight off the bandits really well, with only Diana getting an injured leg. However, while Diana wanted to kill them all to be sure they’re dead, Alicia threatened them so they ran away. This is what leads her to Proctor John and her involvement in the soon to be attack on the dam.

Things are every crazier at the dam. Daniel and Strand, two of my favorite characters on the show, get into a fight ending with Daniel getting shot under the chin. Amazingly he lives, as the bullet exits out of his right cheek, leaving him disfigured and bleeding badly. I was freaking out so much, thinking Daniel had died. But even crazier is that Strand is horrified by what he’s done. Daniel says it himself before they fight: “You’re a con artist, not a killer.” We see this before the fight as well, with Strand desperately trying to convince Madison and Nick to leave the dam before the Proctors come. I have never seen Strand more terrified than in this two-episode finale. Even with this betrayal, there’s now even more morality in him than ever. Whether he survived though was still up for debate.

Sadly though we lost a big character in this episode: Troy. Yes, he did bring destruction to Broke Jaw Ranch, but there seemed to be a possibility for him to try and redeem himself, as he discovers and relays the incoming attack on the dam to Maddy, Lola, and Daniel so they can prepare. Troy was even having a great talk with Madison on forgiveness and hoping they can both be friends as they set up explosives to blow the dam if the Proctors took it over. But strangely, and appealingly, Madison kills Troy in a quick rage when she discovers his role in the ranch’s destruction. I felt like I was watching some old Game of Thrones episode as it showed no great drama in his death, just an angry hammer to the head and leaving him to rot. It was simple, effective, and showed once more, just like in the case of Ophelia, that anyone can die. At least Daniel didn’t get to him first, after finding out it was Troy who brought the horde to the ranch.

I left this episode terrified. And since this finale was two episodes long, I had no time to stop and take a breather.

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Part 2 / Episode 316: Sleigh Ride

TV Description: Strand’s loyalty is tested when the dam clashes with a new adversary; the Clark family is pushed to new extremes; Madison reckons with the past

Starting off from the tense ending of the last episode, that fear I gained previously immediately returned. The dam is mostly under the Proctor’s control, Nick and Madison are hiding, Daniel is injured with Lola, and Strand is trying his best to figure out what to do to save the Clarks. In the end though, almost everyone meets on the top of the bridge for a final scene and soon afterwards the rest of the main cast join in as the conflict goes into overdrive.

In the battle for the dam this episode, we’ve lost Efrain, the water man who saved Daniel after season 2, and Lola, the new leader of the dam. Man that hurt, as both were memorable characters and had good potential. Daniel goes absolute angry badass after he mysteriously realizes Lola dies and he, combined with Walker and Crazy Dog’s sniping from afar, save me from my moments of complete panic for the characters as it seems Proctor John is more than willing to end their lives without a care.

While we got a rather nice and relaxed personality in his introduction, this episode uncovers the veil of Proctor John, showing clearly he is mean, destructive, and cruel in his intentions. After a small thing from Strand as he tries to get Madison and Nick out, he decides to kill all the Clarks, including Alicia, and Strand. It’s only through Nick threatening to blow up the dam with the detonator is he able to give Alicia, Maddy, and Strand time to escape on a Zodiac boat. And even then he decides to give up his life for them by staying to blow up the dam. That was an insane moment! Nick has gone through a ton of growth since the beginning and having him sacrifice himself like this was just… Not fitting. Now again, anyone can die and maybe this was his time to go. But the show never shows his death. The last we see of Nick and Daniel walking up to him and them looking down at the Zodiac with Strand, Alicia, and Madison heading for a raging hole in the dam.

Speaking of Madison we see her having a dream of Christmas while at the ranch throughout the episode. My god when this opened up the episode I was totally saying, “What the fuck?!” Now before you say anything more, this episode does, amazingly, drop an uncensored f-bomb at the very beginning, so I get away with one as well. But anyways, it was a great journey for Madison in the dream, as she watches Nick and Luciana leave her alone after paying respect to Dream Alicia’s grave, views her Christmas dinner as it becomes a blood bath that one would expect from a horror movie, and is stranded in a graveyard of all the people she’s killed, eventually getting dragged into one by a dead Jerimiah Otto as a Dream Travis attempts to pull her out. It was so creepy and unnerving to watch, but it all ends with Madison possibly realizing the horrible results of her killings as she wakes up and watches the new river bringing life to hundreds of people, a result from the several lives lost by the dam and the possible death of Nick. Maybe she’ll be a new woman by the next season, or at least trying to become a better leader than she is now.

But crazy as it is, that’s where the episode ends. For all we know Madison was the only one of the main cast, besides Walker and Crazy dog since they’re not technically at the dam, to survive the dam’s destruction.

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Overall Analysis:

This finale scared me because in the end… We don’t know what happens! Nobody knows! We only know Madison is alive, but nobody, not the actors or our friendly neighborhood Chris Hardwick know the fate of the rest of the cast! When the episode ended I was pacing and worrying for 20 minutes over who was still alive! Daniel is still one of my favorite characters, Nick was too soon to go and I want to see him with Luciana again, Alicia was better than ever this season, John could still be an epic villain, and Strand really showed he cared for his friends with how much he was willing to do to save them. This was fantastic! This was incredible! This finale completely sets in stone that Fear the Walking Dead is worth watching! Unlike the season 6 finale to The Walking Dead, ending with a strong possibility of who dies by Negan’s hands when many knew who dies by reading the comics, this is original content with a finale with just the right amount of situation to give fans of Fear that overwhelming desire to watch the next season and attempt to convince others to get into Fear as well. Maybe there will be those who are really pissed off we didn’t find out what happens to the rest, but again I think this ending was just spot on to keep people coming back for more Fear the Walking Dead!

For a season finale, I have to give it a 10 out of 10, even though I was so hoping for Madison to die. For a season as a whole, I give this third season of Fear the Walking Dead a 9 out of 10. It had amazing new characters, hugely memorable and unique locations and situations, and super strong character development from all the main cast!