Fear the Walking Dead - Season 4B Rewrite - Pitch

This is a continuation of season 4A of my Fear the Walking Dead rewrite. If you want to read the first half of this season, you can go here: https://kbachle6490.wixsite.com/greatwarriorwriting/single-post/fear-the-walking-dead-season-4A-rewrite-pitch

But now... On with the show!

Episode 09 – Reunion

Our episode begins at night in the early morning on an empty road. It doesn’t remain empty for long though as the small caravan of trucks makes its way across the desert. Madison is in the front passenger seat of her vehicle, looking out on the empty desert, still dealing with the death of her son. We then switch to the car with Alicia, Strand, and Brian, all looking morose at the sudden death. After that we cut to Daniel and John Dorie, both of them silent as the others. After they all get their moments in the camera we return to Madison, void of emotion as she stares blankly out. Her silence though is interrupted by a call on the radio from Manuel. Answering it, she’s told that it won’t be much longer until they reach the hotel. He’ll then ask her where they’re going to house the newcomers, the hotel might not have enough room. Madison half-heartedly tells him that they’ll figure it out once they’re back. Manuel is silent for a bit, before telling Madison that that if she needs to break away for a bit. But Madison stops him by shutting off the radio. There is no way to talk to her in her current state. Before the title comes up there is a glint of sunlight/ lightening in the sky as they head back home.

When we return, we see Farah on guard, with binoculars, watching west for the returning band. It takes a long moment, but eventually she spots them and runs off to inform the gate guards. We hear the noise of the gates opening, then cut to everyone who survived the raid coming through the opening gates. They all park in the courtyard and everyone starts to get out. Manuel starts to supervise where their new supplies go, with Strand (and soon after Brian) helping out with the weapons and ammunition. Alicia, John Dorie, and Strand start to help the wounded to the clinic. Madison is on her own and looks over Nick’s dead body. Farah comes to her in greeting but getting no response from her she looks and notices Nick. It takes her a few seconds to realize that his must have been her son. Farah, still not fully adapted to this world, has a hard time in figuring out how to comfort Madison and settles with just a silent hug. Madison unconsciously hugs Farah back and the two are like that for a small while.

Manuel eventually interrupts by asking for Madison to come with him. Now that they’re back at the hotel, the council needs to discuss what to do next. Madison gets a hold of herself enough to follow Manuel as he tells Farah to go help with the supplies. Farah, feeling personally uncertain it’s the right call, follows his orders as Manuel and Madison head into the building. As they keep walking, Manuel will repeat his inquiry of if Madison needs to rest or take a break. Madison shakes her head, somewhat truthfully and somewhat lying. As they reach the council chamber Manuel pats her shoulders, telling her she has to be fully aware for what will soon come. Madison nods, then they enter the room. As they sit down at the table, the rest of the council, tired from waking up and some dressed like they’ve gotten out of bed, sit down as well. Once everyone is situated Manuel describes what happened at the raid, condensing it down to the main points: They found a good number of supplies to keep them going, but also obtained a few new people as well. He also adds that Melvin had tried to backstab them during the attack.

Manuel then nods to Madison, who brings out the map of caches around the southwest. The closest of these is at least 50 miles from the hotel. After this one of the members asks if they made sure the Proctor would never find out about them being responsible for the attack. Manuel says it’s all good, but Madison says that even if that’s the case they have to be ready. The Proctors aren’t a small group, they have a lot of people behind them. Another member will conclude that despite getting the needed supplies, the hotel and its people are more in danger than ever. That, along with the new people, is putting the community in a perilous position. Voices start to rise and Madison, not being at her best, fails to quell down the uproar. Manuel comes to her defense however, shouting out for quiet and explaining that one of these people knows where a large cache of weapons that the Proctors don’t know of is. They’ll have these weapons soon and they’ll be ready for the fight. Manuel then decides that this is enough for now and helps to conclude the meeting. Madison, still in her distraught state, is the first to head for the doors and leave and as she steps out we cut to black.

After the commercial/ break we go to Alicia, Daniel, and John Dorie. When they walk into the clinic, they hear June talking to one of her patients. The voice immediately perks up Dorie’s ear and he becomes instantly excited. As June walks into frame, she’ll notice John and freezes, then after he says her (supposed) name she’ll drop whatever she’s holding in shock. Keeping his eyes on her, Dorie drops charge (causing Alicia and Strand to take a hold of them) and rushes over to hug Naomi/ Laura. Daniel will comment after a certain point, asking if her name is June or Naomi. This will fluster the nurse even more and will pull away from Dorie. He’ll look confused, concerned, and hurt by her movement until she says his name as well, a little shaky and still trying to take it all in. Laura/ Naomi then notices all the people that the three visitors had brought to her and she starts to immediately put them down and patch them up. Alicia, with their minimum training (the surgery of Proctor John near the end of season three), assists her as best as they can, while Daniel goes down on a bed to get his wounds looked over.

Dorie though is unfamiliar with doing medical work and tries to assist and talk to Naomi/June. She mostly ignores him, but he’ll accidentally knock some medical tools onto the ground and Naomi basically goes, “I can’t take this right now, go to the corner.” John is really embarrassed and ashamed, following her instructions and going to lay down on a bed next to Daniel. Poor Dorie is going to look so depressed that Daniel will try his best to comfort him, starting with a line like, “So… not what you were expecting?” Dorie will come out by saying that he knew she was somebody who didn’t want to talk about herself and that he wasn’t expecting her to run into his arms, but this reunion is definitely not as uplifting as he was expecting. Daniel will reach over and pat him on the shoulder, to which John will smile and offer him one of his signature candies before taking one himself.

Eventually Naomi and Alicia go over to the two and start to tend to them. We’ll see Alicia work with Daniel, stitching up his wounds while he asks her how she learned to do it. She’ll respond with a line like, “Trial and error.” As she works, she’ll eventually reach the wound on Daniel’s cheek and ask if Nick did that. Daniel will confirm this and tell her Nick kept his well during their time on their own. While the memories of Nick’s death are recent, she does smile a little and comments he really changed since his druggie days. Daniel will then look at her and apologize that he wasn’t able to save him. Alicia, tears in her eyes, will try to dismiss this, but Daniel will respond that he wish he still could have done better. He’s lost his wife and daughter, now he’s lost somebody who kept him alive physically and mentally. Alicia will grip Daniel’s hand then and say that they’ll make sure nobody more is lost.

We then switch to Naomi looking over John’s wounds. Both will be silent for a while until John asks her how she’s been to initiate small talk. Naomi won’t respond and John will tell her that after she left he really didn’t know what to do with himself and went after her. As he explains though Naomi will just tell him to stop talking in a frustrated way. This will shut up John Dorie and both will have another silent phase until Naomi says, “I wish you never found me.” This is going to cause Dorie to sit straight up and look at her in disbelief, though the effect is spoiled by the pain he receives from moving so fast. Pushed down on the bed, he’ll look at Naomi very hurt and tell her he just wanted to know if she was safe, that he loves her. Naomi though is still very uncomfortable with seeing her old flame back and somewhat rushes her job of stitching John back up. After she finishes she’ll tell John she needs to think things over and walks out of the room, ignore John’s look of distress, as well as the peculiar looks from Alicia and Daniel, at seeing her leave like this. As the door closes we cut to black.

After the commercial/ break, we are with Madison on one of the upper floor balconies, looking down on the courtyard. As she stares down at the all the new people and supplies before getting up and walking out the door. As she leaves the room though she bumps into Naomi, the latter of who falls against the wall. Madison apologizes, with Naomi doing the same. Madison helps Naomi back up, asking her how her new patients were doing. Naomi, still rattled by her surprise of John Dorie, tells Madison that everyone is doing fine, that some will have to stay a little longer while others won’t have to stay for too long. Seeing that there is something off about Naomi though, Madison pursues her inquiry into what’s bothering the nurse. Naomi will try to ignore Madison and slinky away, but Madison becomes insistent. Unable to shake Madison off, Naomi tells Madison that she used to know John Dorie. Pressed further, she’ll continue that they used to know each other on a more personal level.

This intrigues Madison and she’ll ask what it was like to see him again. At first Naomi will be silent, but then eventually come out that she doesn’t know what to think or if this is the same person as before. She’ll then add, “I just don’t know if what we had back then was real or not.” Madison will tell Naomi that it isn’t wise to ignore those that they love and vice versa, especially now when you can lose somebody just like that. Naomi/ Laura (my god, I got to reveal her real name soon because this multiple names stuff is kind of wacky) hears Madison out, but is still conflicted over her thoughts of John Dorie. She tells Madison that it isn’t that simple with her, but Madison will shut this down by saying it wouldn’t hurt to hear him out. Finished her words, Madison leaves Naomi/ June and heads out.

We see Madison walking down the hallway and she heads to the medical room. Looking around, she spots Daniel and John Dorie and walks over to them. Sitting next to them, she asks both about Nick. Daniel will tell a bit about how Nick kept him alive and he was the only company that Daniel had for months. At this John Dorie will come in and talk about how it was Nick who decided to follow John to search for Naomi. As she learns more and more, Madison will rub a few tears away and eventually will ask if Nick ever talked about her. This is when Daniel will tell Madison that Nick did miss his mom, but he also had thought that she would be better off without him.

Madison, after a pause, come out to Daniel that Nick was right. Ever since she thought she lost her kids she felt as if she had let them go to be… better. Happier away from her. John Dorie will tell her that she doesn’t seem like a bad person, even if that’s what she thinks. Daniel will then tell Madison, “We’ve all done terrible things. Nick reminded me that it doesn’t mean that’s the end of our stories.” Or something that might be less cheesy? I want to convey that doing bad things doesn’t mean you are bad forever, that people have the chance to, if not make up for their mistakes, change to be better. They just have to mean it. Madison will smile at this and tell Daniel she wished they got to know each other more before the apocalypse came about. That’ll cause them both to chuckle, with Daniel wincing a little as he does. Once that’s done Madison will ask Daniel if he’s going to stay and help, or if he’s going to leave and go elsewhere. Daniel will tell Madison he’s staying and Madison will then ask him if he’s going to be ready to do help her out. The camera will switch to a farther view of the three as Madison starts explaining her plan about Brian the military weapon cache. As she’s explaining faintly, we’ll cut to black.

In our final scene of the episode, it’ll be close to night and Alicia will be sitting down by the pool. As she kicks her feet in the water she’ll be joined by Farah, who asks if she can sit next to her. After making their introductions and some small talk both will be quiet for a bit before Farah asks if Alicia is really Madison’s daughter. This’ll slightly irritate Alicia, but she’ll not show it much as she confirms it. Farah will then add that it kind of makes sense, since she and her mom are strong, brave, experienced. Instead of getting a pleasant reaction though, Alicia now openly shows anger at being compared to her mother, almost snarling at Farah that she’s nothing like Madison. This will shock Farah, who tries to ask how that is, but Alicia will interrupt by saying that unlike her mom she won’t do the things her mom did to protect people.

Farah, trying to understand Alicia, tells her that Madison risked her life for her, that Madison has been risking her life for the community and that she’s a good person. Alicia, still in a bad mood, tells Farah she’s naïve and starts to walk away. But as Alicia is leaving Farah will stand up and say that Madison told her about what she did before. Then she’ll add that Madison is trying to not be the same person as before. Alicia, facing away from Farah, stops in her tracks and listens to Farah explain a bit more on what Madison has done since meeting her. After Farah is done there is a long, quiet pause until Alicia silently leave the pool and walks into the hotel, not turning around at all to look at Farah. We’ll clearly see Alicia trying to come to grips with this idea after the last few seasons/ months of her mother killing way too many people for her and Nick.

Walking down the hall, Alicia will hear footsteps and notice her mother. Both will stare at each other, but just as Madison is about to speak Alicia walks away, having internal conflicts over if her mother has indeed changed/ tried to change. Madison, not knowing if she should chase after her daughter, stands there for a bit until she walks off. We then cut to the roof and Madison walking onto it and to the edge. She stands where she is, looking out to the north, east, then west in that order. New thoughts go through her lead, like if that raid has just doomed the hotel and its people to new, more painful death. Losing Nick has really hurt her mentally and she’s going to need the people around her to stay on her toes and be ready for the Proctors. Because she knows that they are coming.

Episode 10 – Laura

This episode will be an odd one because this one is going to be mostly the same as the official episode because it was damn good, one of the only good episodes in season 4 of the official series. The only change will be what’s happening in the present time. But because I don’t want to leave people without knowledge of how how it happened, this is a backstory episode for John Dorie and Laura/ Grace.

Instead of taking place some time after the zombie apocalypse begins, this’ll begin not long after it starts (around a month or less than a month into it). John Dorie will be living on his own in small cabin by a river, playing scrabble with himself, watching movies by himself, and fending off the occasional infected that washes up on his shore. I’m going to also add that he’ll also on occasion check his radio for any signals because this is very early into the apocalypse and there might still be a few radio broadcasts out there. Then one day a mysterious woman, who John will call Laura since she doesn’t want to reveal her real name, will wash up on his shore with a nasty injury. The next day Laura is going to try and steal Dorie’s truck, but it doesn’t run properly. This doesn’t bother John though, saying she can leave whenever, but it would probably be better if she healed up some. The two will slowly bond throughout the episode, revealing a little more about each other, going on a trip to an abandoned store for supplies, watching a movie together with popcorn, fixing up a hole in a bridge (which is how the infected keep washing up on his shore), and other small things.

They’ll both learn a bit darker secrets of the other, though I’m going to update them more to make them feel more emotional. In the official show, John Dorie becomes a recluse because he accidently killed a criminal he was trying to impair and everyone praised him as a hero, a feeling he didn’t have for his actions. But they don’t go too much into what type of criminal they were other than they were stealing from a gas station. In my version we’ll learn from Dorie that he recognized that this person was a bad person, but they were also desperate (maybe a drug addict) and that’s another reason why he wishes he hadn’t killed this person. I really did like that he didn’t want to use his guns because of that incident, he was very honorable in keeping to his principles.

From Laura/ Naomi we learn that she lost a daughter named Rose some time during the apocalypse. We could already tell she has trust issues because of that moment, but I’m going to revamp this backstory more than John’s in my version. In my story she loses her daughter early into the apocalypse because when it starts and everything goes into chaos they hide with some people who they find out later aren’t good people (or at least they don’t have will to stay good for long). With no more law enforcement they decide to take their pleasure in the mother and daughter, raping both Rose and Laura. Laura is able to stop them part way through their attack on Rose and allow her to escape, but she gets beaten up, raped again, then thrown away like garbage. She survived the attack, but the incident permanently scarred her mentally and she never saw her daughter since then. We’ll also learn that Laura hadn’t had the best partners back then… Wow, I went really dark with this one.

But back on the main story, they eventually fully deal with the walkers falling from the bridge and washing up on Dorie’s stretch of beach, though not before John Dorie finally pulls out his revolvers and guns down the infected that are about pile on top of a defenseless Laura. It’s such a great scene I have to keep it! Then after Dorie gives Laura one of his revolvers so she can be safe on the road. But soon John confesses to Laura that he’s come to love her, but doesn’t want to tell her because he doesn’t want to force her to stay when she’s so set on going. The two kiss and share a bed (don’t know if it’s sex or cuddles), and in the morning John Dorie finds Laura gone with a message in Scrabble pieces that says, “I love you, John Dorie,” laid out on the table. As an additional sequence we’ll see him try to resume his normal life before Laura came into it, but eventually he can’t do it, packs up, and heads out to find her.

For the last scene of this episode we see John laying waking up in his bed in the hotel clinic. Sitting up, he looks around to see nothing really happening. It does hurt him though as he tries to sit up fully and he falls back onto the bed. Soon though Naomi/ Laura comes in and starts looking over some of the patients. Dorie remains silent, not sure how to approach her after the previous attempt went so… wrong? Eventually though she comes over to check on him and Dorie is having difficulty looking up at her. But then she says his name and this causes him to look her in the eye. She’ll apologize for what she said before, adding that she’s conflicted over seeing him again. John will then tell her that after she left it wasn’t the same, then shows her the pieces she put for him when she left. He’ll then repeat what he said before about loving her, but not want to pressure her into staying or being with him. Laura/ Naomi will nod at this, really touched by his feelings. Dorie will then add that maybe they can figure things out between them and Laura will agree. In our last shot, we’ll see Laura turn away and continue her work, but she’ll be smiling softly, turned away to not notice Dorie smiling as well.

Episode 11 – Active

Episode eleven begins with Madison talking with Strand, telling her he doesn’t feel confident in Madison’s hopes that the nearby army base will still have weapons about for them to use. Madison tells him they have to try, there isn’t much else about for weapons so they have to take a chance to see if there is anything useful. They needed a few days to get ready, and hopefully they’ll have enough people to ward off any trouble while the mission is being done. Strand is still not totally convinced, but also adds on that he doesn’t feel comfortable with Daniel as a partner in this. This makes sense, last time the two were together Strand shot Daniel through the cheek. But Madison says that she needs the rest back at the hotel to keep ready and their skills are going earn them some needed supplies, she just knows is. Strand gives in by taking the walkie talkie Madison is offering him and just as Brian pulls up with her transport, calling out for Strand to get in. As Strand enters through the back doors he notices Daniel on the right seat, glaring at him. Strand looks uncomfortable as he sits on the opposite side of Daniel, starring at his feet as the doors close and Brian starts driving off. With that we hit the title and the episode begins. I was originally planning this to be the start of the episode where Strand, Daniel, and Brian explore the military base, but that caused some problems with pacing, so this became something different and those three will have their big adventure next episode.

When the intro and commercial are done we see Alicia practicing with her butterfly knife while watching the vehicles leave the community to where Brian believes the military are hold up (or at least their supplies are). She watches them for a while until they’re hard to see, then she heads down from the roof. Walking down one of the hallways Alicia bumps into Naomi/ Laura, causing her to drop some food she was bringing to the clinic. Alicia quickly comes to help her pick it all up and Naomi/ Laura thanks her. Alicia follows in her wake and asks which of the two names is her real name, probing to know more about her. Naomi/ Laura is flustered and stumbles a bit, uncomfortable in the question. Recognizing that she may have been a little too person with her, Alicia just ops to call her Naomi. This slightly calms down the nurse just before they enter the clinic. As they feed the patients in bed, we see Naomi and John Dorie talk a little, with her wondering how he’s doing. Alicia, after passing out the meals, goes over to them see Dorie seeming to be getting up some and move about. Alicia will eventually ask Naomi if there is anything more she can do for her and she Naomi says no Alicia leaves.

Soon afterwards, Alicia stumbles on Madison planning the first Proctor cache run. Midway through the meeting Alicia comes in and offers to join in the search. This is double motive, as she’s still not fully trusting of her mother yet and doesn’t want to see her get people killed. Madison however tells her stay, since Alicia will be a good fighter at the hotel and Madison knows the land more. We’ll have some arguing about this, with Madison and Alicia mostly the ones going back and forth on what is the best option. Eventually though Madison will finally let loose her feelings after trying to use logic for most of the argument and tell Alicia she doesn’t want to lose her again. Madison then add that if anything goes wrong that Alicia will be the best replacement for her. That last part knocks Alicia off her stride and she accepts staying.

With that, both women start heading for the entrance, where some new vehicles are being prepared to go collect the cache. As they walk, Alicia begins to warn her mother that this excursion better not be an excuse to avenge Nick. Madison will stop at this comment turn to face her daughter with real distress on her face. She’ll then moan at Alicia, being blunt in telling her daughter that yes, she has done terrible things, but she is trying to turn over a new leaf. “You were right, I was terrible. Why can’t you see that I’m trying to… to be better?” This doesn’t budge Alicia though, once again asking if Madison is going out to avenge Nick. Before Madison can answer though we hear a call from one of the volunteers that they have to get going. Madison will then tell Alicia that they’ll talk about this once she’s back. Before we hit the commercial break we see Alicia watch her mother get into one of the cars and the exploration group drive out of the gates.

After the break we are with Madison as she’s driving southwest along the road next to the Colorado River. There is going to be silence in Madison’s car at first until one of the hotel volunteers tells Madison that they heard her conversation with Alicia. Madison will comment that it was easier to raise kids back before everything went to hell and now they’re growing up fast. That man will comment that he has a son who is kind of the same way, growing up fast. Then he’ll comment that, “The best we can do is make sure they grow up right.” Madison will be discouraged at this, saying that she is growing up right, but not because of her. The man will tell Madison that that’s okay, maybe she’ll get it right sooner or later. Madison will say that she hope so as they continue down the road.

We cut away to Alicia watching the lands west, watching out for dangers, but also her mother. As she watches she hears a noise behind her and sees Manuel coming up. He’ll first tell Alicia that it isn’t wise to stay up in the sun for too long, to which Alicia will acknowledge this and say she’ll come done in a while. He’ll join her in her watch and will ask Alicia what she thinks of the hotel. Alicia will then tell Manuel about how her family had tried to turn a hotel into a community and upon being questioned how it failed Alicia will say it almost worked until some family stuff happened and shortly after they had to leave the hotel fell. After that Manuel begins to talk to Alicia about how she seems like her mother. This will instantly infuriate Alicia, who will jump up and retaliate that she’s not like her mom at all. This volatile reaction will shock Manuel but Alicia, not wanting to start up any trouble, calms herself a little and starts to leave. Manuel begins to elaborate on the comparison as she leaves, saying that Alicia seems dedicated to helping other people. Alicia ignores that though and leaves the roof.

Walking down a hallway, Alicia will bump into Farah, who will ask Alicia for help. Though not in the best mood, Alicia hears her out. Apparently the some infected were drawn to the community by the returning party and have begun to gather some around the water purification plant, so she needs some help clearing them. Alicia will ask how many there are and Farah will answer around… twenty, then Alicia will inquire as to why not other people. In response Farah will say that she has a few others joining, but most are on guard for the Proctors. Sourly Alicia accepts to come along and she follows Farah down to the front gates.

We cut back to Madison as the keep heading southwest. Pulling out the map they made of the caches, Madison points out the sign to San Luis. Looking over the map it says that the cache is located at a gas station. As they arrive at the location all of them look around. They don’t have many guns on them, so they have to be quick. As they are about to enter the building they see a few walkers inside. After dispatching them quickly they look about with no luck. Madison is especially frustrated until her foot connects with something behind the counter. Squatting down she finds a trap door with a combination lock on it. Using the notes she has she changes the code as 5-6-1-8. With a click the lock is undone and she opens up the secret door. To her astonishment there is a ton of food, water, guns, and other supplies down below. Her excitement though is cut short as the sounds of motorcycles can be heard in the distance getting closer. Thinking as best and quickly as she can she tells a few of her people to start loading up and taking everything into the back as quietly as possible. She orders the rest to get ready for a fight. As the Proctors start piling up near the building, we see a back view of Madison going out the doors face the enemy. As she walks outside we cut to black/ a commercial.

When we come back we’re with Alicia, Farah, and a couple others from the hotel heading towards the treatment plant. As they all walk Farah thanks Alicia for helping out. Alicia will shrug it off, but before she can say anything Farah tells her that killing is hard for her, but she still needs to help since it’s her responsibility. Alicia will ask if Farah has ever killed an infected before and Farah will say no, but will show hints of her kill of the crazy squatter at the casino. Alicia notices this, but they’ve gotten close to the infected hanging around near the plant and Alicia tells Farah to stay back. We see Alicia with her butterfly knife dispatch some of the infected. But unknown to her an infected that is joining in from the city is sneaking up on her and as Alicia hears it growl behind her she turns around to see Farah stabbing it with piece of metal. But then Alicia sees the look of horror on her face and hears her mutter, “No… I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to.”

As Alicia looks perplexed we cut back to Madison, a front shot of her as she walks out of the gas station. As the Proctors notice who it is, the leader of this group introduces himself by taunting Madison, calling her “A blonde,” and commenting to his fellow Proctors she’s walked right into their hands. In order to stall for time Madison asks them them what they want. They all laugh and first talk about they got a little tip that Madison was going to be taking a few of their supplies. Immediately Madison is going to be thrown off. How can the Proctors know already that the hotel is going for their supplies? Their leader then darkly mentions that Proctor John wants Madison and their daughter, maybe to reunite them with poor Nick. Madison is going to hit hard mentally with this as the Proctors keep mocking her. Eventually Madison has enough of their mockery and tells them she’s going to put Proctor John in the ground like limp worm he is, along with the rest of his pathetic lapdogs. This will knock the Proctors off their stride, and they’ll all go silent until one of them asks their leader if Proctor John wanted Madison dead or alive. The leader will say he wanted her alive, but that doesn’t mean they can’t rough her up.

As they get off their bikes and pull out their guns a shot is heard from the gas station and one of the Proctors gets hit in the chest. The fight instantly begins and both sides start shooting at one another. Unfortunately, the Proctors outnumber the Yuma group and Madison hides behind an abandoned car as the gunfight commences. We’re going to see both sides take fire until we hear an engine roar and a car from behind the building rushes out and at the Proctors. All of them with dodge it except one, whose legs will get run over. This distraction is enough for the Yuma group in the gas station to run out and to the cars with the remaining supplies. Partway through the run though the Proctors gain control of themselves and the shootout resumes. One of the Yuma people, the one who was talking with Madison in the car, gets hit in the leg and Madison provides cover fire as she helps them up and into one of the cars. The intensity is going to keep going up at this point until they’re out of gun range of the Proctors. As Madison flees with the remaining members of her team one of the Proctors shouts out: “We know where you live, Madison Clark! And we’re coming for you!” We then cut to black after a side shot of Madison in the car, looking very worried.

After the commercial we hit our final part of the episode. It’s approaching evening and we see Alicia and Farah sitting by the old pool once more, both silent for a while. Farah eventually breaks the silence by saying she’s sorry, to which Alicia will tell Farah that she did the right thing. Farah will confess that she only killed one person in her life, living or dead, and explains the adventure to the casino with Madison. As the story is told to Alicia she’ll become conflicted, hating that her mother took somebody unprepared for fighting out into danger while also feeling sorry for Farah for finally having to kill somebody. As the story wraps up Alicia will at first be angry towards her mother. That is until Farah tells Alicia she wanted to go along because she can’t stay inside forever and Madison seemed a good person for her to go with.

We’ll see then that Alicia wants to rage about her mom, tell Farah that Madison has done has done terrible things. She can’t say it though because ever since she reunited with her mom she saw that people looked at her mother differently. Has her mom really changed? Farah then tells Alicia once again that Madison did say that she did lots of horrible things before the Yuma community and that she doesn’t want to be that way anymore. Before anything more can be said though we hear the sound of engines and one of the guards calls out that it’s Madison and her team. Both Alicia and Farah head down to find out what’s happened. Arriving back at the hotel, we see the cars are damaged and some of the people have been injured. When the guards ask what happened, Madison tells them that it was the Proctors that attacked them. She then declares to the assembly that they can’t go out on anymore explorations or supply runs. The enemy are too close and there’s nowhere to run.

As Madison helps the wounded to the clinic Alicia and Farah run up to her and help. Madison will tell both girls that the Proctors are more mobilized than expected and she predicts that soon they’ll be after the hotel. Farah will ask if they’ll need to go after Daniel, Strand, Brian, and the others who went for the military base. Shaking her head, Madison will say that their group are on their own. Plus, all of them are more prepared than they were. Here Madison will stumble with her person and then tell Farah to go ahead, she’ll catch up. This though is just a ploy to get her and Alicia on her own, with Madison quickly telling her daughter that there’s a spy in their midst. The lock on Madison face though prompts Alicia to ask if there is anything else they learned. Steeling herself, Madison tells Alicia that the Proctors want the Clarks dead, they have a vendetta against their family with how much of a problem they’ve become.

There is a pause here as the soldiers look at each other. Then Quincy and Ned step forward and side with Strand. Many other soldiers decide to go to the Yuma community to fight (around 50), but a few others decide run off to go off on their own. Once everyone makes their choices those that decided not to be with Strand start to leave and scrounge up anything they take on the road. Quincy then asks Strand what must happen next and Strand, smiling happily at his success, indicated Daniel as the military man. This will shock Daniel, who thought Strand would want to keep in control, but Strand gives him a nod and Daniel begins to ask the soldiers what they have on them. We then cut to black and the episode ends.

Episode 12 – No Help is Coming

Our episode begins not long after our previous episode starts, with Brian driving his vehicle with Strand and Daniel in the back. They’re both followed by a few other vehicles with people to help transport the weapons. Strand is going to be uncomfortable as he looks around the desert until he finally looks at Daniel, who hasn’t stopped looking at him since they got in the truck. Eventually unable to take it, Strand blurts out to Daniel that can he please not look like he wants to gut him and that maybe they can get through this without being at each other’s throats? Daniel does not break eye contact and tells Strand that he doesn’t seem much different from last time at the dam. In response Strand will tell Daniel that they all have gone through a lot since the dam and Daniel is just seeing the Strand from before. Daniel will disagree and say that Strand still has that snake inside of him. Brian interrupts them before any more conversations can occur between them, calling out that the military base is up ahead. Daniel and Strand both look around from their back seats and see across the river a settlement with wall. We hold on this view of the settlement as the title appears and the episode fully begins.

When we return we see the vehicles are getting close to the complex that Brian pointed out. We’ll see them driving over the river and them going by the walls of the base. When they reach the gates though they see they’re wide open, the place seemingly abandoned. All of them park just inside the entrance and all of them get out with their guns. One of the Yuma survivors asks what’s the plan and Strand suggests sticking together because something ain’t right about this place. Daniel agrees, commenting that Strand is thinking right in this case. Before they go on though Daniel asks Brian is he’s sure this is the correct place, to which Brian swears his life on it. As a precaution though Daniel has a few of the Yuma survivors stay with the vehicles and see if the local gas station still has fuel in case they got to make a quick getaway. Daniel will then say, “We don’t know if those bandits (The Proctors) have already claimed this area…”

We’re slowly going to go through the place, staying away from wide open areas and watching for any hostiles. Looking around the settlement they see a number of things that feel off. First off, there are a few infected wandering about the area. There’s also some military vehicles about, all of them in pretty good condition. Most of the buildings are dilapidated and there is some debris about though, so it feels like an abandoned settlement. The first place they check out is a fairly large, single-story building that might have been a rich man’s club. Looking about they see the place is a mess and it instantly looks like there’s nothing about worth looking for. We see them then travel north a bit to a few buildings close together. We’ll watch them search through them and find more nothing. They go through yet another cluster of buildings and find zip. But as they leave Strand tells them to stop. Reaching out he finds a cigarette that appears to have been lit recently. Everyone is frozen at this discovery until Daniel whispers that they’re not alone.

Leaving the building, they’re looking out extra carefully for any signs of life. It’s good that they’re on guard, but not on guard enough as a gunshot is heard and one of the Yuma survivors gets hit in the head. Knowing it’s time to run, they all make a break for the gates as gunfire erupts behind them. Looking behind him, Strand notices that soldiers, United States soldiers, are running after them. When they finally reach the gas station where their rides are they discover that the people guarding their vehicles are all dead. Suddenly around twenty to thirty soldiers start coming out from the gas station and surround them in a pincer movement, telling the group to put down their arms. Completely outgunned, Daniel, Strand, Brian, and the rest put down their weapons and go onto their knees. Before we hit commercial break we a high view of these new people slowly closing in around them before cutting to black.

When we return we see Daniel thrown to the ground in a building. He and the rest are all zip tied up and in the middle of a group of army soldiers. We’ll see Brian gagged and trashing while the rest are mostly quiet. We’ll hear a voice commenting, “Well well well, looks like we got a few visitors.” This new voice will ask the soldiers if they’ve been checked for bites, what they had on them, and if they found any more. All these questions are answered as Daniel begins to look up. In front of him is a male soldier, probably the leader of the group, standing a few yards away. He appears to be in his late 40s to early 50s with pale skin, no facial hair, and tall. The stereotypical colonel. This person tells a few of his men to raise up “that one,” indicating Daniel. Roughly Daniel will be dragged to his feet and place in front of this commanding officer. He’ll introduce himself as Colonel Laurence T Rogers and asks Daniel for his name. Daniel will tell and then Colonel Rogers will continue his questioning by asking what he’s doing on his base. At first Daniel will be silent and Rogers will nod at one of his men, who will butt Daniel in the back with his rifle butt and knocking him face first into the floor. Rogers will repeat the question again and Daniel will tell Rogers that they were looking for supplies since the base seemed abandoned, adding, “No reason to leave things that nobody will use.”

“Abandoned… *chuckle* abandoned?” Rogers will say, looking around at his soldiers. “Does this place look abandoned?” They’ll all shout, “Sir no sir!” And then Rogers will grab Daniel by the hair and look him in the eyes, calling him out as a thief. Pulling out an army knife, Rogers will acknowledge the stitches on Daniel’s cheek and ask where he got it from. Getting no response, Rogers puts the tip of the blade to Daniel’s other cheek, growling that maybe he should give Daniel a matching pair. Seeing Daniel in danger Strand blurts out that the Proctors did it. Rogers will repeat the name and Strand will continue that they’re a big group that have taken over the Southwest of the United States and part of Mexico, they’re a dangerous people. Rogers will laugh at this, rhetorically asking if some greasy bar boys on their little bicycles really have that much power, that they can defeat the United States army. Strand will insist they are a threat, that they’re coming for this base soon and that’s the real reason why they came.

This (false) information though gets Roger’s attention and he studies these intruders with real interest. He walk up to Strand and ask him, “Is that so?” in an almost kind voice. He’ll then punch Strand right in the face, then order his people to lock them all up and to double the guards on the walls. One of the soldiers will comment that they’re putting too many people on the wall, they need to start clearing the place up or at least find food because rations are running low. Besides, these are the first newcomers they’ve talked to for months and maybe they should hear them out. Instantly Colonel Rogers will fly into a rage and bellow at everyone that the government is going to come for them and these people are just trouble. He’ll get real answers out of them later, but for now, keep them locked up without food or water. That’ll get them to talk. The whole Yuma group are dragged off to small rooms where they’re all locked up.

When Strand, Brian, and Daniel are thrown/ pushed into their separate cells it’s nighttime/ going on night. After the guard locks the doors and are far enough away, Daniel will comment that Strand lied well. Strand will ask Daniel if he’s mocking him, but Daniel will shake his head and remark that these soldiers don’t look like they’re doing very well. He’ll then add that before America (back in El Salvador) he saw soldiers like these ones slowly losing their wills to go on. Little food, harsh living conditions, and a leader blind to their own fanaticism can do terrible things to people. This information causes Strand to ask Daniel if this has given him any ideas, but Daniel, in response, will look balefully at Strand and tell him he’s too hasty, sounding eager to save his own skin. Brian will finally snap his gag off and tell them not to say anything, they’re the enemy. Immediately Strand will tell Brian to drop that crazy shit or else they’ll all get doomed. Daniel ignores this though and tries to go to sleep, with Strand following suit and Brian unable to do so.

In the morning, all three are awakened by one of the guards. Before anything can be said though another guard comes for each of them and both are taken out and taken to their own interrogation rooms. Then we are with Strand as his guard, along with another, are in a mockup interrogation room. Before the interrogation begins we’ll hear from one of the guards that they’re trying to get information out of Brian again because last time all they got out of him was nonsense. Strand will comment that they’ll get nothing out of him, he’s too broken in the head to give any information. “None-the-less, it’s the command of Colonel Rogers to get as much information out of you three as possible,” one of the guards will say (though I feel that piece of dialogue needs to change). Then the questioning begins, with the guard in charge asking how they found out on this place. We’ll shift the shot to Daniel first, then Strand, with both of them in their own ways explaining that Brian brought them here. The next question will be how he knows and both will give their own answer in a, “Beats me,” kind of way. Their next question will be why they’re here and Strand and Daniel will talk about the Proctors. Strand will explain that without rule or order they’re taking whatever they want while Daniel will say they’re bringing their own order to the land by killing anyone in their path.

After that we focus on Daniel, who asks the soldiers why they’re still stuck in this small base. “There’s nothing left, everything you love is gone.” This will anger the soldiers and one of them will slam his fist on the table, growling at Daniel that this isn’t the end and the military will win in the end. Daniel will sigh and talk about the national guard in the Los Angeles and how they lied to the people and themselves and eventually just bombed the whole city. They won’t believe him at first, threatening him to keep his mouth shut, but Daniel will go on and say that they can’t keep lying to themselves. He’ll go on in saying that the old rules are over and the government they had before is gone. I want this moment to feel like Daniel is almost recounting his times with the Sombra Negra and his time helping to collapse the Salvadoran government.

We’ll then switch to Strand and his interrogation, where he will be telling his captors that there isn’t much reason to stay on the base. “You barely have anything left. You need help.” He’ll go on to say that the dead are wandering about the base and the fact there are dead still about shows there isn’t much left to defend, it isn’t safe. One of the guards will, in a dishearten manner, invite Strand for ideas, believing Strand to be full of bluster. Strand though will immediately offer the two soldiers a place at the Yuma community, saying they have food, water, and walls. “You’re going to starve if you stay here. And your commander just can’t see that.”

Suddenly there is a knocking on the door and another soldier barges into the room, yelling that the “infected” (their name for the dead) have broken out of their containment. Strand is immediately alarmed, asking what is going on. But as he stands up he’s knocked back, has guns pointed at him, and told to stay put. Strand is then left alone as the guards leave the lock the door behind him. Immediately though Strand leaps into action by grabbing the chair he was in and trying to smash the door handle off with it. He succeeds, but as he walks out into the hall, he notices the dead are already breaking through. Commercial break.

When we come back we see Strand staring down the dead that have gotten into the building. As he looks about for an escape he sees Daniel break out of his own room, but just as he does an infected gets right up in his face and puts him against the wall. We’ll have a small little struggle with infected just inches away from Daniel’s face until Strand runs up and throws the attacker off Daniel. With a powerful stomp Strand smashes that infected’s head and both he and Daniel start to run away. Quickly though they hear a door open and see Brian waving at them and telling them to come in. Both hurry inside and Brian locks the door behind them. They can’t use their own interrogations rooms because Strand and Daniel broke the locks to them, but Brian’s was left unlocked because of the rush. An additional line might be added that the soldiers are very drained of energy and so aren’t at the top of their game. In order to keep the doors from breaking down they all push the table to block the door.

Once that’s done, they all take a breather for a small pause until Strand calls Daniel stupid. Daniel laughs at this, asking Strand how he could possibly be stupid, to which Strand responds that he though Daniel was trying to live because he thought he had a big, hidden purpose for living. Daniel is going to be mocking towards Strand, saying he could have handled that infected on his own and Strand didn’t have to get involved, to which Strand retorts that Daniel didn’t and Daniel could maybe be a bit more nicer to him or at least say “Thank you.” This causes Daniel to snap at Strand, yelling at him about how much Strand is just a manipulative weasel who only cares about himself. Brian will try and break up the argument, but is pushed away by Daniel as he raves on and on about how Strand has been nothing but trouble for everyone.

Strand is quiet after that, eventually breaking the silence by saying that yeah, he is, but that he wants to stop being that person. He goes a little into his backstory, telling how he had nothing when he was young, he had to work his way up from nothing, and he had to backstab a lot of people to do so. It was just his way to live. But then Thomas Abigail came into his life and things began to change some. But the real change came when everything went to hell, when the infected came about. Madison, Nick, Alicia, even Daniel made Strand eventually realize he can’t live that life anymore, he has to start changing. That’s why he shot Daniel at the dam, he was trying to help get Madison, Nick, and Alicia to safety, because he had people and friends he wanted to protect. He’ll admit that also that he shot Daniel because he still didn’t trust him and they weren’t really friends then. After the dam was destroyed Strand admits he thought he lost the last friends he’d ever known, but now that he’s back with Madison and Alicia he wants to keep them and even Daniel safe.

Daniel and Strand have never gotten along and I want to maybe have them at least get along in a “We got to survive together,” kind of way. I still want them to be aware of their past conflicts, but have them slowly become not friends, but companions that get along well enough in this harsh world. I don’t want them to suddenly become the best of chums with one conversation because that’s dumb, unrealistic, and unsatisfying. But here I want things to start changing because we can’t have this conflict go on forever because it’ll feel repetitive. After Strand shot Daniel in the face in season 3 they’re never going to be friends, but that doesn’t mean they can’t eventually get along. But here I hope they learn to at least… get along. Also, this moment is both Strand being honest with Daniel, but also him using his acting to convince Daniel to work with him. Strand’s character is him being in conflict with himself, whether to help others or himself and here… it’s a mix of both. He wants to live, but he cannot do it without helping others and them helping him.

This quiet between Strand and Daniel (and Brian) who has been watching a little fearfully in the background) is interrupted by a loud pounding by the dead, then by the sound of a gun. We start hearing heavy gunfire as the soldiers are taking on the dead and eventually all the infected are no more. Once everything is quiet again we hear a few soldiers outside the door telling whoever is inside to identify themselves. Strand and Daniel will look at each other and Strand will whisper to Daniel to trust him in this moment. Daniel will keep staring at Strand for a bit, his expression unbroken, until giving a small nod. Strand will then declare that all three of them are in the room and he, along with the other two, are told to put their hands up.

Once all three surrender a few soldiers come in and take all three back to their cells. As they’re walked back Strand will inquire about what’s happened, using his wits to get as much information out as possible. We’ll learn that there was a side of the wall up north that wasn’t doing well, but since Colonel Rogers ordered most of his troubles to watch from the gates that side was ignored. Early in the day a hole was opened up in the wall and the dead that were massing on that side broke through and began to invade the base. After all three are put in their cells one of the other soldiers will bemoan their fate, saying they’re all going to die on the base. This will cause another soldier to berate the other, saying that the colonel will punish him if he hears this. With this Strand uses his charisma to hint that the Yuma community would be a much better place for them. While the third soldier orders Strand to keep his mouth shut the other two will become silent, interested in Strand’s words. As this last soldier leaves he tells the other two to finish with these prisoners before reporting back. But once he leaves these two will ask more about Yuma and Strand will smile, ask them for their names (Quincy and Ned), then tells them he can help if they follow his orders. We’ll cut to our last break in this episode. Now this part can only really work if it can be sold that the soldiers are in a terrible shape because they’re not asking for proof if this place exists. They’re desperate for help and Colonel Rogers regime will eventually fail due to his fanaticism towards the US government (similar to comic book Shane).

When we return we are greeted with Colonel Rogers looking through reports. Not long after he gets a knock on the door and Quincy will tell Rogers that they broke Strand. This’ll bring a wide smile to the colonel and he’ll stand up from his chair and tell Quincy to bring Strand to him. We’ll cut away to the main room of the base, the place where Strand, Daniel, Brian, and the other Yuma survivors first met colonel. We’ll see all of them marched in front of the Rogers with Strand at the very front. Looking a little too smug, Colonel Rogers will talk about how he knew one of them would break and gloat how his leadership has kept everyone alive. Switching to Strand, we see he’s very nervous and trying not to show it. But he’s playing the actor, the scammer from before to lure everyone into a false sense of security. Strand is putting all his cards on the table as he starts to reveal the existence of Yuma to the soldiers. He is being careful with his words, making it seem prosperous with food, water, and people, but also not an easy target for the soldiers simply raid by going in depth (and slightly exaggerating) the walls, guns, and skills of the community. He’s trying to paint a picture of a new place worth fighting for in order to get this down-trodden military on their side.

Colonel Rogers will be silent after Strand is done, then laugh at the idea that simply civilians made it on their own. We’ll hear some chuckles out of some of the soldiers. Strand though will then taunt self-assuredly back that, “We’re doing better than you.” Everyone will go silent at this and in the background we’ll see Daniel looking surprised at Strand’s daring. This remark will knock the smile completely off Colonel Roger’s face as the asks Strand to repeat himself. Strand will do so, then talk about how the military was left to die and they left people to die. Yet while the military here seems to be dying he, the simple civilian, and his friends have all the supplies needed to survive. He’ll then mention that they haven’t had a real fight in a long time since Mr. Smartass (Rogers) doesn’t keep track of the walls. There are people less friendly than his group that are eager to take what this base has.

Strand will then say, “Your government abandoned you. Instead of standing to fight they bombed cities and left us all for dead. All the little decorations, rankings, and cushy jobs mean nothing now. We’re all on the same level now. You have to work for what you want and you can only do by working with others. So you can either stay and die with his man drunk on his patriotism or you can learn to adapt, join other people, and build something better.”

This will throw Colonel Rogers into a fury, pulling out his gun to kill Strand. But as he points it at Strand one of his men calls out, saying maybe it’s a good idea to hear them out. Filled with nothing but rage he’ll shoot the speaker, then wave his gun at everyone. He’ll call them cowards and traitors, that he’s the one keeping them alive and they’re abandoning the nation that made them so great. Ranting and raving on and on he’ll scream that he wars and fought for his country, and they wouldn’t abandon him and his men. He’ll continue on and on about America isn’t over, they’ll be saved, blah blah blah, then a gunshot will be heard and then we’ll see (off camera from above) blood start to slip down from Colonel Roger’s forehead. He’ll then collapse to the ground, dead a doornail, a random soldier behind him with their gun up.

Everyone will be staring at this man and all these eyes on him will cause him to start panicking, but Strand quickly takes control of the situation and tells them all that they won’t die today or on this miserable piece of land. He then tells them once again of Yuma, briefly summing up the benefits of staying. He does add though that it won’t all be easy and that there is just one obstacle that needs to be stopped before everything can be built and they can all live happily. With the spotlight on him Strand offers up two choices: Join Yuma and fight for a better world or run off. “Both have a good chance of getting you killed, but one won’t leave you starving to death.”

There is a pause here as the soldiers look at each other. Then Quincy and Ned step forward and side with Strand. Many other soldiers decide to go to the Yuma community to fight (around 50), but a few others decide run off to go off on their own. Once everyone makes their choices those that decided not to be with Strand start to leave and scrounge up anything they take on the road. Quincy then asks Strand what must happen next and Strand, smiling happily at his success, indicated Daniel as the military man. This will shock Daniel, who thought Strand would want to keep in control, but Strand gives him a nod and Daniel begins to ask the soldiers what they have on them. We then cut to black and the episode ends.

Episode 13 – Sharing is Caring

This episode will be happening while Daniel, Strand, and the rest of their group are off at the military compound. Need to fully fill up the time before the big conflict begins (which will be soon). We’ll start this episode with Madison looking over the supplies she and her group won in the fight down south. We’ll watch her check over the guns, food, and other gains from her latest trip outside the hotel. This part will be around 30 seconds of screen time, then Madison will leave the room and sit down in one of the hotel’s big rooms. As she’s resting her feet, we’ll notice she’s looking a little tired. After all, she’s been through a lot in the past few days. We’ll soon hear footsteps and Madison will look up to see Manuel approaching her, a frustrated look on her face. She’ll greet him and he’ll greet her back, but then will immediately being to reprimand Madison for deciding that nobody leaves the community, it’s not her call to make. Madison will try to defend her actions by explaining that she’s been a similar situation before, but Manuel will tell her that she’s not in charge, there are people above her that make the decisions. Besides, the supplies they have right now won’t last for too long, especially with all these new people.

Rubbing her forehead with her thumb and index finger, Madison will mutter that she’s just trying to keep people alive. Manuel will begrudgingly admit that she has good intentions, but she can’t personally take control. She’s done a lot for Yuma, but that’s no excuse to going mad with power. Madison will snap back at this particular comment, yelling at Manuel that if they think it’s alright to send people to their deaths, then the council can go right ahead and do that. The council have never had to fight the living before, which are just as dangerous, if not more so, than the dead. With that she’ll storm out of the room, leaving Manuel in upset state. We’ll have a long shot of Manuel in the back and Madison walking forward with an angle out of the room, with our last shot before the intro places of a mostly empty room and Manuel standing there.

When we return we see Naomi entering the clinic to check on some of the injured people. As she walks in we’ll see John Dorie sitting up in his bed, stretching himself some. He’ll be the first person that Naomi checks on and looking over him she declares he’s fit enough to at least walk about. This’ll bring a big old grin to his face and he’ll ask if that means she won’t be helping to feed him anymore. Naomi will titter at this and lightly shove him for his flirting, but tell him that yes, he’ll be eating on his own. She’ll tell him though he’ll have to get to the cafeteria on his own and points out the directions. Wincing a little as he finally stands up, John will thank his nurse and ask if he’ll be seeing her later. Maybe they can hang out some and talk. Busy with her work, Naomi will comment that that is a maybe, but that’s good enough for John, who is walking out of the clinic.

When John gets down to the cafeteria, he heads over to a line of people who are waiting for food. As he waits his turn Alicia joins the line behind him. The two will chat some about life and their day and John will ask Alicia is feeling well. She’ll respond that she’s fine… but confused. Before she can talk about her thought on her mom though we’ll hear a commotion near the front and hear one of the former bazaar people complain loudly over the food (quality and quantity). The chef will try to calm things down and Farah (who we’ll notice was ahead of most people in the line) will try to help, but their words will be ignored. One of the Yuma members will then call out them being selfish and greedy, that things aren’t as simple as before. This will cause a fight and soon Alicia, John Dorie, and Farah are helping to break things up.

The fight isn’t fully over though as the same man calls out that they can’t be living in this hotel, there’s not enough space. They can’t sleep on the floor like animals. One of the community leaders, who is a part of the line, tries to reassure this person that they’re planning on getting them new space in the future. Of course, this isn’t enough for this ass-hat and he demands to know when. As others from the former stadium begin to join the outcry (some of them adding comments like it was all good when the bazaar was still active. Alicia steps in and says they’ll have new spaces by the end of the day. She’ll then say that she’ll need to gather some people to help her out. John Dorie will immediately volunteer, along with Farah. Alicia will try and dissuade them coming since she notices John just left the clinic and Farah… Farah still lacks experience and grit to kill the infected. Both though still want to come along, and Alicia is both grateful and apprehensive. But said Yuma council member calls out that Alicia can’t just start giving orders, even if she is Madison’s daughter. Alicia, though understanding of this, asks this leader what their solution is to the problem. After giving a wishy-washy answer, Alicia comments that a lot has to be done right now if they’re all going to live. As she, John Dorie, and Farah start to leave the room we cut to black/ a commercial.

Upon returning we are greeted with Madison pacing about her room in the hotel. Trying to distract herself she pulls out her walkie talkie and calls for Strand, but receives no answer to her frustration. We can see she’s very stressed out and will be walking about mindlessly for a bit until falling back onto her bed. She’ll then hear a knock on her door, to which she’ll get up and open it up. It’s Maria Lu, who will ask if she can speak with Madison. Accepting the request, Madison will let Maria in her room. She’ll tell Madison that she saw her this morning when she lost her temper. Exasperated, Madison will tell Maria is unless she wants punch to the face she doesn’t want to hear anything her. Non the less Maria begins a little anecdote about her life before the end. We learn here that Maria Lu used to be a high-class chef and her influence, along with her greed, allowed her to become more of a crime boss, using the job to hide her activities while her money and crew dealt with her territory. She’ll then talk about her experience in keeping people in line and how the weak of will and mind are the ones that have to go first.

Madison will ask Maria Lu what she wants out of all of this. Maria will smugly look at Madison and simply say, “To survive.” She’ll then tell Madison that she became powerful by being ruthless in places that were weak and this hotel is heading down a bad path unless somebody steps up. Here Madison will inquire why not help the Proctors then if she wants power. This’ll bring a sour look to Maria’s face as she calls them savages who only think of their pleasures and never the future. She’ll then add that she’s dealt with Proctor John and that unlike her, he never sees the opportunities in front of him. Here Maria offers Madison a deal.

Before we can hear the deal though we watch as the camera angles downwards to see our three from the cafeteria walking across the parking lot to the conference center, where most of the newcomers are situated. When they enter one of the areas where the new people are living, Alicia asks them how the new place is treat to get some feedback. Farah and John Dorie catch on and we see them all talk to the people to learn how they’re handling things. Most are pretty okay with their conditions, but some not so much. We’ll dedicated at least a few minutes to these interactions so all three main characters can learn. Eventually they all gather to discuss what they’ve learned. First, the person who caused a ruckus in the morning was somewhat right in that life at the stadium was better because of all the commodities and services they could have. Second, it seems the building is not doing well in terms of cooling and electricity. We then cut to them checking on the main air conditioning unit for the building and Farah, upon inspecting, says it’s in need of repairs. John Dorie ponders where they can find parts to fix this up and Farah suggests there’s another building close to the water treatment plant that could have the replacement parts required.

Now with a plan, all three will head for the gates, but are intercepted by Madison. She’ll immediately try to stop all three from leaving, but Alicia will be defiant and explain their plan, with Farah adding that they aren’t going that far. John Dorie will then add that he’ll keep the girls safe, adding that he doesn’t think they’re weak, but… just an extra hand. This still is not enough for Madison, but when she’s about to say something Alicia goes on by saying that people are becoming unruly and this could help to calm things down (at least for a small while). To end this argument Alicia will say, “You want this place safe? Then let me go for a bit. Trust me.” Madison will be quiet for a bit, wrestling with herself on breaking the rules for her daughter or trying to protect her. In the end she gives in, but tells Alicia she only has a couple of hours to be back. Alicia will nod as Madison tells the wall guards to open the gates. As the team of three head out we Farah will call out that if all goes well they’ll be back in back in no time. This doesn’t change Madison’s nervous expression as the camera puts her in the middle of the shot of the gates closing. As the gates fully close we cut to black/ a commercial break.

After the break we are with Alicia, Farah, and John Dorie as they reach the building that Farah mentioned. They investigate the building through the front windows and spot no infected. When they enter Farah explains they’ll need to find if any of the ACs has a working circuit breaker that can be salvaged, as well as a few additional parts. Alicia will comment that she seems confident that she’ll be able to fix it, especially since (to her) that Farah has only worked on the water treatment plant. To answer, Farah explain that she connects terms with the instructions of other machines and adapts to fix said machines. She’ll then add that she always had a knack with technical stuff since a young age, making a joke about fixing a toaster when she was little.

Exploring the building, they’ll hear the occasional infected locked in a hotel room or walk out into the hallways as they hear noise. Eventually though they’ll find a closet that Farah points out and try to open it up. However, the door is locked and will not budge. Alicia suggests they break it down, but John Dorie cautions that they don’t know the full building, so they don’t know what else could be about, alive or dead. Farah suggests another idea, to head to the main counter and check for keys the building. All three of them head back to the main lobby and hop over the counter. All three check the key rack, but none of them are what they need. Their next option is a master key or ring of keys. Immediately Alicia says that could take forever to search for the building for the person with those keys. John Dorie however points out something they missed: A note. Picking up they all read that one of the employees left a message for her lover about her trying to lure the dead away into a room. There will be some additional lines about how (at that time) everything was overwhelming and nobody knows what do to.

Now with a clue Alicia, Farah, and John Dorie head towards the place this person was going. When they get there it seems that said person was successful in trapping the zombies in said room. They look through the glass to see if there is anybody who could have had the key on them. Unfortunately there are multiple infect that could fit as somebody with the key. They talk among themselves until they decide that they have to clear the room. John grabs a knife and Alicia pulls out her own, but Farah is hesitant to pick up a weapon. Unfortunately an infected that was near the door had heard their discussion and started to bang on it. This attracts a bunch of the dead inside and the doors open up. Quickly all three start to fight off the dead, but it’s too much and they retreat.

Hopping over the front desk they use it as a barrier. The dead though begin to push so hard they fall over and Dorie, knowing he only has seconds before they start climbing over, whips out his pistols and starts to unload his cylinders. In seconds a lot of the approaching dead are slain and that gives them a breather. Unfortunately an infected that wasn’t hit falls next to John, who tries to push it away. Alicia has to deal with her down dead person, leaving Farah on her own. At first afraid of what to do, she quickly decides she has to get over her internal conflicts and save her friends. Farah first goes for the telephone, using the cord to pull back on the infected’s head so Alicia has room to stab. Then she grabs a paperweight on the desk and hits the infected on John Dorie. She raises the weapon again to strike, but hesitates. But when the infected lunges at her she hits it again and again and again until it’s no longer moving or making any noise. Panting after her sudden rush, Farah eventually gets back on her feet with Alicia’s help. All three then look at the infected unable to get over the desk and start to dispatch them.

We skip over the rest of the killing, immediately cutting to them checking the dead for the master keys. Eventually they find a woman with them and they return to the locked closet. When they open it up they see another infected inside. We see a name tag on them that identifies them as the person who the note was written to. Alicia kills the walker, then looks over at Farah, asking her if she’s okay. Farah will respond that what just happened is the world they live in now, but she wishes it wasn’t. Alicia will hug her and John will join the hug. Once they break Alicia drags out the dead body and Farah goes to work, but before she does she’ll remark that the world will always be cruel. She then starts her work and we cut to a commercial break.

When we return we see Farah working on the inside of the main system, muttering to herself as she makes a few adjustments. Once she’s done she calls for the power to be turned on and Alicia does so. This time the AC turns on and the two (with John Dorie) grin at their accomplishment. We cut to them checking on the new people in the building and see they’re all excited. Some of them come up to them to thank them for their help. Farah will get most of the attention, but Alicia and John Dorie will get some as well. They all start to head to the main building for dinner, but before they can enter the building a few people from the hotel who had participated in the raid on the bazaar come out. It’ll be quiet at first, a tense moment for all, then one of the Yuma survivors apologizes about their losing home and offer some of their goods as a ways to make up for it. One of the people from the bazaar accepts this, commenting that Proctor John was starting to squeeze them out of everything they had. Another Yuma survivors then says that this can be their home now if they want. Okay, this is a little sappy, but I would like this to be a good bonding moment between these factions to start the healing.

Suddenly there is a noise from the gates and everyone turns around to see a few trucks coming into the parking lot. As everyone starts to move over we see a few people from the trucks start to unload boxes. Checking them, Alicia discovers them to be more supplies! One of the drivers remarks it’s a gift from Maria Lu that she kept away from the stadium. Speaking of Maria Lu we see her and Madison start to walk over to the new arrivals as everyone celebrate. But as Maria approach one of her people we hear them telling her quietly that some of the convoy was attacked. Only Madison hear this, but Alicia sees the conversation and heads over to her mother.

Both Clarks begin to talk about what’s going on and we learn what Madison’s deal with Maria Lu is: In exchange for some of the supplies, Madison is now going to be secretly serving under Lu, which means that Maria is secretly going to run the hotel. Furious, Alicia will call out her mom on this, but her mom will add that it’s just to get Maria into the council and that’s it. Madison’s entreaties that she’s trying to keep people alive fall apart though as Alicia storms off. We end out episode with Madison standing where she is, mentally torn as people celebrate over the food that has been brought in.

Episode 14 – Rush Hour

This episode is going to be the start of the ramp up towards the season finale and the final battle with The Proctors. There is going to be a lot of action this episode with both groups of heroes having conflicts that are related to the Proctors. One of them is direct while the other is indirect. Both will be full of tension as we near the final conflict. This might be a slightly longer episode (in terms of running time) due to how much is going to happen.

We start off with Strand and Brian helping to move supplies to the vehicles they could fill up with gas. We’ll see Daniel talk to one of the soldiers on the status of the evacuation/ loading and the soldier will tell Daniel that they had a few fights with some of the people who want to leave, but they got as much as they could and say that it won’t be much longer for everything to wrap up, around an hour. Nodding, Daniel will tell them to make it 45 minutes. Daniel will then head over to Strand and Brian, helping them out with their load. He’ll then tell them that things seem to be going smoothly. Strand will comment that these people really could have gotten far if they hadn’t cloistered themselves in the base. Daniel will agree, thankful that they’ve made new allies. But as they start to walk off Brian calls to them and points out something in the distance. Turning around, they notice a dust cloud is coming their way and to their horror they see it’s the Proctors a ways down the road! They found out about the army base as well. Immediately Strand calls out that they have to go now and everyone starts to scramble for supplies. We then focus on the dust cloud coming towards them and as we do the intro plays.

When we return it’s a mad dash to throw as much weapons and supplies in the vehicles in as possible. We’ll see soldiers and the Yuma survivors gathering in vehicles as the call to round up and run is heard all over the base. They have to escape the base with some of the ammo and guns left behind. Either that or they all die and lose everything to their enemy. One of these vehicles will be the same type of army vehicle that Althea drives in the main show. I just think it’s a nice addition to the main show that I want to keep in my version. No endless ammo this time though. As the last of the supplies are loaded up Strand, Daniel, and Brian hop into the front vehicle, Strand starting up the engine. Multiple other engines begin to rev to life as well as the soldiers prepare to head out. Daniel sticks his head out passenger window and calls out to the others to follow him, to stick close, and prepare for trouble. With a loud mechanical roar Strand hits the gas as they rush back to Yuma begins! We’ll watch the convoy start heading south and east (the opposite of the Proctors and the way they originally made to the base) not far behind them we’ll see the Proctors on their tails. The chase is on!

Here we will cut away to Madison in the Yuma hotel, directing people to board up the windows facing the river since it’s the most open side of the hotel. We’ll see most of the windows prepared and a few guns set near some of them with containers of ammo. She will be helping out as well, putting up and nailing a few boards to the windows. This’ll last for a few minutes so we can see the whole hotel prepare for the upcoming battle. As she works we’ll see Manuel entering the room and asking Madison for a word. Finishing her latest piece of the barricade, Madison walks with Manuel, who tells her that despite what happened yesterday people are scared, especially the leaders. He’ll continue that they’ve lived under the Proctors enough that they don’t want to fight and that some want to leave. Madison acknowledges that things are going fast and the Proctors are dangerous, but if they start to leave they’ll be picked off one by one. Manuel, knowing how this kind of talk went last time, sighs and asks what Madison will do if there is no way to win. Will she have everyone fight still or give up and maybe resolve things peacefully?

Suddenly Daniel’s voice is hear in the room and Madison pulls out her walkie talkie, quickly replying back to Daniel by saying she was worried they were dead. Over the radio we hear Daniel reply back to hold onto that because the Proctors are on their tail. He tells Madison to get ready in case they or the Proctors arrive at Yuma first. Horrified, Madison quickly nods to herself and acknowledges Daniel. Strand will then be heard saying if all goes well, they’ll have a little surprise in store for the Proctors when they get back. “Just stay alive you guys,” will be what Madison answers back before turning off the walkie talkie. Knowing the danger is now coming for them, Madison tells the others that it’s time to get ready and finish preparations for fight. From the open door we’ll see the edge of a figure retreating, then a hallway shot of that person walking fast away down the hall before cutting to black/ a commercial.

When we return, we’re back to the chase! In the background we hear the faint noise of motorcycles slowly catching up on the fleeing group. Looking out the window, Daniel and Brian notice one of the motorcycles getting close to the back of the caravan and in moments begins to fire its attached guns on them. Daniel orders to fire back and we cut to some of these back soldiers returning fire from their jeep. The proctor dodges most of the bullets, but the gunfire causes to him slow down. We then see a proctor driving a truck, with two others firing their guns at the vehicle. The firefight resumes, but that fight goes for the Proctors as the bullets kill the soldiers and hit one of tires, causing the car to stall go off the road. Strand sees the soldier driving that vehicle try to flee, only to be immediately shot dead. Cursing, Strand tries to accelerate his vehicle.

As they make their way out of the desert into a more suburban setting Brian notices a few figures ahead of them, one of which is carrying something. He shouts and points out the figures before pulling out his rifle and firing at them. He kills one of the one that was carrying the item, but not before it is revealed to be a spike trap as it’s deployed on the road. Knowing that their path needs to be altered, Strand changes course while Daniel hurriedly radios the other soldiers of the plan, adding if they separate to keep heading west and north towards the city and the river. We’ll them start to make their new way about, but we’ll also see more spike traps be laid out. Some of these aren’t fully deployed because Daniel or Brian shoots the one trying to deploy them, but others change the path. It’s becoming a game of fast reaction skills as they’re hunted from attack from multiple sides at once. There will be a few infected about as they speed along the roads and we’ll linger on a few, even have one killed by a Proctor as they pass by. We’ll even see the heavy military vehicle (that Althea uses) unleash some bullet hell and slaughter some Proctors. As the city starts to come clearly into view we cut to black.

Meanwhile at the Yuma hotel Madison is continuing to help fortify the hotel with others. We’ll see Farah and Alicia trying to help, while John Dorie looks over weapons. The work is cut short though when a Yuma resident runs to Madison, telling her somebody is trying to open up the gates. In a rush Madison hurries to the courtyard, followed by Alicia, Farah, and John Dorie. As they walk outside they see one of the leaders, along with a few others, demanding for the gates to be opened so they can leave the community. Madison rushes over and demands to know what’s going on, which causes said leader to look at her in fear and defiance. This leader (who I’m right now going to call Carmen) begins to declare that her family didn’t sign up to fight people and they’re not sticking around to do so. To prevent this cascading into a lot of people leaving, Madison tries to coerce them into not leaving, stating what she’s already said to Manuel about them not going to make it very far before the Proctors get them. Carmen will insult Madison then, telling her that she can’t boss them around, she’s not one of them, hasn’t been in the community long, and so doesn’t understand what’s best for people.

Knowing now that reason won’t get to them, Madison pulls out her gun and points it at the person. This causes everyone to become quiet as Madison explains that she has been in this situation before and knows that if anybody else leaves now then they’ll never be seen alive again. Manuel is going to tell her to calm down, she needs to think clearly over what she’s doing. Madison will keep her eyes on Carmen as she reiterates that they have to stay and fight because the way Carmen wants will lead to certain death, while staying gives them all a chance to live. Carmen will plead for Madison not to shoot her, she just wants to live, along with her family, who begin to huddle around her. This causes Madison’s hand to slightly shake. “I thought you wanted to lead these people, to keep them safe. If you’re not going to, then you’re leaving them to die.” There is silence then as everyone watches either Madison or Carmen.

But the standoff ends when a noise is heard and Madison notices one of the El Buitre is talking on a walkie talkie. Madison calls them out and the noise causes the scavenger to panic. She’ll faintly hear some noise, possibly of Proctor John himself, and she’ll walk towards this individual. This spy will immediately begin to flee with Madison pursuing them to the opposite side of the courtyard. There we see the scavenger crawling through a hole in the fence and then jump into the small waterway next to the hotel and river. Ignoring the calls to come back, Madison runs down the edge of the river in pursuit, watching the spy climb onto the back on the other side and escape across the neighboring park. Alicia is about to join the chase (mostly after her mother), but before she can get far somebody on the wall calls out that something is coming. Running back, Alicia climbs up and uses the binoculars to see who it is and immediately recognizes Strand with a few army trucks and a couple of Proctors on his tail. Seeing how close they are Alicia calls out that the group is returning and to get ready to fight. We’ll see Manuel head to the roof the hotel while other Yuma survivors get on the walls around the hotel, Alicia with a rifle pressed up against her.

We return to gunfight on the road, where we see at least one other vehicle from the military has been destroyed. But they’re all reaching the edge of the city and are making their way through the streets. As they go through the barren city streets they’ll dodge and hit a few infected as the gunfire flies around them. They soon hit a road that leads straight to the hotel and Strand sighs in relief that they’re almost there. Daniel pass that information onto the other vehicles, then notice that a few Proctors on motorcycles are trying to outflank them. We see a grenade in the hands of one of them as they lean towards the main vehicle that Strand, Daniel, and Brian are in. But just as they’re about to throw the grenade at them we hear a gunshot and the Proctor gets shot through the chest. We cut for a few seconds to Manuel on the top of the hotel with a sniper rifle, aiming for his next target. The grenade flies into the air and after a few seconds blows up, the explosion knocking one of the Proctor’s trucks on its side. We then hear another gunshot as another Proctor, this one following the caravan, gets hits and their motorcycle smashes into another and the Proctors halt their chase. Brian starts to cheer at their escape as Strand finally sees the gates of the Yuma hotel. Alicia will be waving at them as they all start to make their way inside and we cut to a break.

Coming back to Madison we see her crossing a bridge to the other side of the waterway, running after her quarry into the unkempt lawns of the park. As the spy tries to keep Madison away they trip and Madison speeds up her sprint. When they’re around a few meters apart Madison stops and raises her gun. The heat of the middle of the day is causing both to sweat hard as the spy gets to her feet. Breathing audibly, Madison will angrily tell the traitor that she helped them get a home and this is how she and the hotel were repaid?! The El Buitre will laugh and tell Madison that she is a fool to defy Proctor John and to think giving a home to live in doesn’t mean her scavengers will fight. Absolutely furious, Madison will shout that the spy is a selfish bitch and demand if her people ever thought of anything other than themselves. “Well that’s you do to survive out here, Madison Clark, you think for yourself,” the spy will declare. While still furious, Madison will pause and think about those words. People keep saying that to her. If she had went after her kids instead of staying playing protector at the hotel maybe Nick would still be alive. She comes back to her sense though as she realizes the spy resumes running away. Without a second though Madison shoots the woman in the back and watches as they fall to the ground.

Trying not to think on those earlier thoughts she strolls over to the downed woman and looks down on her. We see Madison looks terrible, tired with disheveled hair and a “I’ve had enough” expression on her face. The spy, couching blood, turn over to look up and tells Madison that she knows it’s true, you can only think of yourself in this world. Madison will tell her, “That can’t be true,” before shooting her in the head. She’ll stand over the corpse for a small period before heading back to the hotel, with a wide shot of the grass park and the dead spy. We’ll then cut to her almost there as Alicia and Strand meet up with her and help her back in. As they get back into the courtyard Alicia will tell somebody to fix up that hole. Mentally exhausted, Madison will look over the new arrivals. Out of ten vehicles that left the military base only seven remain (or maybe six, need to decide on that). Daniel will then walk up to her and tell Madison they’ve made some new friends.

Suddenly, the sound of a horn is blasted nearby and then a familiar voice is heard amplified from the same direction.

“Madison Clark. I know you’re there. It’s time we had a little talk.”

It’s Proctor John. Everyone’s face is shocked by the arrival of Proctor John and we end the episode there.

Episode 15 – Together

This episode is going to take place immediately after the Daniel, Strand, Brian, the surviving Yuma members that went with them, and the soldiers from the base arrive at the hotel, as well as Madison returning from killing the runaway spy.

We’ll start off with a black screen and Proctor John’s final words of the previous episode heard. When we cut to the characters we see everyone in the same position they were in the last episode. They’re all worried over this new development and somebody is going to have to confront Proctor John. Very quickly Madison decides to face the man and we see her walking off, but not before telling the group to be ready. Alicia will be following her and we’ll cut to the back of Madison’s head as she walks through the hotel. We’ll cut to a front shot of her then and see in the background people running about as Alicia is right behind her, trying to get Madison to not go out. Ignoring her, Madison will keep walking, face set in determined anger. Undeterred, Alicia will keep trying to get her mom not to go out there to face Proctor John. Finally, Madison snaps at Alicia to stay back, then more calmly tells her daughter that she needs to stay behind for the others if anything happens to her. The title will then appear as Madison heads towards a light leading to the riverside of the hotel and exits into the outside.

We cut to a wide shot of Madison outdoors, walking to the edge of the Colorado River. Across from her we see Proctor John with a few of his people, armed with rifle. Behind PJ we see a whole army of Proctors set up with a ton of their vehicles in a recently set-up base. As Madison stops near the edge of the water Proctor John will go, “Well well well… you’ve been busy Madison Clark.” She’ll respond by saying the same thing to him. PJ will reply that yeah, he has been busy ever since her dear little Nick did that little stunt at the dam. Ever since then people started to get into their little heads that they didn’t need the Proctors around and so he had to go clear up some a few messes around the southwest. He’ll also mention how while he was away he heard that a few of her accomplices kept giving his people trouble, giving examples like Nick and his friends killing a lot of his people and just now how Strand and Daniel had just made off with all those guns he was hoping to get.

“But wait… Where is little Nick? Oh that’s right, he’s finally in the grave, just like that little shit deserved,” he’ll continue with a malicious playfulness to his voice that ends with a snarl. This makes Madison’s blood boil, we’ll see her face just filled with more rage and she yells out that unless he wants to die RIGHT NOW he and his people better get out this instant. This’ll get a chuckle out of PJ, with him remarking he can’t let her go after all that she and her people have done. Madison will try to explain that she’s not in charge, there’s a council, but Proctor John will interrupt by telling her not to lie. She’s been the one causing all this chaos. Lighting up a cigarette, Proctor John then signals a few of his people with a nod, who walk back to the trucks. He’ll continue by saying even if that’s true about a council, she’s the one making the real decisions. Her community could have just sat back and just accepted his rules… but she’s not that type of person.

We hear the sound of somebody struggling and thrown to the ground in front of PJ and in full sight of Madison from across the river will be Melvin. I’m hoping that his apparent death in the mid-season finale is good enough to fool the characters and the audience (of course) into thinking he’s dead. Saying this though, Melvin looks wretched, with a heavily bruised body and his clothes more ragged than before. PJ will explain here that Melvin has been using some of his people to keep tabs on the Yuma community. That was how the Proctor knew where they were and what they were doing. He’ll continue that Melvin was so desperate for his life that he pleaded to live, adding a mocking interpretation of Melvin’s begging for the amusement of his fellow Proctors. However, PJ adds that Melvin basically sold out his people so he can have most of the “profits,” a statement that Melvin will try to deny vehemently. Proctor John will put a foot on Melvin’s back, demeaning him by saying that people like him, ones that are little parasites that can’t do anything but beg and use others, have no use in this world, adding that there was a reason he kept his people out of his markets.

Pulling out a pistol, PJ then shoots Melvin in the back of the head as he’s screaming to be spared since, in Proctor John’s opinion, there’s no more use of him. All the cool now leaves PJ as he begins to roar at Madison:

“Your son really fucked me over! Everything was going so well until your little family got into my business. I had plans! I was taking charge! I was going run this whole land and make it my own! But then you, your family, that snake Strand, and your other pals got into my territory. I was hoping you’d all just fade away after your son’s stunt, but nope… So it’s time to end this.”

After this little speech Proctor John offers up an ultimatum: Surrender or die. She has no fighters, just weak people, and that it would make it easier for everyone if she just gives up. Madison will tell them why not kill her now and Proctor John will give a very unsettling smile and tell her he has plans for her. I want Ray McKinnon (who plays Proctor John) to put on this performance that’s like a pot of boiling water, where he’s trying to control his temper, but is also incredibly eager to put down this resistance against him. His final words are, “You have until midnight!” before walking back with his people. This might chance to next morning; I’ll need feedback on this. We linger on their leaving for short period before cutting to Madison, looking like she’s more than ready to go to war with the Proctors. She then turn, storms back to the hotel, and we cut to black.

When we return we’re the courtyard/ parking lot with all the survivors of Yuma, El Bazar, and the military base. Some of them are talking among themselves, worrying over the arrival of Proctor John. Alicia, Strand, Daniel, and Brian are discussing the new soldiers, but also Madison’s decision to go out on her own to confront Proctor John. Alicia will call it a stupid move while Daniel will say that it is, but it’s also fitting of Madison to do it. Strand will say that despite all these recent incidents, their odds of fighting off the Proctors has been going up, but Daniel will rebuttal that he, Strand, have not seen many men like the Proctors since he’s tried to ignore filth all his life. They’re not going to be playing by the rules and they seem more armed every time they’ve been encountered.

We’ll see Madison walk out to see them all and calls out to the council. They’ll angry march over to her, but before they can say anything she calls out to everyone that Proctor John is across the river and that he’s given the community a choice to either give up or be slaughtered. She’ll go on by saying that the Proctors mostly have the place surrounded, so there’s no use in fleeing. One of the Yuma members tries to say that maybe there is a chance to get free, but Strand comes in and tells everyone about the chase on road and if the Proctors were that ready for that, they’re ready to stop a mass exodus. He’ll continue by saying, “We have guns. We have supplies. If we leave, we’re leaving this all behind for them.” Madison will nod at this as there are mutters of agreement and concern about the people. Madison then asks loudly where the El Buitre are. Manuel steps up and says that they’ve gathered up as many as they could find and put them in a room. She’ll then tell him to bring them out.

We cut to seeing the remaining El Buitre brought into the courtyard in front of everyone. There is nothing but cold fury within Madison as she talks directly to the scavengers about their double dealings with the Proctors, that ever since they back from the stadium they’ve been going behind the Yuma community’s back and relaying information to Proctor John. One of the El Buitre will shout out that it wasn’t true, or at least at first. In the first few days after the raid they all thought Melvin was dead, but then he sent them a message about how Proctor John offered them a new deal. Contemptuously, Madison will tell them that Melvin was going to leave them out of it. This shakes all the El Buitre and some start to deny it, saying that Melvin wouldn’t do that. Almost wanting to shrug, Madison will add that it doesn’t matter anymore because Melvin is dead and Proctor John wants them all. So now she asks all the El Buitre: Are they with the hotel or with Proctor John?

One of the scavengers speaks after a long pause, saying that even before everything ended nobody would look out for them. And now with so much gone it’s all about survival to them. Before any of the El Buitre can say anything more though, the people of the hotel start yell at them. We’ll hear screams from both Spanish and English speakers as the crowd rages at the wretched El Buitre. Soon the survivors from El Bazar join in. The military don’t join in the calls, but step forward, surrounding the El Buitre, rifles in hand. The surrounded people begin to huddle close together in terror. After a long pause Madison, fueled by all the rage around her, points her pistol at one of them while crowd is screaming for them to die. Alicia is calling out, trying to run to her mom, but being restrained by some of the mob, telling her mom to not do it. All these voices are in Madison’s head and the hand holding the gun begins to shake. As the voices overwhelm her, she points it at the sky, fires it, and screams, “STOP!!!” Everyone becomes quiet at this, staring at her silently. Unable to handle all this stress and pressure, Madison runs into the hotel. Alicia breaks through the stunned crowd and chases after her mom.

In this long silence, Brian steps out into the center and walks to one of the El Buitre. He’ll talk to them first, telling how people used to say he was useless, crazy (adding a conspiracy theory into it, most likely lizard people), and was nothing but trouble. He’ll then add it seems that they have done a lot of bad things. But he’ll then say that recently, after meeting people like Alicia, Strand, and the others of Yuma, they treated him like somebody. “You can find somebody who will listen. And when you do, you’ll be better. So stop trying to run.” He’ll then offer a hand to one of them and slowly, shakily, one of them takes it.

John Dorie will then walk out of the crowd to join Brian. He’ll relate his own story about being on his own with Laura/ Naomi, saying that she made his life better. Then he met Nick and Daniel, reunited with Laura. Dorie will go on by saying that people make mistakes in their lives, but maybe you cannot leave people behind because of a few bad mistakes. He’ll correct himself by saying that these people didn’t have much to go on, so they didn’t realize what they were losing when they did those things. Turning to the El Buitre, John will tell them that if they side with the Proctors, they’ll get nothing. But they stick with the people of Yuma they’ll have people who’ll depend on them and who they can depend on. Facing the crowd once more, John Dorie will conclude that they need everyone if they’re going to make it out of this. There will be a bit of silence until Manuel join him. Soon others begin to agree on this, at least for this upcoming battle.

We’ll cut to Alicia running in the hotel, chasing after her mother until she runs into a room. Following her, Alicia sees her mom on the bed, curled up on the sheets. This is throws her off and her voice is careful and quiet as she says her mother’s name. In a choked voice Madison will tell Alicia to go away. Instead though Alicia continues to walk forward and sits on the bed next to her mom.

“You were right… I am a monster.”

Alicia tries to say something, but Madison interrupts by going to her dream in full. She talks about the dinner, of Nick and Lucianna’s hostile attitude towards her, of Alicia’s grave, and Travis trying to pull her out. Then she’ll tell Alicia that after she washed up on the shore she realized that the only way that won’t happen is if she let Alicia and Nick go. Madison, after almost shooting all those pitiful people, really thinks she’s become a monster. In this scene I want Madison/ Kim Dickens to look utterly defeated, the stress of all that’s going around her with the loss of Nick breaking her apart. After hearing all of this there is silence apart from Madison’s sobbing. In this moment Alicia finally realizes and understand mother’s attempts at being somebody different. Slowly, as gently as she can, Alicia hugs Madison and apologizes. Madison tries to weakly break away, but Alicia holds on and tells her that she’ll be there for her because she is her mom and she shouldn’t be alone. Turning into a weeping mess, Madison hugs her daughter back and we watch the two hug it out until we cut to black.

Okay, before I go on, this was a very hard set of moments for me to write. Uncovering more research into Dave Erickson’s interviews on season three and his plans for future seasons, there were talks about Madison turning into almost a Governor/ Negan like character, somebody who is really evil, but thinks they’re doing good. This is a very bold thing to do for her character, something I think would have been really cool to see on the show if Erickson was still showrunner. But I few problems with this: First, I don’t think I’d have the skill or the heart to write her into such a despised character. Second, Madison was plenty despised by a lot of people throughout the first three seasons of Fear. She was incredibly interesting and badass, but still despised. Because of that I felt if I continued down that path she would become stale. Third and lastly, I found that the end of season three was perfect for her because the dream she had showed her a possibility for her perfect future, but also the cost of said future. Just like Cercei Lannister from Game of Thrones, Madison Clark cares for her kids more than anything. Unlike Cercei though, Madison to me seemed to have the chance to develop and change her morality to more a white area (not fully white, but a grey or slightly-lighter grey morality). So I was wrestling whether to have her kill all the El Buitre or to spare them, as well as how she would interact with her daughter after either situation. I hope the choice I have made will be the right for Madison’s development.

When we return, we see the whole community at work (besides Madison and Alicia) preparing for the battle. The last of the barricades are being put up, guns are handed out by the military, ammo stashes prepped, and people being fed. The soldiers are especially thankful for the meal and the hospitality of the people, ravenously devouring the food they’re given. We’ll see Brian eating with Strand and Daniel. Strand will praise Brian for his speech back at parking lot and this’ll greatly please Brian. As he leaves though to get ready for the upcoming battle Daniel will call Strand out, whispering that buttering up the crazy conspiracy nut isn’t much since the man got lucky with his little charade. Strand huffs and tells Daniel if so, there’s nothing wrong with saying thanks to him. “He might have a few screws loose, but he’s not a bad person. No harm in giving them a little encouragement, he’s earned it.” Strand will smoothly reply. A small smile, one of gladness, but mixed with mocking (can that actually be done?) comes on Daniel’s face as he says this is more the Strand he knows. A little annoyed, Strand will say that Brian is right in that you can’t go on our own forever, you eventually need people to help you. Daniel will sigh at this before standing up to leave, adding, “You can’t live off of others forever Victor.” Strand will sigh and return to his meal.

We’ll cut to John Dorie at his meal and see in the background Naomi/ Laura approaching him. She taps his shoulder and asks him to come with her. John Dorie will say, “Of course,” finish his meal, and go walking with her. Once they’re alone, Laura will tell Dorie that she heard what he said outside, then ask him if he’s really going to stay. He’ll say that the chances of them living are better here than out there right now. Laura will look panicked and worry about now wanting to “be taken again,” referring to her early times in the apocalypse when she and her daughter were raped and used. Very quickly John Dorie holds her close and tell her he’ll make sure that nothing bad happens to her. We’ll have some silence between them until Laura says, “June… My real name is June.” This’ll surprise John Dorie, but then he’ll smile and compliment June on her name. I want this to be a really sweet moment between the two, with maybe a kiss between them.

As they smooch though we’ll see Madison and Alicia in the background walking towards them. Both John and June will break apart and June will ask Madison if she’s okay. Madison, now in more control of herself, nods and tells them she needs to talk to everyone. All four gather in the main area with the others and Madison gets everyone’s attention. When the room is silent she tells them all ever since she arrived at the hotel her job was to keep people safe. But that cannot be done with just her and indicates the council, telling them that with them there were rules and safeties set for them. But now though, with the Proctors just outside wanting them dead or enslaved, they all need to work together, hear each other out, in order to survive. “We, the ones who are alive, have to set the standards of what life should be like from now on. I know you look to me as the one calling the shots, but I can’t do it alone.” Alicia steps up besides her mother at this, followed by John Dorie and June. Strand stands up as well, then Daniel (who is near the edge of the room). Soon Brian, Farah, Manuel, and others stand up as well, and Madison announces that whatever happens next, they have to spread their duties and fix things so they all can live together.

With the speech done, plans begin to finalize. John Dorie and June go the place where the ones who cannot fight are hiding from the battle, the military will be spread out through the hotel as guides to the others, and the rest need to mobilize. Madison, Alicia, and the council (which Madison has to coax into getting more active) start to organize everyone in the final hours before it gets dark (which would be around an hour or two). Soon the council is making the main calls and Madison steps back and starts to walk away. When Alicia asks where she’s going, Madison tells her she needs to be by herself for a bit. Nodding, Alicia goes back to help the others out and leave her mother to her thoughts.

We’re near the end of the episode now and we’re going to play the song “Here’s a Health to the Company” by The Longest Johns. This song is going to played in a montage to show our main characters nerving themselves for the big confrontation with Proctor John. We’ll have Strand drinking, later joined by Alicia. Daniel and Brian are checking some of the guns with Farah, who is very fearful of the upcoming battle. John Dorie is with June, both scared, but with John more resolute to protect her and the hotel. Madison is sitting, knowing that everything is going to change this night. Only one winner will be left. As the song starts to end and she ponders this fact there’s a sound of thunder outside. A storm is coming, metaphorically and physically. And it’s about to break. Since in the official Fear show there is a huge tropical storm that hits the southern areas of the US, I want to bring that concept to my version. Except make this one also more thematic than the other.

Episode 16 –Stand your Ground

This is going to be a battle-heavy season finale and it’s going to be intense! Like we’re going to make any battle from any other season look small by comparison! I’m talking about a final battle scenario between two factions where lives are lost and which will end a big arc of the show. Originally this was going to be called, “The Storm,” but the main show has already taken that for its season nine finale.

Our final episode of season four begins not long after we ended last time, but now it’s full night and in the background, we hear strong winds, along with the occasional thunder and lightning. We start off with Madison entering a room that leads to the roof, looking over her friends and allies. Everyone is nervous as they look at the oldest Clark, but the air around her exudes confidence. Eyeing Daniel, Madison asks if they’re ready. Daniel will confirm, along with the others in the room, and Daniel will message everyone through walkie talkie that Madison is about to face Proctor John. Madison heads to the doors and stairs to the room and we cut to her walking onto the roof of the hotel, heading to the edge facing the river. In the same location he was before the leader of the Proctors praises Madison for not running away like a little pussy, then demands an answer to his ultimatum. Madison declares that she, her family, her friends, and all those who follow her will not be standing down. “You can leave us in peace or this night will be your last.” There is a pause as the two sides face a standoff. Proctor John is glaring daggers at Madison in the distance while Madison is staring resolutely back at him. It’s all silence save for the wind and the clash of thunder. Guns on both sides are ready to fire, with PJs in cover on the bank side while Madison’s are at the windows. Sweat is beading down some faces and fingers are on the triggers. We get close ups of all the major figures on both sides, showing everyone important who is participating in the battle. Eventually we focus in on a fighter as their finger closely curls in on the trigger on their gun. Slowly, ever so slowly it presses harder and harder until a sudden pressure fires the bullet. As it is squeezed, we cut to black as the gunshot is heard. Then the title appears. The battle has begun.

That single shot begins an eruption of gunfire from both sides starts. Both sides are around 400 feet away from each other, so a little less than twice as far than Rick’s group and the Governor’s group in season four was in the mid-season finale battle (I measured as best I could the distances using Google Maps). This distance will quickly be shorten, but we’ll get to that in a bit. We’ll see people of both sides get shot down in the start of this battle and we’ll see a few of the Yuma survivors helping the first wounded of the battle. Everyone though (besides John Dorie, June, and Farah) will be shown shooting at the Proctors. Madison, after the first shot is fire, will quickly leave the roof and join the shooting in one of the rooms facing the river. We’ll be using our first four minutes of the episode these exchanges in gunfire as outside the storm has full enveloped the area.

As the wind starts to blow, one of the military soldiers perks up, saying she heard a popping noise? Daniel, after a very short pause, recognizes the noise and shouts at everyone to get away from the windows. Suddenly an explosion hits right the wall directly between the floors that Daniel is above and he, along with some of the older soldiers, are thrown backwards! Some Proctors have snuck in the bushes across the bank and start to use grenade launchers they stole to blast at the hotel! While the explosives pound and wreck the building we’ll see Proctor John signaling some of his people, who bring out rafts like at the end of season three. They begin to cross the river, firing at anybody seen in the windows or the holes made their explosives!

Madison, Alicia, Strand, Daniel (after recovering), Brian, and Manuel having noticed the Proctors advancing and begin to retaliate at the boats as they get closer to their shoreline. While they do manage to kill a few Proctors, their enemy reaches the sand and begins to make their way up the small hill towards the hotel. As they reach a little under halfway there though, Madison will signal through her walkie talkie. As the Proctors get to the halfway point we’ll see two vehicles come out on each side of the hotel. Humvees, both with manned turrets on top. They unleash a rain of speeding metal death upon the Proctors, most of whom are gunned down. This reprisal is short though as Proctor’s grenade launchers go at it again. One of the vehicles is able to get away, but the other is not so lucky and is destroyed. Strand looks at through the slits in his room and notices that those Proctors were just the first wave as another starts to make its way across the river. Cursing under his breath, Strand aims his gun and fires, firing back as the next wave of Proctors comes at the hotel. As we see the new wave of enemies reach the shore and send some of their boats back we cut to black!

When we return, we see John Dorie, June, and Farah with those unable to fight. A loud explosion is heard and a few of them cry out and hold each other. Farah, while looking very scared, tries to comfort these people, with John Dorie and June dealing with some others. We’ll linger on June for a bit, then cut back to the battle. The Proctors will now start using their launchers more sparingly, so now it is Yuma’s turn to bring out their own launchers (given by the soldiers). Just like the Proctors, their ammo for these devastating weapons is limited, but bringing them out now has allowed them to turn the side. Unfortunately, the storm has now brought strong winds, so as they fire upon the Proctor the defender’s aim is off some. They still manage to kill some of the Proctors and blow up a few boats, but their plans are not going as well as they were expecting. The gunfire from the approaching Proctors, along with some sniper fire from across the river, is causing the Yuma defenders to stick to cover more and more. Some of them will keep firing as the others retreat to the halls and to the stairs leading to the lower levels of the hotel.

We’ll then cut back to the people away from the battle. As another explosion is heard outside, another noise is heard: Infected. It’s faint, but a horde from the city side is approaching the walls around the hotel. These were attracted by fight on the road and in the city earlier in the day, some of these flushed out of the buildings by said fight. Everyone begins to panic as John and Farah try to calm everyone down. But as John Dorie is looking about, he notices something: June is nowhere to be seen. He calls out for her and almost immediately after he does he hears the noise of a car outside. Dorie, believing it to be June, runs out after her while Farah and a few others keep everyone together. Outside, John Dorie looks around and instantly spots a lit car starting to charge towards the gates. Dorie, horrified, runs towards the gate, waving his hands as he starts to block the advancing vehicle. The vehicle stops and, surprise surprise, June pokes her head out and tells Dorie to get in or get out of the way. John Dorie, tries to tell her it’s dangerous out there, but before he can explain about the infected she interrupts by saying that she’s not going to be taken again. Not like before.

The wind is picking up once more at this point, so the walkers become fainter to the two as John Dorie walks over to June. He’s going to reassure her that wherever she goes he will go with her to protect her. But he also adds that she can’t run away right now. They can’t run away right now. “They need us, more than they think they do.” In addition, John Dorie is also going to give her some soothing words to help calm her down some. But suddenly there is a quick whistling sound, followed by an explosion! A Proctor-launched grenade flew off course and hit the wall near the upper end of the gates. This breaks apart the hinge at the top of the gate. Then, as the wind dies down, both of them hear the infected just outside and in a matter of moments their pushing breaks the lower hinge off the door and it falls down right on the vehicle June was about to escape in. The infected now begin to invade hotel parking lot and the couple run back to Farah and the others hidden away! John Dorie will fire his pistols a couple of times as few of the faster ones begin to get close to them. But as some of them chase Dorie and June, other infected are attracted to the noise of gunfire coming from the hotel and make their way to the front doors.

On his walkie talkie, John Dorie is called by Madison, asking what’s going on. John Dorie explains the situation as they reach the doors of the conference building. Quickly they’re both brought in, but the sight of the infected outside freaks some of them out. John Dorie, June, Farah, and others begin to barricade the entrances as fast as they can. It’s not entirely effective as they don’t have too much to keep the doors blocked and soon we start seeing the trapped survivors stabbing at the dead trying to get past their newly constructed defenses. We’ll have a few minutes of this, with Farah finally starting to show some true grit in her as she attacks the dead that are trying to break in.

After a particularly nasty kill of an infected we cut back to battle at the hotel, the Proctors entering through the holes near the base of the hotel and starting to head towards the stairs that lead up. As they make their way to them though suddenly one or two are shot. We’ll see Alicia and another Yuma survivor playing duck and cover from one of the stairways, trying to pick a few off as the enemy begins to take over the hotel. From other stairways a few other Yuma survivors do the same. Alicia, Brian, Manuel, and the others keep using the small pockets that lead to rooms as cover as they slowly try to pick off the Proctors. It works moderately well, but soon enough Proctors are able to get to each floor to stop this tactic and they all start to head upwards to higher floors and repeat their defense. Before this happens though, we see Alicia and Manuel push a vending machine down the stairs as a couple of Proctors start ascending, crushing most of them under the massive machine.

Proctor John is still on the opposite side of the river and we’ll get a few seconds of him smiling as he watches his people attack the compound, then he’ll radio to those inside for an update. When they explain their problems he’ll give an exasperated sigh and tell them to shoot upwards through the ceiling, calling them idiots when the walkie talkie button is off. Then Proctor John will remind them to keep Madison alive. He’ll then order the rest of his people to move out, that it’s “time to end this!” Returning to those Proctors in the hotel they begin to fire upwards and Manuel and Alicia get hit, Manuel through the shoulder and chest and Alicia through her leg. Brian helps them up and helps them get up towards another floor, where they meet up with most of the Yuma fighting force. There we’ll cut to black.

When we return we see our three enter the area where most of everyone fighting the Proctors is. Everyone is terrified about being trapped by the Proctors. Madison begins to relay a new strategy, but one of the El Buitre interrupts, saying they should give up Madison and maybe that’ll end the fight. Both Madison and Alicia Clark are thunderstruck, with Alicia saying there’s no turning back, can’t they see the fight has been going on? This doesn’t dissuade them though and they try to attack Madison, but another El Buitre knocks them out. There’s a pause of shock from everyone, Alicia, Manuel, Brian, and Daniel all ready to fight. This long pause is broken we hear Proctors making their way up. We’ll have a gunfight as they come up, but this quickly stops as there are cries from below. Cutting away for a bit, we’ll see the horde at the hotel’s front doors as broken through and the Proctors are fighting them off.

Across the parking lot, we’ll see Farah, John Dorie, June, and a few others still fighting off the dead that are trying to break in. Soon though one of the barricades breaks a bit, enough for infected to start slipping in. We’ll see a few people get attacked and bitten before the noise catches the attention of our named heroes. John Dorie will hold off the infected where he’s at while Farah and June start to fight of these intruders. We’ll have a few minutes of that until the noise from the hotel starts to draw the attacking infected away towards the noise. We’ll see them finishing off the remaining dead that have broken through and watch as the mass of dead people make their way to the main conflict.

Back at the hotel, we’ll see the Madison in a conundrum because now even if they get kill all the Proctors the dead are now in the hotel and will overrun them. Suddenly there is a small cracking noise and Madison realizes that the damage the hotel has taken has made it unstable. She begins to tell everyone that they got to evacuate somehow when somebody calls out that the rest of the Proctors are coming. Looking through cracks, we see indeed there are boats taking more Proctors across the river to their side. Madison is pressured, trying to figure out a solution to their impending doom. As Madison is trying to come up with a solution, Brian will notice some C4/ explosives and an idea comes to him. He starts packing up the explosives and Alicia notices, loudly asking him what he’s doing. This’ll distract Madison as Brian replies to just give him cover. He’ll start to tie some sheets together to make a rope and heads to the open section of the room that was blown open by a Proctor’s launched grenade. Alicia, not knowing what he’s doing, tries to stop him, but Brian will just smile at her and thank her. When Alicia inquires what he means, Brian tells her he’s thanking her because she, along with her mother and friends, treated him like a real person. He’ll then tie up the sheet rope and start hurrying down it with the C4, but not before telling her to get clear of the building, to move to the sides.

Not knowing what Brian has planned, Alicia looks at him, then at everyone in the room. The sound of thunder and a bullet from a sniper gets her back to attention and suddenly the room is a bustle of activity. Madison calls to others to start shooting off the Proctors, give Brian some clearing room. We start another intense firefight between the defenders inside the hotel and the outside. Meanwhile Brian, who is making his way down, gets hit with a bullet and almost lets go of the rope. He is able to hold on, but the weight of him and his explosives pulls him down so fast the burn on his hands causes him to let go just around the 2nd floor windows. The fall is hard on his old body and it takes him a small bit to get to his feet. When he’s up though he starts to arrange the explosives near the base of the hotel.

As the incoming Proctors get closer and closer to the hotel the fights get crazier! We also see our defenders doing their best to keep any Proctors from getting up to their floor because the only place higher now is the roof. I really want these moments to be nail bitingly tense! Soon though Proctor John and his remaining people are just below the last hill before reaching the hotel. They notice Brian and Proctor John makes a mocking comment towards Brian. He’ll then shoot him in the chest several times. Brian, now dying, falls to the ground, weakly pulling a grenade from his coat/ jacket. As he pulls the pin, he’ll send a last message to Alicia:

“Be strong Alicia.”

Alicia, hearing the noise, looks out the hole to see Brian on the ground and the Proctors making their way up the hill. She cries out for Brian just as his grenade goes off. This sets off all the other explosives at the base of the hotel. As if time is slowing down, part of the building begins to lean forward towards the Proctors marching up to it. Freezing for a moment, the enemy looks up parts of the building collapse onto itself… and onto them. Suddenly there are screams of fear from everyone, even Proctor John, as they begin to run away. But it’s too late, the angle at which the build was destroyed sends a cascade of debris right on top of the fleeing Proctors. As the middle of the hotel is collapsing, everyone starts running down the right hallway to get away from the destruction. For a long moment the crashing is all they can hear. Then the building is silent and unmoving and what we see now is a large chunk of the center of the hotel is destroyed and fallen down onto the hill below.

Completely shocked, everyone looks at massive area of missing hotel. Suddenly, Alicia starts crying and calling for Brian’s name. But then we hear John Dorie calling for Madison, wondering what the hell that noise was. Madison doesn’t answer and we cut to John Dorie, June, and Farah, with John (finally I can just call him that without confusing him for Proctor John) speaks into his talkie that it looks like the building has collapsed some. This’ll give us a behind shot of the destruction, which I really want to show off. After that we’ll switch back to Madison, who realizes the dead are still about when she hears some start coming up the stairs. She, and soon everyone left, begin to fight off the dead in the hotel while also messaging John Dorie back that they need to get rid of the other infected. We’ll see some of the debris has allowed a few of them to start climbing up towards our group and in our last fight of this season we see our defenders fight the non-crushed infected. This’ll be a much easier fight since our heroes have dealt with the main threat and this is mostly cleanup, but I still want to keep a little tension.

Back at the conference building, all the undead are no longer a threat and there are no more attacks coming at them. But the explosion has caught the attention of all the infected and those remaining are making their way towards Madison and the others. John Dorie, noticing this, threats at on what they can do. Farah, thinking fast, points at the SWAT vehicle and June and John Dorie run out to it. When they get it running they move so its side faces the hotel. Before June pulls the level to let loose a hell of bullets, John Dorie tells June he loves her. She replies she loves him back, they both kiss, then June pulls the handle that unleashes the SWAT van’s machine guns. The unleashed guns mow down the dead and after around 30 seconds(?) of continuous firing the guns run out of ammo and what we’re left with is a wide pile of fully dead bodies.

When all the invading infected are dead, Madison, Alicia, Strand, Daniel, an injured Manuel, and some others of the hotel head start to make their way down from the upper levels of the hotel. All the proctors that were at the battle are dead and those that aren’t have either fled or are gravely injured. Just as they arrive though they notice a few of the Proctors starts to turn and feast upon the defeated gang. A cry of pain suddenly breaks the silence and Madison notices Proctor John, crushed under a a pile of rubble. She doesn’t make a move to assist as he pleads and cries. Alicia tells her mother to leave him, they have to check the hotel for any more danger. Madison says nothing, only staring at the once great leader of the Proctors. One of the arriving infected notices him and starts to make its way towards him, which further increases his cries for help. He’s first going to beg Madison for help, then swear at her, then plead again, the sign of a defeated man. Madison still does nothing though as she watches Proctor John weakly pull out a gun and start shooting the dead. His first couple of shots are killers, but his next couple only hit the body. Soon the infected begin to feast on the crippled leader of the Proctors, to which he screams in pain. We linger on Madison’s face as she watches the gruesome feast, no smile, but we can see her kind of relish the sight of Proctor John being eaten alive. Here we’re going to see not all that darkness in her has left and that we’ll see her capable of doing some nasty things in future seasons. With that we cut to our last break of the season.

When we return one last time, the sun starts to rise, shining on the victors and the losers of the battle of Yuma. Some dead have reanimated as infected and some of the remaining defenders of Yuma are gravely injured. Over half of the fighting force of Yuma at the start of the battle are now dead. Everyone is now in the parking lot and the conference building, tending to either wounds or loved ones. As Madison views the survivors, she notices June attending to Manuel. As she comes over to him, she realizes that Manuel is dying. The wound he suffered was much worse than expected. As she hurries to his side she’s joined by Alicia and Farah. Kneeling next to him, Manuel looks up into Madison’s face and smiles. He’ll talk about his cousin (the one mentioned in episode seven), about life, and about her and her dedication to protect his people. He’ll say something like, “You weren’t one of us, yet you put your life on the line for us and got us to fight for our lives.” It needs to be something that tells Madison that her time in this community has been beneficial, even if some people don’t like her. Madison will weakly smile at this and thank Manuel, before asking him if he’s ready for… what comes after. Here she’ll talk about a woman (that we’ll know as Celia Flores) tell her about how dying is another way of life. Manuel will chuckle at this, coughing up some blood as he does, then tell her that whatever comes next, it’s better than being a member of the walking dead. Here, the last of his strength dies away as he mutters something in Spanish. Madison, some tears in her eyes, stabs Manuel in the head, preventing his reanimation.

Not long after this, Madison will hear her name and see some of the council walking up to her. Less than half of the council survive the battle of Yuma and they are all looking at her mistrustfully. Manuel’s death seems to be the last straw out of them as they declare that they voted for Madison, her daughter, and her friends to be banished from the community. Their reasoning behind this is that Madison, despite at first helping them, has brought a ton of trouble upon them and they don’t want her around because she seems to be attracting new enemies. Farah looks at the leaders in disappointment while Alicia will be furious at this, starting to call them out for being so ungrateful for all that’s happened and throwing them out after risking their lives. However, Madison interrupts her before she can go too far and tells them how long they have until they have to go. The answer: Before noon. Nodding, Madison walks off to the hotel to try and collect some things that were undamaged or didn’t receive much damage from the collapse.

Stunned by her mother’s decision, Alicia follows Madison and questions why she agreed so easily to leave. Madison, in response, will tell her daughter that it’s just time for her to go, that if she stayed she might be bringing more harm than good. With the Proctors gone, it’s their job now to fix it all up. Despite the great victory that has happened, many lives were lost and Madison feels that part of that responsibility lies with her. Those words the council gave her, that she keeps bringing trouble where she goes, hit her hard. Part of Madison thinks it would be best to kill these leaders and take over since she has led before and has manage societies, but another part of her, the part that is making the decisions right now, is just tired and just wants her daughter back. That is what she’s going to tell Alicia, adding that she needs Alicia not just as a daughter, but as somehow to help her survive. The loss of Nick has really broken Madison and I feel she’s not entirely whole at this time, which is why she needs Alicia to keep her together. When they eventually reach some supplies, Alicia will put an arm on her mother’s shoulder, smile at her a bit, and start to grab some stuff for their departure.

We cut away to Strand, who is kicking a tiny piece of hotel debris about. He’s going to monologue to himself about how, once the Proctors were done, he was hoping he could start up a business of sorts and gain some sort of control over some of this land. He’ll reference some sort of historical event of the past, maybe gangs taking advantage of prohibition to set up an empire. Here we see Strand is still the entrepreneur as ever, planning ahead for his personal survival and prosperity. While he didn’t want his friends and allies to die, there is still an old part of him that about self-profit. I think though, because of his recent adventures, he starts to realize that in order for that to happen he needs to make personal sacrifices to keep those important to him alive. However, some of his sociopathic traits are beginning to disappear some, especially with those he’s grown close to.

There is a cough behind Strand then and he spins around to see Daniel not far behind him. Strand will swear and tell Daniel that if he’s not going to kill him with a gun, he’ll kill him from fright if he keeps doing that. Amused, Daniel will sidle up to Strand and the two will look at the destroyed hotel. After some silence Daniel will comment on Victor finally being able to kill people and ask how it feels. Strand is irritated and uncomfortable by the question, holding his silence for a long moment before truthfully telling Daniel that this world was not built for him. Daniel will then guess that Victor Strand’s perfect world is one where he does nothing but drink all day and wear nothing but his fancy suits. Strand, annoyed by Daniel’s mocking, asks him what he wants. If it’s to put a bullet in his head, why hasn’t he done it yet. “There’s nothing more needed, nothing to hold you back. So what is it you want with me?”

Daniel will pause for a moment asking Victor Strand where he’s going now. Sighing, Strand will say that he’s going with the Clarks because it seems wherever they go, things happen. Nodding, Daniel tells Strand he’s coming along with him. After all, he is Strand’s guardian angel (a callback to season 3), so he has to come along and make sure Strand doesn’t get into (or cause) any trouble. The former mercenary starts to walk towards the hotel as Strand follows him, irate that Daniel is treating Strand like he’s a dog on a leash. This causes Daniel to stop and look at Strand before darkly declaring that Strand is, and always will be, a snake, and that if Strand does anything out of line, he, Daniel, will be more than happy to a bullet in his head. Daniel returns to walking towards the hotel as Strand looks horrified at this. But after a pause he follows Daniel, muttering that he won’t make such a mistake.

Just like in season 3, Daniel is a man looking for purpose. After surviving the fire of Abagail estate, seeing the walker right in front of struck by lighting some time after meeting up with Efraín, surviving Strand’s gunshot at the dam, and helping John Dorie with Nick to find his love, Daniel is looking for a new drive to live. Just like in season three and most of this season, Daniel believes he is still alive because something out there, whether it’s God or something else, has plans for him. And something is telling him that Strand is a key part of this purpose, with him thinking that it’s either keeping him alive or bullet in his head. He might be softening up to Strand after their time on the army base, but Daniel Salazar is not one to forget Strand’s moments of self-survival. That, along with believing as well that the Clarks just keep causing events to happen, have given him a new goal in his life.

As those two are walking to scavenge we switch to John Dorie and June. Both are in the conference room, sitting next to each other. John Dorie will tell her that what she did, not abandoning these people, was a very brave thing for her to do. June will snort and say it was a stupid thing to do. John Dorie will smile and reply back that he’s happy she stayed, causing June to smile some. Then he’ll ask here what she’s planning to do now, to which she’ll say that she wants to leave. There just isn’t anything to work with anymore. Still smiling, John will say he will go wherever she goes, but he’ll suggest that maybe… they can join with Madison? He says it wouldn’t be right to leave them on their own. She’ll be hesitant at first, not having a direction on where to go, but also worried how Madison will feel about her after last night. John Dorie is able to convince her though and the two stand up to join the Clarks.

Finally, we cut to Madison and Alicia walking with what they could find in the hotel. As they walk they (and the audience) will notice some of the residence of the former hotel are looking at them. Some will be hostile, but others appear sorry that Madison is leaving. As they get near the gates a few people will offer them a car for them to drive in (probably a van?). One of the soldiers (maybe Quincy) will tell her that he and the soldiers will be taking the community to their old base. Better protection and more ways to grow crops and there wasn’t enough people to keep the place running properly before. Or at least under Colonel Rogers’s rule. He’ll then offer Madison a place there as well, that they could overrule the council’s decision. Madison nods and thanks him for his offer but turns it down. Shrugging, the man lets them pass.

Before they can go much farther though Strand and Daniel come by and say they’ll be coming along as well. Strand will make a pleasant remark, maybe something like Madison needs somebody to drink with. Daniel will look at Strand before returning his gaze on Madison, saying that he has nowhere to go, so he’ll go with them. Then John and June come in and offer to join as well. Madison will try and dissuade them, saying they have a place here, but June will tell Madison that she and John helped her be more… strong. Sighing, Madison agrees and they all start to move forward. Once more though they are all interrupted as another voice is heard from behind them. Turning around, we see Farah running after them, a pack on her back and some tools in a satchel. After Madison asks what she’s going, Farah explains she wants to go with them. Just as she says this, John Dorie and June join them, asking if they could come as well. Exasperated, Madison will tell ask her why she wants to come, to which Farah explains she doesn’t really have anyone and just wants to be out there with Madison and Alicia. Madison however will say that she still can do things for the Yuma community, help run and fix things for them, but Farah will say no, that she feels she’ll be better off with Madison’s group. Smiling some at Farah’s kindness, Madison agrees to have her along.

Our last moment of this season is Madison, Alicia, Strand, Daniel, John Dorie, June, and Farah driving away from Yuma as the sun is fully in the morning sky. I see Madison at the wheel with Strand in the front passenger seat, Daniel and Alicia in the middle, and Farah, June, and Dorie in the back. There is going to be some soft, but uplifting music that emphasizes the victory that Madison, her group, and the others made over the Proctors. All of them have their thoughts and dreams as they head along the road north, hoping to new people to live with and a community they can all find peace at. The way this ending goes it will be perfect as a way to end the series there, without a cliffhanger. But this could also be the start of a brand new set of adventures for these characters, which is what I am planning to do.

After Thoughts:

This was long! So long to write! Months of research, writing, editing, having to rewatch the first three seasons of Fear once more, so much had to be done to make this possible! Was it worth it? Ummmm… yeah, I think so. I do feel I might have rushed some of the last couple of episodes (I was writing four episodes in one month), but I can always go back and fix those later. I was hoping to include more characters from the official show into this season, but with how the show is becoming a lot of smaller character stories not connecting with one another I found out that some characters like Althea, the truckers (they’re so unimportant I don’t even remember their names), Charlie, and others like them barely have anything to work off of. So I believed it would be better to just not include them (at least for this season). Still, I feel if I return to this I’ll need to name some of these characters more so they’re aren’t nameless and feel like people.

Another problem I had was what to do with some of the new additions to my story (Farah, Brian, Manuel, the council, etc). I wanted to keep things balanced, but I also think I didn’t give enough development or involvement for some of them. I also had plenty of internal conflicts of who I thought would die in my version of the show because I wondered I was going to kill Daniel, Madison, Strand, or some other characters and it was so hard to kill any of them. This is especially because this is before Morgan Jones came in destroyed all their wonderful and unique character traits, these are much vibrant and interesting people than what they’ve becoming in the official show. So having characters with tons of potential, personality, and unique skills made killing people more difficult.

There were plenty of ideas I were not able to implement in this rewrite. Some because not enough space to properly fit them in, others felt too similar to what has been done in the main show or in previous seasons of Fear, and then some were dismissed entirely as being too ludicrous to put in. Some ideas I implemented I needed to research since I had very experience with some elements like the terrain of the Southwest United States. This story isn’t perfect, nothing is. I’m sure there will be people who will point out problems in the story and some missed opportunities such as developing the Yuma community more and Proctor John and John Dorie’s names being mixed up by people (causing panic). To those people who do point such errors out… Thank you. While I have done almost all of this on my own, this should not be just for me. This is, in theory, just a first draft of season four of Fear the Walking Dead that can be updated and changed over time.

I’ve been planning ahead ever since starting this season four remake and I’ve already got some concrete ideas for my rewrite of season five. For my season five, the characters will finally start to become a real team. By the second season of the main show everyone has some sort of role and started to work as a family and this is what is going to happen in my season five of Fear the Walking Dead. The main characters are going to become closer, discover new things about each other, and gain roles and unique skills for their group. It will not be as action packed as this season, but it will have some interesting conflicts against the living, the dead, and nature. New characters will be coming in to join the main cast, as well as a fan favorite that people have been wondering about.

If you’ve reached the end of this, thank you for reading my Fear the Walking Dead season four rewrite! It’s been a blast to do and I can’t wait to do more in the future! We all deserve better than what AMC, Scott Gimple, Andrew Chambliss, and Ian Goldberg have been giving us! Keep your voices loud, your critiques polite yet hard-hitting, and show them that Fear the Walking Dead deserves a better!