What I Watched Today
(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)
Fear the Walking Dead
When we last left, Teddy had set off the bomb, and Morgan let Teddy jet with Dakota. Morgan told Victor to get lost, and was alone in the control room of the submarine.
Seagulls fly overhead. We see a sign that says, Coastal Access – 3 miles, lying on its side. Rachel tries to take the tire off of her truck, as baby Morgan cries in the backseat, and bloodhound Rufus waits in the truck bed. She gets on a walkie talkie, and asks if anyone can hear her. She needs help. Anybody? She sees the missile go up, and hears Morgan say he’s still going to try and stop what Teddy started. He’s not sure it’s possible. The missile is going to reenter the atmosphere, and has multiple warheads. This could be all the time they have left. Use it. Make it mean something. Give yourself the end you wanted, even if it’s not the one we all imagined. Rachel says, this isn’t the end, and goes back to the tire. The jack falls a little, but she keeps trying, but the jack lets go completely, and the car falls on her leg. A title says: Promise me you’ll find someone. She’s not messing around, and duct tapes her broken leg, bone hanging out and all, to a makeshift splint. She takes out Baby Morgan – who I have to mention has an amazing head of hair – and hobbles down the road, Rufus running ahead. She falls, but the baby is okay, even if crying. She says she’s sorry. They can’t do this. She sees the missile divide, and kisses her baby. She says she just can’t, and takes out a knife. We think she’s going to kill the baby, but instead, she rigs up the backpack to put the baby on her back. She says, this is the end for me, but not for you. She ties a rope around her waist, tying the other end to Rufus, and telling him to find people. She puts a gag in her own mouth, and says she’s sorry. She stabs herself, and keels over, as Baby Morgan cries.
Daniel screws with the radio, and hears Morgan giving his speech about the end. A title says: Dame el Arma. Rollie squeals into the parking lot, and he, Wes, and Riley get out of the car. Rollie says Riley knows where a bunker is where they can ride things out. Funny what you can get out of a true believer when they’re pulled away from their leader. Daniel asks why they should believe Riley. He heard a voice on the radio giving coordinates to a safe place to go. Rollie asks if it was Morgan, and Daniel says, no. It was someone else, but he knows that voice. Rollie says he remembers the last time they took Daniel’s word for something, and Luci says they have no time for this. Is Daniel sure about what he’s telling them? He’s a little iffy, so she says they’ll go with what Riley said. It’s their only choice. They all get in the truck, and drive over some zombies loitering in the road. Sarah gets on the radio, and says, if Wen can hear her, stay where he is. Daniel asks Riley, why not remain silent, and die for his cause? Why would he tell them about a safe place when they’re so close to the end? The truck suddenly fishtails, and Rollie says, the brakes went out. Sarah asks Jacob if he’s fixed brakes before, and they get out. Rollie says, all hands on deck; they have company. A cluster of zombies approaches, and Jacob helps to keep the zombies at bay, while Sarah works to patch a hole in the accumulator. She tells Jacob that they may not make their way to the bunker, but he says they will. She asks, what comes next? and he says she and Wen will be together, one way or another. She does some welding.
Daniel asks Riley, if he’s all about destruction, why help them survive? Riley says he wants to see their faces when it all turns to ash. They said Teddy and his group were all insane, but it’s just the beginning. Sarah says, it worked, and Riley tells Daniel, the next will rise, or some kind of nonsense lik that. Sarah says it’s a patch job, but should get them there in one piece, and Rollie says they’ll make it out of this thing yet. Daniel talks to Luci in Spanish, asking her to give him the gun, and he shoots Rollie. Daniel says, he was one of them. That’s how Teddy found out they were at the sub. That’s why they were prepared. Riley is shot from behind, and we see Charlie holding the literal smoking gun. He’s not dead, and Luci asks Riley if it’s true. He tells her, they lost their faith and turned on each other behind the wall. Daniel has himself to thank. Otherwise they would have never been found out. Nobody is going anywhere. Warheads start to come down, and Daniel says, the coordinates. They can still make it. Luci says he knew truth about Riley. They’re putting their faith in him. They read out the coordinates.
Dwight and Shari ride up the road, and stop. Dwight says, there’s no school there. Shari wonders if they took a wrong turn, and Dwight says, they’ll go back. There’s got to be something nearby. They gallop away, and they hear Morgan on the radio, saying, give yourself the end you wanted, even if it’s not the one we all imagined. They see a cabin, and Shari says, maybe there’s beer and pretzels in there. He asks if she’s serious, and she says, it’s the one thing they said they’d do when they found each other, and they haven’t done it yet. If this is the end, it’s how she wants to go out; just them. A title says: Enjoy the view, a-hole. They go to the cabin, and Dwight says, maybe it’s not just them. They go inside, and Dwight checks the kitchen, while Shari looks at a photo of a couple with a baby. She goes out to the backyard, and Dwight joins her. He says he couldn’t find pretzels, but he found these bad boys, handing her a beer. He says, they’re warm, but they’ll do the trick. They drink, and Shari wonders why they didn’t do this sooner. They found each other, after everything. That doesn’t just happen, but she couldn’t get past the past. She wasted so much time being pissed off; trying to fight the bad guys, but the bad guys always win. They’ve seen that every time, and nothing she did was going to change that. She cries, and says, all it did was cost her time with him. He takes her beer, and puts it with his on the porch, and holds her. He says, everything she did, everything she’s done, she has nothing to be sorry for. He kisses her, and says they still have this life, even if it’s just for now. The woman and man from the photo come out, the man holding a gun, and Dwight says, they don’t want any trouble. They thought the cabin was empty. Shari says, they’ll get out if they know a place where they can hole up. The man says they had a place, but they took it. Dwight asks what he’s talking about, and the man says, a storm cellar. They were about to go down, when two jackasses showed up, and forced them up. Dwight asks who they were, and the woman says, they didn’t introduce themselves. They just ranted about, the end is the beginning. A little girl comes out, and we assume she’s the baby from the photo. The woman says, just give them their house back, and Dwight asks where the cellar is. He’ll get it back for them. The woman asks, how? and Dwight asks if they have any rope.
Dwight ties one end of a rope to the horse, and the other to the cellar door handle. He slaps the horse’s flank to get it moving, and it runs, pulling the door off. Two guys come out shooting. Shari shoots one, killing him, and shoots the other, who falls, but gets up and runs. Dwight shoots him in the back, and he crawls. They all run over to him, and Dwight turns him over. The guy says, do it, and Dwight says he looks scared. A zombie is heading their way, and the guy says, please, but Dwight says, no. He doesn’t think so. He’s going to do for the guy what the guy tried to do for the family there. Give him a front row seat to the sh*t show they brought on them. Someone shoots the zombie, and Shari shoots the guy in the knee, calling him an a-hole. As they walk to the cellar, Dwight tells Shari, maybe they’re both right, and the bad guys don’t always win. They go to the cellar door, and see the missile divide. They rush inside.
Driving with Dakota, Teddy hears Morgan on the radio, saying he’s still going to try and stop what Teddy started, but he’s not sure it’s possible. Dakota snaps the radio off, startling Teddy. She says she’s sorry she saved Morgan. She’s the only reason Morgan is alive. If he’d died at the gulch, there would have been no one stopping the missiles. Teddy says he’s glad it went the way it did. Otherwise, he never would have met her. Dakota asks if he means it, and he says she gets him. All those others, hanging on his every word, doing what he tells them, not a single one understood what he was doing the way she does.
A title says: You have nothing to be sorry about. Teddy and Dakota stand at a viewing station, and look out. He says, it’s almost time. Look at it. Here they are with a front row seat. Dakota says Teddy told her that she got him. He was the first person who didn’t look at her like she had something wrong with her, and try to make her change. He takes her hand, and says, imagine if they’d found each other sooner. John comes up behind them, and tells Teddy, step away from the girl. Teddy asks if John is spending his last moments before he turns to mulch, putting him down. John says he’s there for Dakota. He’s not fixing to hurt her; he just wants to say something. Dakota says, he’ll try to make her change her mind, and John says, she can still make her life mean something. She just has to believe people are better than she thinks they are. She says that’s how John Jr. ended up with a bullet in him, and John says, even though he walked out on his son, John Jr. still found it in himself to forgive him years later. She asks what he’s going to do with her, and he says, forgive her for killing John; for taking her son’s life. Teddy tells Dakota not to listen to him. She has nothing to be sorry about. She asks if he means that, and he says he does. John puts his gun down, and Teddy raises his, but it’s shot out of his hand. June walks up, saying, John didn’t come alone, and John says she’s a better shot than he is. Dakota asks why they’re there, and June says she forgives Dakota too. It’s not too late, even if Dakota believes it is. As long as you’re alive, it’s not too late. Dakota asks, if June believes that, why did she kill Virginia? and June says, when she lost John, she lost what she believed, but she found it again. So can Dakota. John steps on something hard, and says, what the hell is under there? He brushes aside the grass, and sees a camouflaged trap door. It opens to a ladder going down into a tunnel. He says he thought Teddy was the end. It looks like he plans on sticking around. His talk about the beginning was just hot air to get his lambs to march to slaughter. June says John isn’t lying to Dakota. Teddy is here to do what he believes. Dakota asks, what the hell is this? and Teddy tells her they’re going to shoot off the rest of the missiles. When he dust clears, he can finish what he started. Dakota says, he didn’t mean it about her understanding him, but Teddy insists he did. She says, then why didn’t he tell her? He says he couldn’t risk anyone else finding out. He wanted it to be about her and him. Why else would he bring her? John says, he needs two people to launch a missile; only one can’t turn both keys. He doesn’t care about Dakota. He just needs her. Dakota says, he’s her family, and doesn’t want her to be something she’s not. Teddy says, John abandoned his son, and June tells Dakota that she has a chance to survive; it’s a sign there are second chances. They see the missile divide, and John says, it’s starting soon. Dakota can die being who she is, or go with them. She says, and pretend to be someone she’s not. He says, it’s her choice. She points the gun, but seems unsure, and points it at Teddy.
Riding down the road on a horse, Victor hears Morgan over the radio, saying the missile is going to reenter the atmosphere, and it has multiple warheads. A title says: Which man are you? He goes into a building fighting his way through zombies inside. He tries a door, but it’s locked. A zombie gets him up close and personal, but he stabs it in the head, and runs into a stairwell. He goes up to an empty floor, and asks if anybody is there. He sees dead people, but not like that kid in Sixth Sense. They lie all over on the floor. He looks out to the parking lot, and at the crowd of zombies wandering around. He yells at the top of his lungs, and sits on the floor. He hears something in the distance, and follows the sound. He opens a door and hears a recording of a man singing the blues. He walks into a humongous room where a lot of art is being stored. He hears a gun click behind him, and a man asks how he got past the dead he let in. Hand over his gun, and start talking. Victor turns around, and says, he didn’t see it? and the man says, it was hard to miss. Is it hitting there? Victor says, it’s hitting everywhere. The man asks how Victor knows, and Victor says, he was there. Unless the man has someplace to shelter, there’s nothing more he can do. The man says he guesses that’s the ballgame, puts his gun down, and asks if Victor likes bourbon. It’s from a distillery in Texas. It used to be in Texas anyway. He asks Victor to turn the record over. He says, it’s “Lemon Blind” Jefferson. He mostly played around Dallas in 1926 to ’29. Victor says he knows his history, and the man says he hopes so. He’s a historian, or he used to be. He was a teacher before the world did what it did. Victor puts the needle on the record, and asks if that’s where all of this came from. The man says, it came after. From museums, city halls… The flag is from the Alamo. He figured somebody should try to preserve history. Victor sees a medal around the man’s neck, and asks if he’s a religious man. He says, no; his wife was. She said it would protect him. So much for that. (I dunno about that; he’s still alive.) Victor says he gave one just like it to someone, a dear friend. The man asks what Victor was trying to protect them from, and Victor says, it’s complicated. The man says, now’s not the time to be cryptic, and asks Victor, who is he? What is he doing up there? What happened out there? Victor says they were trying to build a future, while the ones they were up against were trying to end it. He was trying to stop it. He should have stopped it. The man asks why he didn’t, and Victor says, it came down to two men. They had to give their lives to save everyone, and when push came to shove, one couldn’t. The man asks, why not? and Victor says, he wanted to survive. He wanted the tales of glory for himself, and consigned everyone to be destroyed trying to circumvent death. The man asks, which one was he? and Victor says, he was the one who ready to die. The man asks why he’s there. Why isn’t he with the rest of them? Victor says, something led him there, This must be the ending he deserved, or thought he did. They hear the warheads, and see one coming down in the distance. The man says he wishes they’d met sooner, and introduces himself as Howard. Victor says, he’s Morgan. Morgan Jones.
Grace watches the missile, and hears Morgan on the radio, telling everyone to make it mean something, and give themselves the end they want. She throws the radio, and rages a little. A title says: I can hear her. She looks into the submarine, and says she knows the ending she wants. She goes down the ladder. Morgan is cursing his life at the controls, when she comes in. He tells her that he said he’d keep trying. He’s got to make it happen. She says he can’t make stop, but he says, it’s not over. She says, they don’t know where the missiles hit, but it’s close enough. Even if they survive, with the radiation and fallout, the won’t want to live in this world. She’s seen what it does. It will be worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dying from radiation is extremely long and painful, and there will be no escaping it. He takes her hand, and she says she’s not watching it happen again; not to someone else she loves. That’s the problem with her. Don’t tell her it’s not too late. Morgan kisses her, and tells he that he loves her. She says she knows, and puts her gun on the desk. She says, please don’t make her watch it again, and he says, he thought he’d die in the gulch, but there was a reason he kept breathing. It was her. He wanted to take care of her, to build something for Athena. She says, it’s not going to happen. She’s sorry, but neither one of them were meant to be there. He says he’s sorry; he truly is. He’s sorry for them, and for what could have been. He actually let himself believe he could have a family again, be a husband… be a father. She says he can be, just not there. When Athena was born Grace wished so long to hear her cry, but it never came. She needs to hear her baby cry. They hear something outside, and Grace says, it’s the warheads separating. He picks up the gun, and says he’s sorry it has to end this way, but she says, it’s for the best. They hug, and put their foreheads together. He puts the gun against the back of his own head. We hear a baby cry, and Grace says, I can hear her. Morgan says, he can too, and they realize it’s a real baby, not Athena in their heads.
Outside, Rufus barks. He’s leading Rachel, who’s now a zombie. Morgan says, Rachel, and Grace grabs the dog. Morgan hesitates for a moment, but then stabs Rachel through the head with his pokey stick. He catches her as she falls, and takes Baby Morgan out of her backpack. I have literally never seen a head of hair like this on a baby this young; it’s amazing. Morgan laughs, and Grace hugs the dog. He says, it feels like a gift from Athena.
Wes and Sarah get out of the truck, followed by the others. Wes asks if Daniel is sure he had the right coordinates. Charlie says, there’s nobody here, and Daniel says he’s sorry. Sarah says, maybe Wen will be okay, and Riley says, he told them, there’s no escaping. Daniel grabs him, pulls him out of the truck, and throws him on the ground. He’s either knocked out or dead, and Wes goes through his pockets. Charlie looks up, and is the first to see the helicopter headed their way. Sarah says, sh*t in a sandbox, and Luci says, Daniel was right; she knew it. The helicopter lands, and they run to it. Sarah wonders who the hell it is, and the person on the passenger side says she’s glad they got the coordinates. Don’t ask the pilot any questions. The less they know, the better. She’s wearing a facemask, but we assume it’s Al. I also assume the pilot is Isabelle.
Dakota aims her gun at John again, and June says, please, but Dakota says she doesn’t have to change for anyone. John asks if he ever told June about the St. Louis Barnraiser, and she nods. He shoots in the air, and Dakota shoots at him, getting him in the arm, as June shoots the gun out of her hand. June and John go down into the tunnel, leaving Dakota and Teddy behind. Dakota asks if Teddy ever really gave a sh*t, or did he just need her to turn the key? He doesn’t say anything, and she shoots him, saying, that’s what she thought. She shoots him again in the head, and tells him, he said she should never change, and she’s not. Now, he never gets to see his ending.
Victor and Howard go to the window, and watch the warheads come down.
Dakota looks out, everything goes white. She’s been burned to a crisp, and I laugh.
John and June duck, and everything blows apart.
Dwight, Shari, and the family huddle together in the root cellar. They hear the door banging, but it suddenly stops.
Luci says, if they stick together, they’ll be fine. The helicopter takes off, and we see Wes has painted, This Isn’t The End on the road; the word End on Riley’s back. Riley gets up and walks away, as a mushroom cloud rises in the distance.
Everything is blowing up everywhere. Grace sees a dust cloud coming , and Morgan says, go! They run, Morgan holding the baby, and Rufus gets in a truck. As usual, the dog is my main concern. Morgan and Grace go under a car with Baby Morgan, and it looks like that move The Day After.
Victor grits his teeth and closes his eyes, but then it’s over. He and Howard they see mushroom cloud. Victor laughs, and Howard asks why he’s laughing. Victor says, because he’s alive. After everything he did, he’s still there. Howard says, everything he did? and Victor says he’s not the man he told Howard he was. He’s the other one. He’s not Morgan Jones; he’s Victor Strand. He’s a man who’s thrown other men to the wolves when it was necessary. He’s not afraid to the cut the cord when he’s had to. He’s a hustler and a backroom dealer, and he’s cheated if the opportunity presented itself. Howard asks, why? and Victor says, survival. He’s done it all his life. Despite the critics, he’s still there. He came from nothing, but he knows how to survive. He’s had to rebuild himself from the ground up, over and over again. They have a great future behind them. They can take that future and rebuild, with art, and books, and music, and good bourbon. It feels like the dawning of a new day to him. They look at the cloud, and Victor asks, how about Howard?
Grace coughs, and she and Morgan come out with the baby. They see a zombie going by, the back of him smoking (dubbed Backdraft Zombie by Talking Dead). Morgan waits for it to approach, and stabs it in the throat. They hear some popping sounds, and Morgan looks at Grace, and then Baby Morgan.
No preview, since this was the finale.
⚰️ So I’m thinking about this episode as I’m editing and listening to Talking Dead, where they’re talking about FWD having a new reality for its characters due to the bombings. And I thought, but wait, doesn’t this mean they’ll have to do the same for Walking Dead, and whatever other shows are connected to it in the same timeline or after?
💣 Victor’s Villainy…
I never thought of villains as necessarily being queer, but hey, why not?
https://ew.com/tv/colman-domingo-fear-the-walking-dead-zola-pride/
🧛🏼 Speaking Of Queer…
A wonderful list of horror films. This article also contains one of my favorite horror film titles of all time, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama. I’ve never actually seen it, but I have seen Tammy and the T-Rex, also on the list. It was… interesting.
📽 It’s Coming…
The latest on American Horror Story.
🐎 Country Wins…
Everything you ever wanted to know about this year’s CMT Awards, including the fashions of course.
https://www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards
⛸ Skating…
Finally, my dog saw the vet, after screaming, crying, and stamping my feet to get an appointment that wasn’t three weeks from now. Slight exaggeration, but I was persistent. His health issues were dealt with, so hopefully, I’m back on track now. Until we meet for soap and a sail, stay safe, stay resilient, and stay being a survivor, but without throwing anyone to the wolves like Victor.
What I Watched - TV With Theresa 