What I Watched Today
(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)
Fear the Walking Dead
We see the zombies beneath the tower. Inside, John says he needs to talk to Victor. He’s going to be straight with Victor; he has some concerns about how Victor is running this place. We see Howard rifling through drawers, and John says, from his days as a cop, he knows you’re only as good as your partner. Howard finds a walkie in a drawer, and John says he thinks Victor deserves a partner who knows which way is up. On the roof, a young woman is screaming as she’s dragged toward the edge of the roof. She says she didn’t do anything, but Howard says he found the walkie under her mattress. Victor nods, and she’s pushed off the edge of the roof. John says, Victor built this place using his instincts – we see more people being pushed of the roof – but he’s got a few of own that he’s willing to share if Victor is willing to listen. June says, it will never work. The only voice Victor listens to is his own. John says, and he has yes-man Howard who won’t question him, and she asks why he thinks Victor likes Howard. John says, what Victor likes and needs are two different things, and she asks what he means. He says, things are going sideways, and Victor is paranoid. Ever since Morgan poisoned him, he’s convinced there’s a resistance in the tower. That’s why he’s cracking down on walkies. Charlie calls to June, who says she’ll be right in. John asks about Charlie’s skin, and June says, it’s the radiation. He asks how she’s doing, but June doesn’t say anything. He says, there’s nothing that can be done? and June says, not at Charlie’s level of exposure. All they can do is keep her comfortable for whatever time she has left. He says, what happened to Charlie doesn’t have to happen to anyone else. He can get through to Victor. He just needs the right opportunity. He thinks he can change Victor. She asks what makes him think Victor won’t change him, and John says, he won’t, but she says, look what happened to his son. He tried to beat Ginny at her own game, and it killed him; nobody got saved. A ranger comes in, and tells John that they found another walkie – in Howard’s room. He leaves, and John says, he told June that he just needed the right opportunity, and he thinks he just found it.
John knocks at Victor’s door, and Victor asks what he can do for him. John says, he’s going to be straight with Victor. He’s got concerns about how Victor is running this place.
On the roof in a thunderstorm, Howard swears it’s not his. Victor says, it was found in Howard’s room, but Howard says, Victor knows him. Victor says, does he? and Howard says he’s been by Victor’s side since the beginning, but Victor says, perhaps Howard has joined the dissenters. Howard says, this place means everything to him, and Victor says, Howard knows the rules. Howard says he didn’t do this, and Victor says he needs people he can trust. Howard no longer fits that description. Howard says, someone planted it, as he’s pushed toward the edge of the roof. Victor’s guys are about to pitch him over, but Victor gives them the sign to stop. He tells Howard, regardless of how it got there, he doesn’t believe a word Howard says until he has proof, and John will get it for him. The house (tower? roof?) phone rings, and Victor tells John to answer it. John says, when?… Are you sure? He tells Victor, they’ve got a problem.
Mo’s crib is empty, and Victor says, infants don’t vanish in to thin air. Howard says he’ll find her; let him do this. Victor says he doesn’t trust Howard, but Howard says, let him show Victor that he can. Victor can put rangers on him to make sure. Victor tells him to retrieve the child by sunrise, or he’ll finish what was started on the roof. Howard says he’ll find her, and Victor asks John for a word. He says he’d like John to find the baby, and John says, he just told Howard to find her. Victor says, Howard could be stalling, and he wants to hedge his bets. He’s seen the Dorie spirit in action. He once saw John’s son build a raft out of a broken down truck just to get back to June. He understands John has a desire to recalibrate things here. John says, people are getting hurt who don’t need to be, and Victor says, the tower is bigger than either one of them. It’s the way he’ll be remembered; his legacy. John says, maybe it will be Victor’s legacy, or maybe his downfall, and Victor asks, how so? and John says, he knows what it’s like to do the right thing for the wrong reason. It doesn’t end well. Victor says he’s willing to listen, but he wants to see if John can deliver where Howard didn’t.
John grills Mo’s nanny, June, Grace, Wen, and Wes separately, and they all say they don’t know where Mo is. Wen asks if John really thinks he could keep a baby secret. John says, Mo was taken shortly after Wes came, but Wes says he doesn’t know anything. Grace asks why she’d take Mo, and John says, she doesn’t want Mo to grow up there. June asks what this is really about, and he says, making sure the baby is safe, but she says, that’s something that will never happen here. He asks if she knows something. Does she know where Mo is? June says, they both want the same things, but the only way to get them is to take out Victor. He asks what she did with Mo, and she says, Morgan won’t make a move as long as the baby is here. Victor knows that. If he loses her, he loses his leverage. John asks if she’s sneaking the baby out. Victor is right; the resistance is real, and she’s part of it. She says, the less he knows, the better, and John says, talk to him; maybe he can help. She says, if he really wants to help, keep Howard distracted; she’ll do the rest. John says, Howard’s not part of this? and June says, she didn’t plant the walkie. He asks if she’d tell him if she had, and she says she has to go. As she leaves, he sees her wet boot prints.
John reaches toward an artifact on Howard’s desk, but Howard says, don’t touch. John says, Howard has quite a collection, and Howard says he has no time for this; he has to find the baby. John says, so does he. Victor asked him to look too. Howard says, Victor didn’t mention it, and John says he doesn’t blame Victor after the walkie was found in Howard’s room. Howard says, it’s not his. Whoever put it there is getting what they want. John says he believes Howard, but has to question him like everyone else. Howard asks if John would like a drink, but John says he doesn’t touch the stuff anymore. Howard says, suit himself. What does he want to know? John says, from what he heard on the roof, there’s a great deal he doesn’t know about Howard. Howard says, like what? and John says, for starters, Howard never struck him as a family man. Howard asks, why not? and John says, let’s call it a general lack of compassion and restraint. Howard says, this is coming from a man who abandoned his own son, but John says, they’re not talking about him. Victor mentioned that Howard had a wife and son; where are they? Did they get split up after the bomb? Howard says, his wife left him before the world did what it did the first time, and took his son with her. John asks, why? and Howard says, the Travis letter. William Barrett Travis, on second day of the siege of the Alamo, wrote a letter asking for reinforcements, signed, victory or death. John asks what that has to do with it, and Howard says, it’s one of the most famous documents in the history of Texas. He discovered an addendum that made him the toast of the historical community. He gave lectures all over the world, spending months away. John says, sounds like quite an achievement, but Howard says, he’d forged it. Now the same papers that praised him were smearing his name. He came home one day, and his wife was at the door, and her bags were packed. John says, all over the letter, and Howard tells him, she said he was more concerned with making history than with making a life for her and their son. He has made history in this place. His wife and boy are out there, and if they find the tower, that history will be their life. What John calls lack compassion and restraint, he calls building a legacy. There’s a knock at the door, and a ranger says, they’ve covered a five-mile radius, and combed the place. Howard says, comb it again, and asks John if they’re done. John says, those people Howard has thrown off roof, how do they fit in his legacy? Howard says he’s not proud of everything he’s done, but if it all leads to his family finding this place, it will be worth it. John says, and if they don’t? but Howard says he doesn’t like to think about that. That will mean everything he’s done has been for nothing.
In the basement, June stabs zombies standing between her and an exit through a tunnel (it looks like a pipeline). John comes down, and she asks how he knew she was there. He says, her boots were muddy, and he knows it’s muddy there when it rains. He hears Mo crying, and looks in a bin, finding her. He asks why June is hiding her, and she asks if it matters. He sees some pseudo armor, and asks what it is. She tells him, protection, and he asks if she thinks it will protect her out there. She says, it’s worked before, and he asks if she thinks she can do the same thing as the wrestler lady. She says she hopes she doesn’t have to, but if that’s what it takes… He says, it’s not safe, but she says, about a half mile out, Morgan is ready to take Mo as soon as she’s out. Water suddenly gushes in, pushing June and John back, along with the railing holding the zombies back. The zombies pour in with it. June gets trapped by the guardrail, and John shoves them back. He takes out his gun, but it’s knocked out of his hand. He frees her, and they hold the rail between them and the zombies. He takes Mo out, and says, they need to get to the elevator. She asks what he’s talking about, and he says, he can’t let her leave. She has to help him.
John tells her, they have to get moving before more wash in. He thinks he can get to his gun, but June says she thought he came to help her. He says he came to help Mo, and he starts to sing to the baby. June asks, what’s that? and he says, a song he used to sing to John. He puts Mo back in the bin, and says he needs to do something he couldn’t do for his son, and she says, she gets it. She’s lost a child. She needs to give Mo the best chance she can get. He says, she has that with Victor, and they need to get her upstairs before Howard finds them. She asks if he’s been drinking, and he wonders why she’d say something like that. She says, he’s not making sense. Victor won’t listen to him. He says he has to do this. He’s the one who set everything in motion. He planted the walkie. He knew it was the only way he could get Victor to listen to him over Howard. She says, he’s doing the same thing again. It’s like how he planted the purse to make sure Teddy went to jail. It destroyed him. Don’t make the same mistake again. He says, the last time he did the wrong thing for the right reasons, he abandoned his son. He won’t do that to Mo. What happened to Charlie won’t happen to her. He’ll make the place for her that he should have made for his boy. Things can change. She says, not while Victor’s in charge. He knows she’s right. He says he’s going for his gun, and she tells him to guard Mo with his life. He asks what she’s going to do, and she says, get through them the way Mickey did. She yells, go! and John says, they’re not going make it, but June tells him to go before more come. If he wants to help Mo, this is how. He runs in, and fishes for his gun in the water. He finds it, and shoots several zombies, but only has one bullet left. He and June block themselves back in, and June says she had a way out. He says, she still does. Whoever was going to help her escape, call them. She says, why? and he says, they don’t want to leave. Mo will die outside. She says, not if they’re careful, but he says, it didn’t matter to Charlie or him. He shows her radiation burns on this stomach and chest, and says he doesn’t have much time. She gets on a wall phone, and tells Grace that she needs some help.
June asks why John didn’t tell her sooner, and he says, it wouldn’t have made any difference. She asks how it happened, and he says, when he was bringing Charlie back. He got exposed to the same thing she did. He was careful and quick, and it still got to him. Like it or not, this is the only place Mo is safe. He doesn’t have much time… She says, he doesn’t know that, and he says he thought John Jr. was his legacy; he can’t lose another child. He can’t have that be the last thing he does. June and Grace can keep her safe and control Victor. There’s gunfire, and the zombies drop. Victor is there with Howard and a couple of rangers, and Howard says he caught Grace in the elevator. He asked why she was on her way down, but she wouldn’t say. They’ve identified the resistance, and it’s exactly who they thought it was. John says, it’s not what it looks like, and Howard says, he’s sure. Howard hears Mo, and laughs. He takes away the railing, and moves June out of the way, taking Mo out of the bin. He says he told Victor that he’d find her, but Victor says, he didn’t find her; John did. This is what I like to call a Haman backfire, which can be found in the Book of Esther. Victor takes Mo, and Howard follows him out.
On the roof, Victor says, what they’re building is a civilization. No civilization can stand without a unified people. Howard says he’s been with Howard since the beginning, and John says he believes in this place. He believes it’s the best way for the child to survive. Howard says, John is lying; he was trying to help June escape. Victor tells John to show him that he believes in the tower; push Howard over the edge. Howard says, they had a deal, and Victor tells Howard, he said he’d spare him if he found the baby, and he didn’t. Any faith he’s had in Howard eroded since finding the walkie. Howard insists it’s not his, and John says, Howard is right. He doesn’t deserve this. John admits to planting the walkie, and Howard tells Victor you see? Victor says, wait. John framed Howard in order to gain audience with him? He laughs his Victor laugh, and says, wow. He underestimated John. You don’t do something like that unless you’re invested. He still needs John to do that other thing he asked him to do. John says he won’t, but Victor says, he will, or Victor will bring June or Grace up here. John tells Howard, he’s sorry, but Howard did the same to others for less.
Bye Howard.
Victor tells John that he woudn’t worry too much about Howard’s family. They’ll never find this place; they’re dead. His scouts found out months ago. John says, and Victor said nothing? Why? Victor says, that’s what drove Howard to help build this place. Everyone needs something to drive them. Howard’s apartment is all John’s now; consider it a signing bonus. What John said, you’re only as good as your partner… Here’s to a great partnership.
In Howard’s apartment, John throws up, then washes his face. He looks at the framed letter, and a framed photo of Howard and his family. He looks at bottle of bourbon, and pours a glass. He drinks it, sighs, and pours another. He sees his reflection in the photo, and puts the photo face down. He drinks some more, when Victor comes in with Mo. Victor says he thought John was off the sauce, and John says he was. Victor says, far be it from him to judge. Pour one for him. He puts Mo in a crib, and John pours him a drink. Victor says, to our future, and they drink. Victor tells him, feel free to junk this stuff. Howard certainly has no use for it anymore. He puts on the turntable, and classical music plays. He turns the volume up, and John asks, why so loud? Victor says, so they’re not overheard. He doesn’t want what happened today to ever happen again. Things need to change. John asks if Victor is ready to listen to his ideas, and Victor says he has ideas of his own. He knows Grace was in on what happened, as was June. He’s remanding Mo to his sole custody permanently. John asks how that’s going to work, and Victor says, she’ll be raised in the penthouse by him with no outside interference. John says he can’t keep Mo away from her mother, but Victor says, her mother is dead. Grace is a stand-in. John asks how he fits in, and Victor tells him, do whatever he needs to in order to ensure no one takes the baby. John says, that baby is never going give Victor what he wants, and Victor says, what is that? John says, to love him, to look up to him. And the the more he wants it, the more he fights for it, the more he’ll end up driving her away. Victor reminds John of what happened with his own son, and John asks why Victor thinks he’s trying to get through to him. If Victor wants Mo to love him, let John help him change how he does things here. Victor says, when he wants John’s counsel, he’ll ask for it, and John says, Victor was never going to listen, was he? Victor says, like he told John before, everyone needs something to drive them. What John did today will echo into the future. It will outlive him, and be his legacy. Victor turns, and John cracks him across the back of the head with the butt of his gun. He says, no it won’t. This place isn’t his legacy; she is. He radios Morgan, and asks if Morgan is still close by. Morgan says he’s just beyond the wall; why? John tells him to stay where he is, and picks up Mo. He says he’s bringing her to Morgan.
John is dressed in various armor Howard had on display, and June says she can take Mo, but he says he wants to do this. Wen asks if they should gut John up, but John says, they don’t have time, and it’s not safe for Mo. Wen says, John has brass cojones, but John says, it’s not about him. Grace tells Mo, be brave, and John puts her under his breastplate. Grace says, don’t stop until he gets to Morgan, and John says, there are a lot of things he got wrong in life; this won’t be one. He tells June, it’s never too late, and thanks her for helping him remember that. She kisses his cheek, and Grace tells him, wait. She shows him a recorder, and says, Mo likes when she sings to her; it sooths her. John says, his son was the same way.
Wes rouses Victor, who sits up, and says, where is he? Where is the baby? Wes hands him a drink to take the edge off, and Victor takes a sip. Wes says, the rangers are combing the tower; they’ll find her. Victor says, the tunnel is flooded; there’s no other way out. Wes notices that the armor is gone, and says, there is one.
John barrels through the zombies, as a tape of him and Grace singing a duet of Sonny Boy plays. We see zombie Howard struggling along the ground. Poor Howard. Still groveling, even in zombieland. John just keeps walking.
Wes looks through binoculars, and spies John. He calls Victor over and asks what Victor wants to do. Victor says he thought he found a new partner. He wanted to make this place better, and John disappointed him. That’s what people do. Wes asks if he’s still looking for a new partner, and Victor says, there’s an old antenna in storage. Bring it to him,
John walks as Sonny Boy plays. Morgan waits.
Rangers run through the tower. Grace cries, and the rangers round up her, June, and Wen.
John gets through to Morgan, who says, Mr. Dorie. He takes Mo, and says, they need to move, but John says, not yet. Morgan asks, why not? and John shows Morgan that he’s been bitten. He says he can buy Morgan some time, and Morgan says he’s sorry. John says, take care of her, and walks into the crowd of zombies, who pull at him. Mercifully, we don’t have to watch his end.
Victor asks, is it ready? and Wes says, it’s done. Victor asks for a walkie, and radios Morgan, saying, You may have won the battle today, but the war is just beginning. He has people Morgan cares about – June and Grace – and if Morgan takes a step into this place, Victor will kill them. Morgan looks back for a millisecond, then keeps walking. Victor says, as for the rest of you, you know who you are. The offer to join him still stands. He needs good people to help secure the future of this place. If you’re listening, you know where to find me.
The song continues.
Next time, Morgan knows the tower is unguarded until dawn; Dwight says, they’re outgunned; Alicia has a plan, and asks Morgan to trust her; and the tunnel caves in.
❗️ I’m so not thrilled about the depressing turn this show has taken. Where is the fun villain with the twinkle in his eye? When did he get replaced by this lunatic throwing people off the roof? And a villain like that is fine, but Victor did a 180. Why? <stamps foot> I want to know.
⚰️ Fear Conjecture…
Theories on Alicia’s fate.
💐 Dead End…
On why Carol should end when TWD does.
https://screenrant.com/walking-dead-final-season-11-carol-death-best-ending/
🗣 Desired Return…
She was cool, but if they’re bringing back Whisperers, how about Beta? I still feel cheated out of his backstory.
📖 Another Hat…
I’m not sure what to make of this side hustle, but who knows?
👠 Dead Stunning…
She does look gorgeous. The way one should at the Met Gala. She might have been in a horror show, but she didn’t look like one… like some of them did.
🧜🏽 Head Fulla Dreams…
Dead being done for now, see you tomorrow for soap and the returned Deck. Until then, stay safe, stay being prompt unless you have a damn good excuse, and stay remembering, it’s never too late.
What I Watched - TV With Theresa 