'Fear the Walking Dead' Season 6 Episode 3 Review: Al and Dwight are reminded of what is truly important
Spoilers for 'Fear the Walking Dead' Season 6 Episode 6 'Alaska'
With its third episode, 'Fear the Walking Dead' has comfortably settled into the anthology-style storytelling of this season and the series is all the better for it. This episode focuses on Althea Szewczyk-Przygocki (Maggie Grace) and Dwight (Austin Amelio) in a way that really highlights how numb the survivors have gotten to the apocalypse surrounding them, shaking that jadedness just enough for the both of them to realize what's most important.
While not bereft of walker threats, the episode proceeds at an almost gentle pace, revolving around two close friends in desperate search of lost connections and ending with a rare, sweet surprise of an ending.
In this episode, Dwight and Al go out on a recon mission for Virginia (Colby Minfie), but Al's got an ulterior motive — to find Isabelle (Sydney Lemmon), the mysterious CRM agent with whom she has formed a brief, but intense connection. Listening in on CRM radio channels, Al learns Isabelle's next expected location — on the top of a large office building.
Inside, Al and Dwight find another group of survivors, help them deal with disease, pick up a clue about the mysterious 'The End is the Beginning' cult and Al learns that the bond she shares with those she knows is stronger than the one she might have had with Isabelle. More than that though, in a delightful, surprising twist, Dwight has finally found his wife — Sherry (Christine Evangelista)!
As Dwight and Al try to collect passports off of walkers from all 50 states, it's subtly striking just how well the survivors have adapted to life in the apocalypse — how used they are to taking out those who used to be human. After 15 seasons of watching hundreds of walkers, this is only natural, so it's to the show's credit that it manages to effectively remind us of all that the zombie virus has taken away through the episode.
Another hard-hitting emotional moment was, in all likelihood, inadvertent. As Al talks about how much she wants to find Isabelle to experience one moment of living, and not just surviving the apocalypse, it's hard not to feel a certain kinship with her considering how much the pandemic has kept us from all of our regular lives. 'The Walking Dead' franchise — a world come undone by an unstoppable virus — has an unprecedented opportunity to have its viewers relate to a global pandemic.
While a zombie virus and the coronavirus are incomparable, the wear and tear it has on those living through it is something that nearly everyone can connect to. The episode also continues the season's innovative visions of the apocalypse. We've seen what effects gangrene has on walker senses and how covering a horde in molasses ramps up their threat level.
This episode, we see perfectly preserved walkers in a funeral home bringing back an eerie perfection to walkers usually only seen in the freshly dead, a new threat to survivors brought on by rats, and most entertainingly, a fight scene featuring walkers vs office supplies. Despite all this time, the fact that 'Fear the Walking Dead' is able to find new ways explore an apocalyptic world is impressive.
Despite offering resolution to two hunts that have, between Dwight and All, spanned seasons, this episode does a remarkable job of holding up on its own. The approach of 'Fear the Walking Dead' to telling self-contained stories tied together with a running thread is working strongly in its favor, bringing back a human element that is often lost in a wave of Big Bads, twists and character deaths.
The show is focusing on its storytelling above all else, and in many ways, it feels like it's just beginning to see what it's capable of. The next episode of 'The Walking Dead' airs November 1 at 9 pm ET on AMC.
