'Fear The Walking Dead' Spoiler-Free Review: Season 6, Episode 8 'The Door'
A bittersweet farewell.
Note: This is an early spoiler-free review of Fear The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 8. I will also be posting early spoiler-filled reviews here at my newsletter diabolical and I’d love it if you’d subscribe either to the free or premium versions. If you want to support independent journalism and no-holds-barred criticism please consider becoming one of the droogies and subscribing. If not, please consider signing up for the free option. Thanks!
Premium subscribers can read the full, spoiler-filled review of this episode right here.
Fear The Walking Dead’s new episode, The Door, picks up right after the events of Episode 7, which was basically a fake midseason finale. Production on the true midseason finale halted thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That means that this is the true midseason finale, and honestly it makes much more sense as one. The break between the events of the first 7 episodes of Season 6 and what goes down in episode 8 really doesn’t make sense, but that’s nobody’s fault. Blame the virus, not AMC or the showrunners.
‘The Door’ centers on John Dorie (Garrett Dillahunt), Morgan (Lennie James) and Dakota (Zoe Margaret Colletti), though we also get a brief scene with Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) as well as a few interactions with the Big Bad of the current season, Virginia (Colby Minifie). A handful of other characters, like June (Jenna Elfman) also make an appearance. But mostly, this is a John/Morgan/Dakota episode.
Without spoiling the particulars, I will say that it’s a rather somber episode, opening on a pretty bleak scene with John Dorie that, while beautifully shot, felt deeply out of character. When Morgan shows up later, he tries to convince John to go with him to his new Secret Base. Morgan’s goal last season was We Need To Help People To Make Up For The Bad Things We’ve Done™. This season it’s more of a Get The Gang Back Together, which I prefer.
In order to get back to the Secret Base, the three of them will need to work together against rangers, zombies and other obstacles using a mix of martial skills, grit and ingenuity. There’s some good action, some implausible automotive stuff, and a pretty crazy twist which I won’t get into here. Suffice to say, I didn’t see it coming even though I did have a bad feeling about this episode from the beginning.
As far as modern Fear The Walking Dead goes, this was actually a pretty good episode. I really do think the show has picked up quite a bit in Season 6 compared to Season 5 and 4B (and the second half of 4A). There are still some irritating details and plot holes that sneak up, but never anything so aggravating that I feel the need to rip my hair out and gnash my teeth and fling feces at the wall. No Mission To Fix The Plane; no Beer-Shaped Hot Air Balloon To The Rescue; no Why Don’t You Drink The Ethanol That’s Spilling Out Of The Goddamn Tanker You Bloody Idiots!?
Instead, we get a very human episode that ends with a shocking twist and a pretty major tragedy. I’m not exactly happy about the tragic ending, but I think they actually pulled it off pretty well, and certainly in a way I never would have seen coming. The final moments of the episode are probably the most this show has actually moved me in a good long time.
You can read my spoiler-filled recap and review right here. It’s for premium diabolical subscribers only, which makes it quite evil, but a little evil never hurt anyone. At least not we wicked few.
Peace out, my droogies.
Oh and sorry for the headline snafu. Got my season and episode numbers mixed up. I blame OrangeTheory.
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