A storm has hit Fear the Walking Dead, literally and figuratively.  When we returned for the second half of season four, there was a lot of uncertainty…particularly for Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey).  Alicia has lost the only two people in the world that she loved, because of Charlie (Alexa Nisenson).  Despite everything that Charlie did, her life was spared.  Now Alicia wants to be left alone. Can she get past such a major loss?  

RELATED: Read the Latest Recap of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, “People Like Us”

The last time we saw Alicia, she left Morgan (Lennie James) in the storm.  She finds shelter in a nearby house, she searches the house. Alicia finds a big bedroom with a balcony.  Out on the balcony, there is a walker that has been impaled by a tree. She doesn’t kill it, instead leave it dangling on the tree. She goes back downstairs and finds four walkers inside and quickly disposes of them. 

Alicia drags the bodies outside and lays them side by side.  When she goes back into the house, Alicia takes all of the family photos and throws them in a basket. She sets the basket near the bodies.  In the house, she hears a bump coming from upstairs.  She tells whoever is in the house with her to leave. She just wants to be alone.  

Charlie busts out of a closet, but Alicia catches her.  Charlie is able to get away and runs into one of the bedrooms and locks the door. Alicia asks Charlie if she followed her there and tells her that she can’t be there. Alicia just wants to be alone.  Charlie doesn’t answer. 

Fear the Walking Dead

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 10 – Photo Credit: Ryan Green/AMC

Alicia runs downstairs, packs all of the food that she can carry in her backpack. She finds a set of car keys and goes to the car sitting outside.  She has trouble opening the car door. The wind hits and the car door flies open, knocking out Alicia. 

Alicia wakes up inside the house. She goes to the bedroom where Charlie is hiding and asks why she saved her.  Charlie won’t answer her. Alicia gets angry and tells Charlie she is to blame for what happened to her family.  It was Charlie that brought the Vultures to the stadium. Madison (Kim Dickens) died saving Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia.  Then Charlie shot Nick. Alicia describes what it was like to watch Nick die.  She reminds Charlie that Nick was trying to save her.  

Charlie listens on the other side of the door. Alicia says she won’t send Charlie out in the storm.  But might kill her if Charlie stays. Charlie pulls out a gun. Alicia says she is trying to be like her mom.  If she kills Charlie, she loses the last part of Madison that is alive in her. Alicia thinks about it. She won’t let Charlie take that away from her.  Alicia says Charlie make be a kid, but she knows what she did and that makes her an awful person.  She says she hopes Charlie lives to be old, so she will remember what she did, who she is, and that she can never make up for it. Alicia makes Charlie cry.

Alicia goes back downstairs and hears a knocking outside.  The window shutters are flapping against the house.  Alicia goes to the basement and finds lumber and nails. She tries to nail the shutters to the house, but can’t hold the shutter closed.  She stops and sees the bodies of the family have been covered up.  The basket of pictures is gone too.  

Charlie sits in the bedroom, drying off the pictures.  Alicia comes in and asks why she covered up the bodies.  She says she put the photos outside for a reason. Does Charlie know these people?  We’ll never know because Charlie still isn’t talking. Alicia makes her go outside with her to hold the shutters while Alicia nails them down.  The noise cause walkers to approach the house, so they have to go back inside. 

Fear the Walking Dead

– Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 10 – Photo Credit: Ryan Green/AMC

Alicia boards up the door so the walkers can’t get in.  She tries to open the flue while Charlie stands in the corner watching the walkers at the window.  Alicia tells Charlie to go upstairs, but leave her coat.  Charlie tries to walk past her with her coat still on, but Alicia stops her. Alicia yells at Charlie to remove her coat.  Charlie obeys and Alicia finds the gun. She asks Charlie if that’s the same gun she killed Nick with.  No answer.  Alicia holds the gun to Charlie’s head.  She says she didn’t want to be around Charlie and asks if Charlie came there to kill her.  Charlie shakes her head, so Alicia tells her to go away.

Charlie starts looking at the photos again. She hears a walker outside of the window and sees the impaled walker. She walks out on the balcony to get a closer look. Downstairs, Alicia is trying to light a piece of paper to start the fire, but a gust of wind blows out the flame.  On the balcony, Charlie gets close enough for the walker to grab her shirt and try to pull Charlie toward it.  Alicia yells out “no!” and pulls Charlie away from the walker and back inside the house. 

Alicia sits with Charlie at the dining room table, looking at the gun.  She figures out that Charlie was carrying the gun for herself.  She says she can’t think of a good reason to keep going. Charlie might have the right idea, but Alicia won’t let her do it.  Charlie finally speaks and asks why Alicia saved her.  Alicia says she has to live with with she did. She doesn’t get off the hook that easy.  Charlie looks sad, so Alicia asks what she wanted to hear.  Did Charlie want to hear that Alicia saw something in her? Or that she forgives Charlie? Whatever Charlie is looking for, she won’t get it from Alicia. She has to live with what she has done, just like Alicia does. 

Fear the Walking Dead

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 10 – Photo Credit: Ryan Green/AMC

Charlie asks how long the storm will last, but Alicia is from California, so she wouldn’t know. They get ready to eat.  Charlie tries to ask Alicia about California and the beach.  Alicia snaps her, asking why it matters.  Charlie gets quiet, so Alicia asks if she’s ever been to the beach.  Charlie tells her that her family planned a trip to Galveston, Texas. She looks for stories about Galveston when she reads, but she never finds anything. Alicia says the beach is just like everywhere else. She ends the conversation telling Charlie to go to bed.

Alicia wakes up and Charlie is gone. She finds Charlie in the bedroom again, gathering the photos.  She tries to make Charlie go back downstairs, but Charlie won’t go. Charlie says someone might come back for the photos. Alicia says no one cares about these people. No one is coming. Charlie says she can’t make up for what she did. Alicia says saving the photos won’t make her feel better. 

Alicia goes downstairs to start another fire. She cools down a bit.  She thinks about her mother’s words, no one is gone until they’re gone. Alicia wants to believe that too to feel better, but she doesn’t.  Because sometimes, when people are gone, they’re just gone. And those people are gone. Charlie asks why Alicia cares if she saves the pictures.

Fear the Walking Dead

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 4, Episode 10 – Photo Credit: Ryan Green/AMC

They are interrupted by a crash. A tornado breaks the window and carries the walkers away. Alicia grabs Charlie and they run to the basement, but the water has risen. They turn to go back upstairs, but a bunch of debris crashes in the door, throwing them into the water.  Alicia finds another door, but they can’t open it because it’s locked from the outside.  They are trapped in the basement.  

Alicia tries to break the windows, but the windows are reinforced.  She sees a chest in the water and pulls it out. She tells Charlie to stand on top. The water is quickly rising.  Charlie gets scared. She tells Alicia that she saw her parents after they turned.  And now she can’t remember what they looked like before.  Charlie wishes she had picture of them. She asks Alicia if she still has the gun.Alicia says she can’t do that, but Charlie tells her to do it. She can’t make up for what happened to Madison and Nick. Charlie says she won’t make it and she doesn’t want to turn.

Alicia holds the gun to Charlie head and closes her eyes. She sees flashes of memories of Nick and Madison.  She starts crying saying she can’t do it, she can’t kill Charlie.  They hear a loud crash and see the second door pushed in.  Alicia and Charlie are able to push the door open and get out.  Alicia sees a walker heading toward them and shoots it.  Charlie points out that it’s the impaled walker. It feel from the tree and that cause the door to break open. That walker saved them. 

The next day, Alicia buries the bodies. She takes a few of the photos, puts them in a jar and lays it next to the graves.  Charlie asks if Alicia did that for her. Alicia says she did it for the people who can’t come back.  Charlie found Alicia’s knife in the house. Alicia tells her to keep it.  Charlie says she sees Madison in Alicia, even if she can’t.

Alicia tells Charlie that she left Morgan in the storm. She left everyone.  Charlie is good at finding things, so they leave the house to check on everyone else. While they are driving, Alicia tells Charlie to close her eyes. She says the beach was one of her favorite places to go. She’s going to take Charlie there. 

Alicia describes what it’s like to drive to the beach. She tells Charlie to smell the salt in the air, hear the waves, feel the sand between her toes, and to feel the cold ocean water.  Charlie sees it in her mind, the water is blue and the waves are huge. She also sees her parents, the way they were before.  

They go to the mansion first, but Strand (Colman Domingo) and Luciana (Danay Garcia) are gone. They head to Morgan’s truck and it has damage.  Charlie finds the bus turned over and damaged.  June (Jenna Elfman), John (Garret Dillahunt) and Al (Maggie Grace) are missing. Charlie says they have to find everyone and save them.  Alicia points out that they don’t know if they are alive. So they are gone.  Alicia says thing don’t get better, they only get worse.  But they don’t have to be around to see how bad it can get.  A walker approaches. Alicia kills it and they leave. 

RELATED: Catch up with Season Four of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD Here!

Thoughts

This was a very emotional episode.  Alicia needed to find a reason to forgive Charlie or kill her.  Charlie needed to discover her will to live.  Both ladies would only find that in each other.  Alicia still has a long way to go though. She thinks things can only get worse, which is not her mother’s outlook. She has to find her way back to a positive outlook.  Charlie seems okay now that she realizes she wants to live, but she still has to live with the guilt of killing Nick.  I see Charlie coming to terms with her situation before Alicia does. 

So what happened to the others? Did they survive?  I’m pretty sure June and Al did. That’s a durable vehicle that they are in.  Morgan, John and Strand…they are very resourceful, so I’m not worried about them.  But Luciana?  She ran after Charlie, into the storm. She wasn’t in the mansion, so where could she have gone?  

And where are these new people we keep hearing about?  I hope we meet them soon.  

 

Noetta Harjo
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