Chapter three of Fear the Walking Dead season six is all about Al (Maggie Grace) and Dwight (Austin Amelio). In “Alaska” Al must decide between the life she has and the life she wants as Dwight almost gives up on the life he dreams of. This episode is directed by Colman Domingo.
Dwight is the second member of the The Walking Dead cast to crossover to Fear the Walking Dead. He and his wife Sherry (Christine Evangelista) were members of Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) Saviors. Sherry ran away after helping a prisoner escape the Saviors. And after the Savior war was over, Dwight set out to find her. He traced her to Texas and that’s when he met up with Morgan (Lennie James) and his friends.
Now Ginny (Colby Minifie) split up Morgan’s people to keep them from rising up against her. We know Morgan is alive and escaped Ginny’s bounty hunters. She told Morgan to stay away from her people or she would kill his. Threats don’t scare Morgan. But first he has to find everyone.
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CLEARED
Morgan recovered from his gunshot and paid a visit to Daniel (Rubén Blades) last week. He was able to bring back supplies for Rachel (Brigitte Kali Canales) and her baby girl, Morgan. Rachel is a little concerned about where he got the supplies. Morgan says he has a friend on the inside, but that friend doesn’t know where they are. No one will know until they are ready to get everyone out.
Morgan leaves Rachel to tend to the baby. He starts making a new weapon. Later he talks to Rachel about how people change so much now. He feels like he’s been 16 different people since the world ended. He says he’s going to find Grace (Karen David) and the others and bring them to their new home. But Morgan is scared that he won’t be the man that they knew. Rachel agrees that people changes, but he’s still the man they know. Morgan adds the ax head to his aikido stick and practices with the new weapon.
RECON MISSION
Al and Dwight are doing recon work for Ginny and were instructed to record everything. They find a funeral home and split up to see if there’s anything of value. While they look they are collecting drivers licenses from every state. Alaska is the hardest to find.
Al is carrying two radios, one for Ginny and one for Isabelle (Sydney Lemmon). Isabelle’s walkie goes off and Al hears her say she is headed to refuel at the Baker drop point.
Dwight meets back up with Al and radios in their location. The ranger tells him to figure out why the people there died, but Al thinks that’s a waste of time. Dwight also found a six pack of beer. They talk about Isabelle and Sherry while they drink. Dwight calls Isabelle the beer lady.
Isabelle’s walkie goes off in front of Dwight and he asks a lot of questions. Al admits that she’s been tracking Isabelle’s movements. She may have figured out where Isabelle could be. Dwight wants to find the beer lady, but Al doesn’t want her to get into any trouble. She has protocols in place that Al isn’t supposed to know. And if she goes AWOL, Ginny will kill them and their friends.
Dwight actually has a plan to escape. He’s been thinking about it for a while. All they have to do is find a walker, recently turned, mess up it’s face a little, and put the camera on it. Then tell Ginny that Al died. It’s his plan if he ever finds Sherry. Al says he’s crazy, but she’s talking to a man who walked halfway across the country because his wife left him a note. Good point. They decided to go to the city.
ALASKA
When they arrive in the city, Dwight finds a walker that fell off a building. Rats are eating the corpse, so Dwight smashes it’s head in. He checks the driver’s license and this guy is from Alaska. That’s a good sign. They go inside the building and find the message “The End is the Beginning.” We’ve seen that message before.
Al sets her watch for Isabelle’s arrival. They kill walkers as they walk through the building and find someone is keeping rats in cages. Al records the cages. They come to a blockade of walkers and decide to go through a floor to another fire escape. Two people are waiting for them with guns and a lot of questions. The woman, Nora (Devyn Tyler) says someone landed on the roof, shot the Alaska guy and he fell from the roof. These people think Al and Dwight might be with them, so they lock them in an office.
Dwight asks Al if it’s possible that the beer lady shot Alaska. Al says she has her protocols, but she wouldn’t let Isabelle see Dwight. And she doesn’t know if she wouldn’t get shot herself. Nora comes in and asks why they are recording places. Dwight says it’s so they can stop it from happening to the people who are left. Nora gives Al the camera and tells her to turn it on. They need help.
THE PLAGUE
The fifth floor is full of sick people. Nora says they’ve been sick for a couple of days. Al grabs Dwight and pulls him away. Dwight thinks they can help these people, but Al turns off the cameras. These people have the bubonic plague. They need antibiotics, but Ginny won’t take the risk.
Al and Dwight leave through the fire escape and block the door. Dwight wants to help, but Al heads upstairs. Dwight is the one who encouraged her to go after the beer lady after all. She says she can’t do what they are doing and call it living. Al says the last time she felt alive was with Isabelle. She wants to feel it again. Even if that means taking a risk that is just for a moment. They have three hours before Isabelle gets there, so they head upstairs.
They keep running into walkers and continue to check licenses. That game is a variation of a game that Al played with her brother on road trips. They tried to spot license plates from different states. Dwight wants to know what Al will say to the beer lady, if she puts the gun down. She wants to know what he will say to Sherry. Dwight is pretty sure that he will never see Sherry again.
RATS
Al sees a rat and they follow it. They hear more in the wall. Al knocks on the wall and it easily tears. She looks inside and sees the pipes are a clear path to the roof. They hear Isabelle on the radio and she’s almost to the destination. They crawl through the inner part of the building and run into a bunch of rats. The floor caves in and they fall into an office full of walkers. These people all died of the plague. They run into the bathroom and Al sees red spots on Dwight’s neck. He’s infected with the plague.
Al feels responsible for Dwight getting sick. She says it usually takes a couple of days for symptoms to show. He doesn’t think he got it in the building. He says there was a rat in his sleeping bag a couple of nights before. Dwight is determined to get Al to the roof, especially after all of the crap he went through to find Sherry.
ROOF ACCESS
They hear gunshots and Nora opens the door. She asks them to call their boss, but they insist it won’t do any good. Their boss won’t help them, even if Dwight is infected too.
There is roof access on the floor with the plague walkers, but it’s on the other side of the walker barrier. Nora says when things started, everyone stayed on the top floor. People started dying so they moved to the fifth floor. When people started getting sick, they stopped moving.
Dwight creates a small opening in the barrier. They kill the walkers one by one as the walkers trickle in. Nora kills the last walker and hesitates. She starts crying and asks Al not to record her people like this. No one should remember them like this. Al comforts Nora and asks what the Alaska man’s name was. His name was Mark. Al takes his license and gives it to Nora. Nora thanks her and leads her to the roof.
Al has five minutes before Isabelle arrives. Dwight promises to search every pharmacy he can find for antibiotics. Al asks Nora to make sure Dwight is okay. Dwight answers Al’s question from before. He doesn’t think he’d say anything to Sherry. He’d just hold her as tight as he can. Now Al gets to do that with the beer lady. He doesn’t think Isabelle will shoot her. Al starts to give Dwight her camera, but he says no. He left her a message for later. Al hugs him goodbye and thanks him for getting her there.
WARNING
Al gets to the roof and sees the CRM supplies. There’s two minutes left before Isabelle arrives. Al sits and watches Dwight’s message. He asks her to drink a beer for him and don’t forget the pretzels.
Al hears the helicopter in the distance. She grabs a flare and shoots it in the air. She takes the walkie and tells Isabelle to turn around. Al tells her that the people in the building are infected and it’s not safe to land. Isabelle asks if she’s infected, but Al does not know. To thank her, Isabelle tells her to grab a beer in the supply crates. Al says it’s good to hear her voice because there are many people left. Isabelle radios into command and changes course to another drop point.
Al searches the supply crates for the beer and finds a box of antibiotics. She radios Dwight and says to stay where he is. She delivers the antibiotics to the fifth floor. Dwight asks what happened on the roof. Al says she lost a brother once and the tapes were all she had left of him. She doesn’t want that to happen again.
FAMILIAR VOICE
Nora asks what their home is like. Al says she doesn’t want to go there, but they can find them someplace better. The whole group leaves the fifth floor in search of a new home. Al finds a spray paint can. She thinks someone brought the plague to the building via the rats.
Dwight says they should check in with the rangers. Al turns on the radio and a woman voice come son. She says she saw the flare and asks if someone is in trouble on the roof. Dwight grabs the radio and asks “honey is that you.” She replies with “Dwight?”
Dwight runs outside, to an alley and sees Sherry standing there. He runs to her and holds her. Al and Nora run outside and watch as Dwight and Sherry are reunited.
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THOUGHTS
This episode of Fear the Walking Dead is a great example of character development. There was just enough talk of past experiences to move the story forward, while giving the character an opportunity to make a tough decision. Al knows Isabelle would be forced to leave her on that rooftop. She also knows Isabelle could kill her. Either way, they wouldn’t be together. As much as Al wants to be with her, Isabelle is not available.
Dwight and Sherry’s reunion was so beautiful. I wasn’t a fan of Dwight before he joined Fear TWD. Knowing his story and how he and Sherry were separated before she left makes this one of the best reunions of the series. Let’s hope we get more of that. And let’s hope these two haven’t changed so much that they can’t be together.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
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