Fear TWD Season 7 Premiere Recap: Victor’s Ego Trip Claims Its First Victim
Charlie Mason
Editor
In the Season 7 premiere of Fear the Walking Dead, Strand leaned so hard into his rediscovered villainy that it was a wonder he didn’t tip over. (And holy crap, did human charisma machine Colman Domingo play it to the hilt; he savored every self-satisfied line as much as his character did his confidence.) It took a minute to get to Victor, though…
First, “The Beacon” introduced us to Will (Dickinson vet Gus Halper), a woebegone twentysomething who looked just about ready to serve himself to a walker when he was apprehended by Strand’s henchmen and introduced to the blinged-out new king of the world. Since Teddy’s big blowup, Victor had turned the tower that he shared with Howard into a chic retreat, complete with a rooftop garden, art gallery, yoga classes and, based on the meal Will was served, an Olive Garden. And the young man could stay, Strand said, if he proved to be “of value.” (Crib from Virginia much, Vic?)
Immediately, Will blew his chance by questioning Strand’s self-assuredness. But then the newcomer snatched it right back by offering to show his majesty where he’d gotten the St. Christopher medal that Victor had given Alicia. Along the way, we learned more about Will, like that he’d only left the settlement where’s he’d hunkered down with the senator to whom he’d been an aide because he got kicked out. Ever since, he’d been trying to make amends.
“Don’t spend a moment trying to make things right,” scoffed Strand, all but sprouting devil’s horns. “Focus on showing them they were wrong.”
As Strand, his men and Will took shelter from nuclear rain under the bridge that the newbie called home, he accidentally revealed that he knew Alicia… just as they were attacked by what he called Stalkers, who looked like the sand people from Star Wars and apparently went around stripping the dead. In the end, Strand’s men were killed, Will was shot in the leg, and having spotted a clue that Alicia was at the Franklin Hotel, Victor had left him behind to seek out his old friend.
At a lighthouse — because why not? — Will, bum leg be damned, caught up with Victor and at gunpoint explained that he’d been testing Strand to see if he was worth saving. He and the senator’s crew had been holed up at the Franklin when Teddy’s scouts killed everyone. Well, everyone but him. (He’d been able to hide.) Then he’d gotten locked in with Alicia and the rest of the cultists. So why had she kicked him out? He’d refused to do something that would’ve protected everyone except for her. Bringing her Victor, he thought, might make amends. But “I doubt she would even recognize you” now, Will said
As if to prove the point, Strand attacked Will, who froze at the door rather than run for it. Was he scared of the walkers in the fog? No, they were the Franklin gang reanimated. For a hot minute, Will and Strand worked together to get the light going, and even saved one another in the fog. Since Alicia wasn’t among the walkers, they next made haste to the Franklin, where they found a note from her to Will. “Padre” was all it said. Who’s that? It might not even be a who, Will explained. And “it might not even exist.” (Tales from the cryptic.)
By and by, Victor deduced that Will had loved Alicia. Strand had, too. Maybe, they but mostly Will decided, they were supposed to find her together — or let her find them. To that end, they hauled the light back to the roof of the tower, where it immediately began drawing walkers. Will assured Victor that not only would Alicia find them, she’d be able to help him once again be the man that he was. Only he was far too pleased with this version of himself to want that. Besides, “she won’t have anything to do with me after this.”
After what now? Oooh, after Victor shoved Will off the roof. (Dang it, I liked Will.) Alone at last, Howard noted that the beacon would draw more than walkers — it might even catch Morgan’s eye. “I’m not worried about him or anyone else,” snickered Lex Luthor Victor. “Anyone who tries to get to me is gonna have to get through them” — in other words, the barricade of walkers that was forming around the tower.
So, what did you think of the Season 7 premiere? Bad Victor is extremely good Victor, no? Was anyone else sorry to see Will dispatched so quickly? On your way to the comments, grade the episode in the poll below.
I was terrified this entire episode that Alycia Debnam-Carey left the show between seasons due to being Australian and the pandemic and all the travel impediments because of it, and that they would indeed find her body among the walkers as the show’s way of writing out her character without having access to the actress to film anything new. Terrified. It really, really felt like that could happen tonight. So glad it didn’t.
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I hope they’re finally pulling the trigger on Strand going full adversary/villain. On the mothership, we’ve been watching a journey of a main enemy of our protagonists trying to be a better person and become one of them. On Fear, for some time now it’s felt like we’ve been watching a journey of one of our protagonists trying as hard as he can not to give into his worst nature and become an enemy to the people who were once his friends. This has been building for so long, I just really hope the show isn’t afraid to REALLY go there and do it. I get that Colman Domingo is one of the best things about the show, and they want to “preserve” his character to keep him around as long as they can. But you can’t write like that. The mothership never did, so long as it was adapting the comics, anyway. That’s the kiss of death, if you start to do that. Then again they killed John last season in a surprising and narratively excellent story turn, so I have hope.
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The last half season up to now have been among the best Walking Dead episodes ever made. Honestly. If people aren’t watching now, because of the show’s poor initial quality and the middling quality of season 5, that’s really too bad. Because wow.
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Strand, Alicia, Morgan, Grace, Daniel, June . . . even Dwight/Sherry, Al, John Sr., and Sarah, are all characters I care more about or are more interested in than anyone on the mothership at this point except Daryl and Carol (and Ezekiel, and maybe still Maggie).
This post-post-apocalyptic setup does not really makes me interested in more.
I actually liked the show when they drove around and helped people (yes, that was when most viewers did not like the show, but it was a nice contrast to the rest of TWD).
Such a sad unrecognizable mess they’ve made of this series.
Yeeesh.
So much potential.
Am I the only one that thinks The Walking Dead: the world beyond is awful in so many ways.
Nope, pretty much everyone does. In fact, AMC pretty much cancelled it before it even premiered.
And having it play back to back with TWD and FTWD instead of being a bridge show to watch when the other two are on break.
I’m at the point where I’m watching it in the background while my attention is more focused on smartphone games. After one full season plus of giving this show a chance, I do not care about the trials and tribulations of these characters or their world.
I kind of don’t hate Hope, and then I pretty much can’t stand anyone else. Even Annet Mahendru, who has been a highlight of everything else I’ve seen her in, is terrible in this. Ditto Julia Ormond. I second your “it’s on but I’m barely watching” habit.
I think every once in a while it has scenes that remind you of the Walking Dead World, mostly the walker scenes but it’s like a CW show and also a kinda woke sjw like show. What I mean by that is mostly the lame post-graduate humor and the “girls got the science” theme. The dialog is pretty ridiculous in a zombie show. Most of these people would have been the first ones to have died in an apocalypse. I don’t even remember if they revealed how they were first protected despite being such coddled type people. At least on the Walking Dead they did explain how Alexandria stayed protected for so long despite having such sheltered people living there. The nerding out on science stuff doesn’t fit in the Walking Dead, they seem better suited for Eureka then the Walking Dead. Dream sequences are absurd an cheapen the show.
I forgot most of the characters names but I kinda liked the gay guy because they made him capable and not effeminate but the scenes were his parents didn’t accept him even at the end of the world seemed unnecessary and just made him a part of the victim hood club which made me like him less. I didn’t care for his boyfriend either. I think it would have been more interesting if they had made him bi and had a friendship and sometimes fling with that actress from The Americans. I also thought he might have hooked up with that young con artist and that seemed interesting before he started flirting with the sister that says her lines slowly and like William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk.
I think they might have tried to retool the season two slightly when they realized how the first season wasn’t that well received but probably not by much since it was ending anyway. The show had potential but I don’t think anyone associated with the Walking Dead remembers anymore what made the Walking Dead such a unique interesting show when it first started.
I thought this season of Fear started out pretty interesting. I quit holding Fear to higher standards after Morgan showed up and it became a different show and it made me enjoy it more. Even more then the Walking Dead proper. When Fear started out in season one it was the show that I was afraid the Walking Dead was going to be when I first heard they were making a zombie tv series (and what it actually slowly started turning into after season 3) I now think of Fear as it’s own show somewhere between the Walking Dead and Z Nation. It’s made me enjoy it pretty well even if some things confuse me about why it’s actually happening. I just shrug it off and go with it.
I’m pretty interested to see where they’re going with the nuclear landscape this season. It’s also interesting that Gus Halper is the first person to have a nude scene in the Walking Dead shows. He teased a nude scene in Happy! but wasn’t completely shown. I’m not sure why he decided to let it be shown on Fear and not the SyFy show but I’m not complaining. Jon Bernthal, you could have been the first. The gay guy in the World Beyond could do the same and end the show with a bang, so to speak.
Im not surprised by Strand’s character change. This villain Strand in season 7 is totally reminiscent to the Strand from season 1 and 2, when I thought he was gonna be a consistent bad guy, and eventually killed off. I remember in season 1 how he verbally broke Travis’ neighbor down to tears in the military cage, how he cut the rope and left the 2 plane crash victims stranded at sea in season 2. (Alex and that poor unconscious boy with the burned face, Jake) I never forgave Strand for that and his actions in season 7 are totally unsurprising.
What a ridiculous episode. Introducing a new character only to kill him off at the end made no sense whatsoever. Shock TV just for the sake of it. Also turning Strand into a monster – what the hell is all that about! He has never been what you would call a ‘good guy’ but making him a complete psychopath is pushing it a bit too far. This show has well and truly jumped the shark.