‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Season 8, Episode 8 Review: A New Low, Miraculously

I don’t know what to say at this point. Fear The Walking Dead just continues to get worse every episode. I know a lot of the fandom is singing the praises of Sunday’s “Iron Tiger” but I just can’t. This was as cringe as every other episode this season, and the fact that we’re mostly back to an OG cast doesn’t change the fact that none of these characters act like their old selves anymore. None of the dialogue rings true.

I actually “live-tweeted” this episode as I watched so you can run through this thread if you’d like. Obviously more detailed observations below.

(P.S. Like and retweet if you agree! Shout at me if you don’t!)

How bad was this episode? Let me count the ways:

• Iron Tiger, it turns out, is Charlie back from the dead. She was dying seven years ago from radiation poisoning from the nuclear bombs. Radiation is one of the showrunners’ favorite things. Others include, but are not limited to, magical walkie-talkies; trying to build a home; making up for the bad things we’ve done; trying to honor someone’s memory by A) building a home to keep people safe or B) making up for all the bad things we’ve done; long, stilted dialogue scenes filled with a cloying combination of exposition and melodrama.
• Anyways! Charlie is brought back so that Madison can be mad at her and do the exact same lunge-roar-angry Madison combo that she did with Troy last week. I laughed out loud. I know Kim Dickens can act. I just think she’s pretty terrible in Fear, and this is another example. I don’t like Madison and even though I complained with the how and why she was killed off, I wasn’t sad when she was gone. This show gains nothing from her return.
• Madison sends Charlie to kill Troy because she’s (understandably) pissed about her killing her son. Then she finds out that Charlie cremated Nick and she’s like “Oh I forgive you now come back!” and Charlie, er, Iron Tiger is like “I can’t, they captured me on the road!” and Madison, despite wanting Charlie to go in undercover, starts blabbing on the radio so Troy knows for sure Charlie is working for her. Smart Madison!
• Lol, sorry, I just keep thinking about Madison roaring and leaping at Charlie the exact way she leapt at Troy last week and it’s just so hilariously bad!
• Charlie also tells Madison that after killing Nick she did a lot of good things to make up for all the bad things she’d done. We should be playing Bingo or something with this stupid crap.
• Did you know the FTWD reddit is currently singing this episode’s praises. Some are saying “The show is back baby!” or “this is the best it’s been since Season 3” and to that I can only say: Have you lost your damn minds or did someone brainwash you? Do you need help? Are you in trouble?
• You know how Madison can barely go like six minutes without oxygen? Two thoughts: Why do you use a sledgehammer as a weapon if you can’t breathe properly? A knife might make more sense! Also, why is she breathing just fine standing in the smoke next to the burning tanker with Troy?
• ALSO: She goes to help Troy find his daughter, Tracy, and is basically all chill with him even though he said he killed Alicia but when she finds out that he’s the one chopping off zombie arms to trick her—wait for it—wait for it—wait for it—she roars and lunges at him, knocking him to the ground with her sledgehammer! Bahahahahahahahaha
• Strand, because reasons, pulls her off him and they once again let him live so they can get away.

Okay, time for the trigger warning. Mental health and suicide is discussed below.

Charlie kills herself this episode. So that Madison won’t tell Troy where Padre is. This is so messed up I’m actually angry. Not because I loved her character, but because it’s so stupid and so insensitive. It’s stupid because who cares if Troy finds Padre (more on this in a second). How is that worth a young girl’s life? Why not at least go out guns blazing!?

This is such a careless, shitty way to bring back a character and then kill her off. It’s insensitive because, hey, guess what? Suicide is a big deal that impacts a lot of peoples’ lives and you just used it for cheap drama.

Ian Goldberg, Andrew Chambliss, Scott Gimple and their enablers at AMC should be ashamed for this. I certainly won’t forgive them. Using suicide—by gun—as a cheap dramatic trick is just the lowest of the low, by far the lowest this show has ever gone. For this reason alone, this is now officially my least favorite episode of the entire run. There is simply no justifying this crap.

For shame! Shame on everyone involved in making this decision. Suicide is serious and should be taken seriously and to bring back Charlie just to have her kill herself to preserve the location of Padre??? I am truly disgusted.

The geography of this show is insanely stupid and nonsensical. Where is everyone? Padre is in Georgia, we’ve established, despite the survivors getting picked up off the coast of Texas. I guess Strand was also in Georgia at that hotel, because it can’t be far from Padre, given that they run into Luciana making gasoline (and reviving the whole “take what you need” box nonsense from Season 5 because of course she is) not far off. She’s been working for Padre, but of course none of the other characters knew this. For seven whole years.

But we know that this location can’t be far from Padre, either, both because of the logistics of the gasoline deal and because Madison showed up at Strand’s hotel. Which means, by the way, that Padre and Luciana and the hotel where Troy is now at are all close to one another, and yet Troy can’t find it for reasons. Worse, he knows it’s an island, which means he could just zip around the coast for a bit and he’d surely track it down. Or just, I dunno, listen to walkie-talkie chatter for twenty minutes maybe. What is this nonsense? Such contrived crap, and they kill off a teenage girl via suicide over it?

I would use stronger language if I could, but I do very much want the people responsible for this atrocity of television to know what I think. This is worse than just being talentless hacks. This is truly deplorable.

Daniel blames Madison after, as he should. He goes off with Luciana who wants no part of any of it, which she shouldn’t (though I dislike how she treats Daniel earlier on, though I’m also confused about their relationship after the end of Season 7 when she was lying to him about Charlie and Ofelia). Whatever.

Daniel tells Madison that there’s something fundamentally wrong with her and he’s done. Good for you, Daniel! Madison then gives Strand the keys to Padre, though I’m not sure he knows where it is, and walks off presumably to find Alicia or zombie Alicia.

Next week’s episode continues to prove that geography is a foreign word to these jokers. Somehow June and Sherry have made it to the Sanctuary I guess looking for Dwight. It’s a June / Sherry / Dwight bottle episode! Yay! What the final episodes of any TV show need are bottle episodes. Cool. Very cool. So cool.

Oy vey.

Bad acting. Bad writing. A silly story that just regurgitates the whole “build a place / find Padre / make up for the bad stuff” nonsense that has defined this show for five seasons. This is not how people talk. Not how they act. Not what motivates us. It’s not real. It’s a fake, plastic approximation of human beings and it’s honestly just very, very bizarre.