Fear the Walking Dead season 6 finale recap: Going out with a bang
Fear the Walking Dead had its big Far Cry 5 moment in season 6 with the introduction of Teddy and his cult followers, and it came to height leading into the finale episode, "The Beginning," when he launched the submarine missile with its warheads to start that thing he's been preaching about. (See the title of the episode.) Now, with fiery oblivion threatening to rain down on everyone, each character scrambles to either find shelter or accept their fates as they hear Morgan's voice making proclamations over the radio.
Rachel: It begins with Rachel, who hits a flat tire on the road with her baby when she hears Morgan over the radio and sees the missile flare into the sky. She attempts to fix the car, but gets up snapping her leg when it's crushed by the tire. Fearing for her baby's life, she puts the child in her sling, ties herself to Rufus, and kills herself, hoping the dog will lead her zombified corpse to other people.
Daniel, Luciana, Charlie, Jacob, Wes: The group scrambles to find shelter, but their hoped-for safe zone is pooling with walkers. So that's a no. In comes Rollie with one of Teddy's followers, Riley, in tow. He claims Riley gave up the goods and will lead them to the bunker where Alicia is being kept, but that's a lie. Daniel has a feeling as they are en route and questions Riley as the team hustles to fix the SWAT van. Daniel kills Rollie after surmising he was a mole who fed information about their group to the cult. Charlie fires a bullet at Riley in the commotion but doesn't kill him. Time for Plan B: Daniel heard coordinates over the radio about shelter. He recognized the voice, but couldn't pinpoint who it was exactly.
They make it to the place, but there's no one and nothing to be seen. As Riley dies, succumbing to his wound, in flies a CRM helicopter with a masked pilot. She tells them not to ask questions but offers them safe passage in the chopper just as the missile's warheads are landing. The pilot is Isabelle, sent by Al.
Dwight, Sherry: Rather than find shelter like most of the others, this pair rides up on a house that appears to be abandoned. It looks like the kind of cabin where Sherry imagined they could've had a life together. If this really is the end for them, she wants to have a beer with Dwight and relax on the porch. As she's blaming herself for wasting the time they could've been spending together rather than dwelling on the past, the family who owns the house accosts them. They mention they have a storm shelter, but that a couple of "jacka--es" came up with guns and stole it from them. Dwight and Sherry vow to reclaim the shelter. They lure out the men, who turn out to be followers of Teddy. The pair kill one but leave the other one with bullets in his legs so that he can watch the destruction he helped bring about. Dwight and Sherry then join the family and hide in the shelter, which holds strong against the violent dusty-filled wash from the warhead blast.
Teddy, Dakota, June, John Dorie, Sr.: Teddy drives Dakota up to a hilltop so they can bask in the fruits of their destructive labor, but in comes John Dorie, Sr. and June. They try to convince Dakota to come with them by offering forgiveness for killing John Dorie. During the commotion, John finds the opening of a bomb shelter, revealing to Dakota that Teddy never planned to die during the explosion. He admits that he wants Dakota to survive with him and start anew, but Dakota is seriously rattled. As the warheads veer closer, June and John are forced to go into the shelter when Dakota refuses to go with them. But she does kill Teddy for lying to her. She then peers out over the land to watch the end, and the blast incinerates her body.
Victor: After totally botching the save-the-world plan and trying to kill Morgan, Victor finds himself at a building where he fights through walkers to make it to the top floors. There, he discovers something he wasn't expecting: he meets a man named Howard, a former historian who's been trying to preserve as much of history and culture as possible. Victor lies to him, claiming to be Morgan and that he tried to stop the missile launch. The two share some whiskey as they prepare for the end, but, as it happens, the warheads land too far away to kill them. Victor, of course, takes the wrong message from the outcome. He reveals his true self to Howard and claims they can start again with all the history Howard has been collecting. Who knows if Howard feels similarly after being lied to.
Morgan, Grace: Morgan is frantically punching buttons into the sub's command center, hoping beyond hope that he can somehow reroute or stop the missile. But Grace is accepting the tragic fate that likely awaits them. She pulls a gun off a corpse and says she wants Morgan to kill them. She's seen what radiation poisoning can do and doesn't want to watch her lover meet the same fate. They are both prepared to die when they hear a baby's cries over the radio. At first, they think it's the sound of the baby Grace lost in their heads, but it's actually Rachel's baby. Rufus did what she had hoped and dragged Rachel's walker body with baby in tow straight to them. Morgan sees it as a sign. When the warheads drop, they grab the baby and race to take shelter underneath a tanker truck. A fierce sandstorm blasts over them, but they survive. A few more blasts are seen in the distance, but everyone appears to be OK as Morgan cradles the infant.
We don't get to see what happened to Alicia, but it's fair to say she survived. Beyond that, we'll have to wait until season 7 to see what the fallout from Teddy's apocalyptic plan will be.
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