Did Morgan Make the Ultimate Sacrifice in the ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Finale? (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Fear The Walking Dead Season 5 episode 16, “End of the Line.”]
Oh, Morgan. If only there was someone out there who could help you.
After a season of preaching “we’re not doing careful, we’re doing right,” the center of the help squad might be helping no more. Or he might be fine. It’s hard to tell.
But before that fateful moment, the group focuses on circumventing Virginia’s grip and getting a few moments to truly live life, complete with painted churches, more singing and a heavily foreshadowed wedding.
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Oh Look, a Horse!
The episode opens with Dwight running away. He hears a voice on the radio that sounds like Sherry, but he can’t respond to her. He then finds not one, but six totally random, already saddled horses. (He clearly went to the school of Arya Stark convenient horse summoning).
Meanwhile, Morgan and friends mill around the Gulch. Morgan has a weird conversation with Grace where she tells him she lied about how far she went with the guy she liked at the mill. She says she knows she only has today to live, because Virginia won’t accept her with the rest of the group, but Morgan won’t let that happen.
Momo tells his help squad that Virginia is their last hope, but Alicia thinks they can clear the Gulch and live there. Certain that a fight is coming, Morgan finds a way to both get rid of the dead and win against Virginia.
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Walker Woes
Thus, Morgan (and an ailing Grace with him, for some reason), Strand, Daniel, Dwight, June and John lead the walkers to a field across from Al’s tank, where they know Virginia and her pals will eventually be. The intent is to surround them. All goes well until Strand and Daniel, who are paired together, notice Luciana’s with Virginia’s group. The former conman takes off toward the baddies, saying he can persuade them to not resort to violence. In the chaos that unfolds when Morgan and friends try to turn the walkers around, Dwight falls off his horse and is injured.
Dwight insists that the squad leave him behind. Morgan won’t let him sacrifice himself, so he gets off his horse and comes to his friend’s rescue, then the others lead the walkers into the river, where they all wash away. Uh, guys? Those walkers are going to wash up somewhere. So much for helping people.
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I Now Pronounce You
When they return to the Gulch, Alicia, Al and the others have cleared it. John and June get married in a cutesy ceremony complete with beams of angelic light shining through the rafters. But it’s all cut short with the sound of arriving cars: Virginia’s people have arrived.
Morgan successfully negotiates for her to take everyone, not just the people she deems useful. That said, they’re going to be separated. One by one, friends and family members bid tearful farewells and get into cars. Sarah says goodbye to Wendell. Charlie cries when it’s clear she might not ever see Daniel again. Daniel’s upset to not be traveling with Skidmark. Alicia and Strand are reunited, and he reassures her about his motives by saying they can “do more damage from the inside.”
Eventually, the only ones left are Morgan and Grace. Seeming to realize this might be the last chance he gets, Morgan tells her he “felt something” that day with her that he only ever felt with Jenny. As Grace is led away, she yells back to him that she felt it too.
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Just Live
That leaves Morgan and Virginia. Morgan asks her where they’re going, but she tells him he’s staying here. With that, she shoots him… and even though he knocks the gun from her hand with his stick, the bullet hits his chest.
As Morgan bleeds out and Virginia stands over him, she receives confirmation that Grace isn’t sick: She’s pregnant. Morgan taunts her for being so willing to kill Grace, but it doesn’t seem to faze her. “I really hope you die,” she tells Morgan as several walkers approach, and she drives away.
Morgan sits on the stairs of the church, and he radios out to the empty air as the dead walk toward him. “If any of you are hearing this… just live,” he tells them.
Other Observations
- I have no doubt Morgan will survive this, but… how absurd. Even if the bullet didn’t hit his heart, there’s almost no way he wouldn’t die from blood loss.
- If Morgan doesn’t survive or lives and goes to the Rick movies via CRM, I can’t understand the whole crossover thing. Why kill off two-thirds of the Clark family? Is Alicia the lead for Season 6? That would be great. But if this is the last we’ll ever see of Momo, Madison and Nick’s deaths, and the total overhaul of the themes of this show, seem even more pointless.
- Although I’m no expert, the odds of Grace being with child after taking in the level of radiation she says she did have got to be nil.
- I’d talk about how silly the horse thing was, but honestly, it reminded me so much of Arya Stark after the battle of King’s Landing that I laughed. Dwight, too, knows a killer when he sees one.
Fear the Walking Dead, Season 6, 2020, AMC
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