Fear the Walking Dead: 'This Land is Your Land' Review

This heart wrenching episode begins where the previous episode ends, with the people of the Otto Ranch holed up in an underground pantry after narrowly escaping a horde of walkers. We are quickly reminded that the ventilation system has somehow malfunctioned and that the oxygen supply is quickly dwindling. Alicia (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) quickly, and rather unexpectedly, does the kind of advanced math that would qualify her to be a shoe-in for MENSA membership and determines that a mere two hours of oxygen remains before this temporary shelter becomes a permanent tomb. (Seriously, that kind of brain power and no one has thought to make chain mail zombie proof suits yet? Come on, people!) To make a bad situation even worse, we have also now discovered that several of the people in the pantry have been bitten.

A two-part solution is decided upon by Alicia, Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) and Crazy Dog (Justin Rain). Part one, Ofelia and Crazy Dog hustle up into the ductwork and clear whatever is blocking the air flow (any guess what that might be?). Part two, Alicia plays the statesman (statesperson?) and convinces the people who have been bitten to step forward and… well, let’s just say take one for the team to conserve the fast depleting oxygen.

After a brief moment of sniffle-ridden acceptance, the afflicted step forward to be… is “processed” too cold of a word to use here? One really begins to gain quite a lot of sympathy for Alicia by now. She’s still very young to have to handle these situations, but her lingering sense of civic duty keeps thrusting her right into the deep end. Enter the first volunteer, a sturdy, black-maned Native man from the Nation. He stoically strides into a back room (that looks as if it doubles as a meat locker) with Alicia and Blake (who has also been on the business end of a hungry zombie).

The process: the bitten lays on the concrete floor, Alicia delivers a single knock-out level dose of morphine intravenously, and then slides a knife into the base of the victim’s skull. But as with all things, it’s just not as simple as it sounds. After the first patient is successfully, and peacefully, put to rest, the sheer weight of it all sends a panic stricken Alicia running out of the locker gasping for air like a fish out of water.

Christine, an older countrified woman, hands Alicia’s knife back to her and reminds her that she’s still got a job to do. (Nothing quite like getting the ol’ pick-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps talk from someone who could easily be seen as Aunt Bea’s older and harder worked sister to get you back on track.) And back to work she goes. After putting down a pile of afflicted people (No, seriously. A pile.), Blake is last to get the one way trip to the hereafter. “Give me a minute,” Alicia begs, barely above a whisper. He’s clearly nearing his own end thanks to the bite he suffered. And he knows it. Fortunately she pulls herself together one last time and the deed is done, buying the survivors some precious time while Ofelia and Crazy Dog complete their task. But at what cost to Alicia?

While all of that was going on, Troy “Who am I today” Otto and Nick “I’ve had quite enough of your crap, Troy” Clark are still outside staring down at the slow-motion stampede of walkers that Troy stupidly, not to mention selfishly, called down upon the ranch folk. Troy (Daniel Sharman) hastily tries to dig a grave for his fallen brother Jake. (Yep, Troy, that’s on you, too.) He seems to have a hard time deciding whether or not he wants to be the perfect sociopath or an emotionally tortured toddler. Right now, it’s the toddler.

Nick (played by Frank Dillane) isn’t having any of it. Not mincing any words he scolds Troy for playing in the dirt and reminds him of the plan to blow up the so-close-yet-so-far-away fuel depot in attempt to draw the horde away from the trapped ranchers. And the clock’s tickin’. Nick fires off a grenade to try and clear a path to their goal.

And it probably would have worked if Troy (back to sociopath mode) wasn’t the one behind the wheel of the F-One-Fiddy, barreling down the hill with all the caution of a hyperactive honey badger. He crashes the truck nowhere near the fuel cache, forcing them both to make a mad dash to the ranch helicopter (the same helicopter that Travis fell from in a previous episode #gonetoosoon). It’s just a matter of time before the surrounding zombies get to the trapped pair.

Back in the pantry, Alicia and Christine attempt to keep each other awake by trading memories back and forth. Christine tells the tale of how she met her two husbands and explains that the second husband was the main reason why she personally ended up on the ranch. She fell prey to his belief that 9/11 was the sign of the end of the world and succumbed to that fear. She warns Alicia not to make that same mistake.

Soon after, the increased carbon monoxide in the room has taken its toll and she is now the only one awake, if not alive. And one poor soul has already turned into a walker and made a meal out of one of the others. It takes notice of Alicia and attacks. In her weakened condition, Alicia seemed doomed until her unsteady legs caused them both to tumble to the floor, impaling the walker’s head on her knife.

The victory proved meaningless, though, as more walkers begin to rise and Alicia falls unconscious.

In the ductwork, Ofelia and Crazy Dog find the source of the problem. Turns out there’s a walker stuck in it! (Who saw that coming?) Despite their own oxygen deprived state, they manage to yank the poor slob loose and the fan starts spinning again, but this walker has some fight left in him. Ofelia quickly gains the upper hand and puts a round in the creature’s dome piece. In a tight metal air duct. With no hearing protection. Ouch.

Back in the pantry, Alicia snaps awake, her brain suddenly re-oxygenated. That’s the good news. The bad news is that now she’s surrounded by a swarm of undead. Dragging her friend and gossip partner Christine into the armory, Alicia straps up and dispatches the walkers with impunity. Just as she runs out of ammo and all hope of escape seems lost, in comes the cavalry in the form of Victor Strand (Coleman Domingo), Qaletqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes), her mother Madison (Kim Dickens), and her brother Nick. The troupe makes quick work of the remaining zombies.

Alicia tries in vain to rouse Christine awake. She’s gone. Tearfully Alicia puts her knife to work one more time. At least she still has Jake to comfort her, right? Right? “Where’s Jake?” she asks. Nick shakes his head, telling her all she needs to know. She’s clearly broken now. She had killed the few to protect the many. Then she killed the many to get back to one. Now that one is gone. And so is her resolve.

Strand, Walker, and Madison fill her in on the plan to get to the dam and try to start again. But Alicia is no longer interested in the lather, rinse, and repeat pattern of apocalyptic life and decides to go to a cabin Jake once told her about. When Madison tries to dissuade her from that course of action to no avail, Nick volunteers to follow Alicia and makes sure she gets where she’s going safely. Madison insists that he take Troy with him. (What’s the worst that could happen there?)

The episode ends with a visibly beleaguered Alicia driving solo along a dusty desert road while “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land” (thankfully NOT the Bernie Sanders version) plays in the background like the nasally ghost of days gone by.

More next time.