When reviewing the perilous yet promising first part of the final season of Fear the Walking Dead, it was a different world for The Walking Dead. Neither The Walking Dead: Dead City or The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon had been released, leaving this as the primary spin-off at the front of mind. This was ultimately to its benefit as there was nothing to compare it to. Now that there are, it is starting to lose a bit of its charm. This is especially due to Daryl’s dedicated series, which is set to get the even longer mouthful of a title with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol in its second season next year, as it finally felt like this ongoing zombie saga was honing in more on character and freeing itself up from all its past baggage. Still, at least Fear the Walking Dead had Lennie James as Morgan to provide a compelling presence that we could remain investing in. It sure would completely deflate the season if he suddenly were to disappear and not come back. Oh yeah, that’s exactly what happened.

Morgan’s Big Shoes Go Unfilled in ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 8
Image via AMC

For those who forgot, the last time we were in this world was when we also had to say farewell to its primary character. It seemed to leave open the possibility that he could very well show up again on the other upcoming spin-off The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live as he was setting out in search of his old friend Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) who he first met when this entire story began. With this in mind, it remains a rather jarring and abrupt exit even before the series is now trying to pick up without him. In the first two episodes of this final part of the final season, there is a continually clunky run of hasty reintroductions to some familiar faces to try to make up for this. The trouble is that none of them feel like they’re emotionally engaging in the way Morgan’s journey. They all just feel painfully forced. Though characters have always come and gone from the world of The Walking Dead, this moment feels like a standout turning point that threatens to sink the remainder of this final season. Even the return of the charismatic Colman Domingo as Victor Strand is not enough.

From the moment we get dropped back into this world, we see that some time has passed and that the PADRE we once knew is no longer. Madison (Kim Dickens) has been trying to spread the word of her intention to create a new place where people can come, but this ends up bringing some baddies back into the picture. This isn’t the worst hook in the world and could even present a new chance at digging deeper into its story as it also builds upon some of the questions the main series was awkwardly exploring at its end. Is there a still a chance at salvation at the end of the world? It is an interesting question worth wrestling with. However, this soon just creates more familiar scenarios that we’ve seen countless times.

There is nothing that feels fresh as it instead just spends a lot of time turning itself in circles to set everything up. It then dangles some other potential twists that could come in future episodes, but it is hard to feel that these will really work either. The cast remains game, with Dickens continuing to do her darndest to bring some depth to the shallow experience and Domingo making some interesting decisions, though it is hard to imagine playing along much longer if it continues like this. Nearly decision in these first couple episodes feels like it is in search of a new door to open even as it has already closed its best one. Then again, perhaps James saw the writing on the wall and decided that was the right time to be done. If only the show itself had followed suit, it would have closed on a fine note.

‘Fear the Walking Dead’s Final Season Takes a Steep Dip in Quality
Image via AMC

Though some of the way Morgan was written could be haphazard in part one, with an overreliance on scenes built around him being unreliable that looked ripped from a cheap arcade game, at least he was a character with something approaching nuance. In this part, everyone feels like they are a caricature who is reciting their motivations out loud in painfully hollow dialogue. The most impactful sequences of these new episodes are the ones where people are not speaking at all and we instead get flashes of moments from the past in quick succession. It is the type of more thoughtful storytelling that none of the rest of the show is able to effectively tap into. While there have been moments in time where this unfolding saga has been able to reinvent itself when it needs to, whatever it is going for here lacks any of the creativity and tact to pull it off. When one particular returning actor is tasked with stepping into being what initially seems like the villain this time, it just feels like he is being set up for failure even before he stumbles over some of the necessary dramatic beats.

However, it is one line he poses to Madison that ends up feeling especially important. He shouts out the taunting “What are you even fighting for?” in a way that is intended to get under her skin, but presents a very good question that the show itself is trying to find at least a serviceable answer for. For now, it is that she is just trying to create some sort of stability in a world that has been defined by increasing levels of chaos throughout eight seasons now. There is room for this to take on more emotional complexity in the road she walks ahead, which is going to end a bit earlier than expected, but it still feels like this final chapter is searching for a purpose of its own where little can readily be found.

Rating: C-

The Big Picture

Fear the Walking Dead is losing its charm as it competes with other superior spin-offs like The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. The absence of Morgan, the most compelling character in the first part prior to this, threatens to sink the remainder of the final season. The final part fails to effectively tap into thoughtful storytelling thus far in its first two episodes, leaving little sense of what the purpose of the closing chapter is.

The second half of Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 premieres October 22 on AMC and AMC+, with subsequent episodes releasing weekly before the two-part series finale on November 19.