King County

I can't believe how ridiculous and bad the writing has gotten for this show. Everyone loves Lenny James, but even he can't help this dumpster fire. After what must be more than a decade in show time, Morgan is still full of angst over losing his son and can't seem to focus on the living around him. The dead, though incredibly slow and weak after years of being dead I assume, are still massing in hordes everywhere the crew shows up, no matter how remote. Bullets that used to be at a premium seem to be in great plenty now. A rifle from Morgan's home from the pilot season still ha so many bullets that he shoot's walkers with abandon, even when it seems unneeded and unnecessary.

Characters who were friends threaten to kill each other and then, seconds later offer to help them escape. Characters who have made it this far into the zombie apocalypse are still grossly unprepared in every situation, leaving captives untied, often with items that can and are capable of being used as weapons nearby.

I just could rant without stopping forever about this terrible writing. Where is the character development like we had with Rick Grimes? Where are the story arcs/redemption stories? Seriously, who is writing this and how are they getting paid? I typically go all in with shows I start, but it's getting so bad that I may have to bow out of the Walking Dead franchise as this is almost unwatchable. If you are enjoying this, I would question your sanity.

Having been a fan since day one, season one, episode one, seeing the events in this episode reminds me of why I stopped caring a season or two ago, about the time 'A world beyond' premiered. The characters there told us the Mississippi bridges were destroyed during the outbreak, yet Morgan walked to Texas. Now, he's back in Georgia, followed all the way back from Texas, by Grace, in a truck, and Deight and Sheri on horseback, as well as half of PADRE. Hundreds of miles, across 5 states, across the Big Muddy. Oh, and the hand-held radio transmits and receives across the distance? Let's not even discuss treating the bites with radiation.

Good episode best in the series imo.

Funny jokes that don't get repetitive at all is basically what this episode is!

It also makes me cringe every time they say "7 years ago".

I do like Lennie James, his acting is better than most of the cast, but I just can't with Morgan anymore, his character is inconsistent and stupid.

Anyways, this episode is the worse of the season so far, the dialogue is just terrible, literally just awful.

Honestly just a massive filler episode, considering how many episodes are left, this one felt completely pointless and empty.

This season could potentially be the worse in the entire show, I didn't even think it was a possibility with Kim Dickens back, but we'll see.

Sadly, this episode is just like the previous one.

It's a terrible cat and mouse that follows this outline "I captured you" "No, I captured you" "Oh, ok. I'm captured"

And the concept of "show, don't tell" is completely lost on this show. I think the writers were paid by word count. So much worthless drivel between the characters that propels nothing. In fact this episode could be deleted and I'm sure nothing would be lost. Or at least nothing that the 5 sec "previously on" segment could not cover.

While the kid actors do their best, at the end of the day...the show has allowed their level of presence to dilute what made the show great and why TWD:new world bombed. It feels like Nickelodeon instead of a gritty horror show.

Lasting impression: AMC IS GRASPING SO TIGHTLY TO TWD IN THE SAME WAY FOX DID TO X-FILES. In this I mean that they did not know how to do anything else, they diluted the shiws quality. And canx other shows too early that could have been the next big thing. Also, TWD dwindled into a horrific death it's last several years. Then the made the horrific New World. And fear the walking dead is following suit with a few seasons of really weak everything. I don't think any of these spin-offs will be any better. The writers are tired and can't think of a way to write anything consistently good.

I'll probably still watch out of hope. But I think the writing has been in the walls for far too long to expect anything better.

Morgan returns to King County, Georgia on a quest to put down his zombified son, Duane. Grace and Mo follow him, as well as Dwight and Sherry, who were forced into hunting Morgan by Shrike. Morgan reveals his wife, Jenny, bit Duane after he couldn't bring himself to put her down when he had the chance. Morgan and Grace are eventually captured and forced to show Shrike's forces that they are telling the truth about Morgan's mission, but they find no sign of Duane. Dwight and Sherry kill the guards with them, unwilling to allow Morgan to be executed, and help Finch escape from Shrike's captivity.

Left alone, Grace confesses to Morgan that she is terminally ill from radiation sickness. While trying to escape from Morgan's burning house, Mo discovers her father chained up Duane in the attic years before during his period of insanity. With Mo in danger, Morgan is finally able to shoot Duane with the gun that Rick Grimes had left for him and buries Jenny and Duane's bodies. Shortly thereafter, a walker bites Grace, and Morgan vows to get her to June for help.

Recently, we've seen various works that rely on nostalgia to elicit emotions from the audience but fail to use it to enrich the screenplay as a whole. Fortunately, this is not the case with "King County," the fourth episode of the 8th and final season of "Fear the Walking Dead." It wouldn't be absurd to consider this one of the best episodes of the entire spin-off because what we find here is not an episode of "Fear the Walking Dead," but rather an episode of "The Walking Dead." After a third episode full of errors and inconsistencies, the series gifts us with a nostalgic fourth episode that simultaneously advances the story and concludes character arcs that started more than a decade ago.

One of the most forced aspects of the entire episode is the ease with which characters know where Morgan (Lennie James) is headed. The episode attempts to explain this inconsistency, but the justification is hardly plausible and makes it seem like the characters know his location just because the script needs them there at that moment. The episode features very well-written text rich in its most minimalist details and boasts highly competent direction. However, the scene where Finch (Gavin Warren) attacks Shrike (Maya Eshet) with a chair and easily escapes from the PADRE base seems extremely poorly conducted.

Additionally, it highlights an escalating problem with each episode: PADRE are the most foolish villains in the entire franchise. It is remarkable how easily characters escape the base or confront their "soldiers." As seen in the first and third episodes of the season, where Madison (Kim Dickens) and Mo (Zoey Merchant) leave PADRE's fortress with absurd ease, or how Daniel (Rubén Blades) manages to ambush and capture members of the group without any difficulty. These issues related to the group's incapability and how easy it becomes to subdue them removes all tension, mystery, and danger around them, making these new villains, instead of being threatening, laughable.

Revisiting this iconic setting from the first season of the main series brings back to this universe a taste of the sensation this work caused at the beginning, besides making us reflect on everything that happened to these characters over time. Revisiting the house where Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Morgan hid from zombies in the first episode of this universe reminds us and makes us rethink the entire journey these two characters had over the years, and reflect on who they were and who they have become. When the episode explores these settings, which were very well recreated by the way, it constantly makes us reflect and use this narrative mirror. This goes from the evolution of the characters to the entire work of scenery deterioration. How dead and destroyed this world is and how much humanity these characters have lost over the years.

Revisiting King County brings back dark memories and triggers the most questionable part of his sanity in the character. Then, he finds himself in a situation where he needs to gather strength to move forward or let his past literally kill his future, as in the scene where Morgan needs to shoot Duane to save Mo. This is not just a scene that shows the character managed to confront his "ghosts," but also a scene that shows he gave up his past, in this case his son, to dedicate himself to the future. The scene shows that he finally managed to detach from his old family so that he could live his new life.

Besides the hallucinations he has with his ex-wife Jenny (Keisha Tillis), which appear every time he needs to make a crucial decision. When he finally manages to ignore her, he sets aside his dead wife to care for and save his current wife, Grace (Karen David), who is dying. After ignoring Jenny and finally ending Duane, Morgan manages not only to let go of his past but also to commit to the future. And the scene that cements this character transition is when he buries his ex-wife and son, where he seals his past and places a white flower on their graves, symbolizing forgiveness and peace. "Forgiveness," as he says in front of their grave, and Peace symbolizes his current state of finally having managed to detach from his past. The white flower may also represent the character's passage to a new life and a new journey that lies ahead. These scenes are symbolic, and the text is very rich in finally putting an end to this story. In the end, what is conveyed is a feeling of conclusion, not only of a character arc but also of a cycle.