SPOILER ALERT: Warning, this article contains spoilers from the Season 4, Episode 7 of Fear the Walking Dead entitled ‘The Wrong Side of Where You Are Now.’ Proceed at your own risk.
For all the tension the last episode built – from the survivors facing off with The Vultures and the reveal that Naomi was one of them, to the cliffhanger with John getting shot – this week’s episode really didn’t do a ton to keep that momentum. Instead, it moved around the pieces in the present and flashback storylines for a big confrontation next week.
“The Wrong Side of Where You Are Now” picks up right where we left the survivors. Naomi is tending to John’s gunshot wound while the rest of the survivors and Vultures shoot out their problems. Alicia is solely concerned with killing Naomi, but settles for blowing up a vehicle Mel tries to escape in. While all the gunfire is happening, Morgan manages to gather Al, Naomi, a wounded John, and the little girl/backstabber Charlie into the SWAT vehicle and escape. The only place Naomi can think of to find medical supplies is the stadium.
The rest of the episode takes place in the past. Charlie shows up, hat in hand, asking for Madison’s help. Apparently, she and Mel were trying to leave The Vultures and crashed their car. How people can crash on the mostly empty roads of the apocalypse continues to be a mind-bogglingly regular occurrence in Fear and The Walking Dead, but none-the-less Mel is pretty roughed up. The group decides to bring him in.
After Naomi patches him up, Mel says his brother Ennis has plans to bring down the stadium. He’s going to bring the dead they’re collecting and let them loose to tear the walls down one board at a time. He tries to tell Madison to make everyone leave, but she won’t. She does let him go though, with the caveat that Charlie remains at the stadium.
“The people that stay die,” Mel warns before leaving. “And everything they were fighting for dies with them.”
Charlie isn’t happy when she finds out Mel left. Nick and Alicia let her use a walkie to talk with him. Before they say much though, Mel passes out from his previous injuries. Charlie manages to convince Nick and Alicia to go out and bring him back. They sneak out without telling Madison.
The siblings find Mel just in time to see Ennis and his convoy of dead-carrying trucks drive. They warn Madison the attack is happening tonight. The two race back in time to see The Vultures plan unfold.
It’s a simple plan, really. Most of the dead Ennis wrangled came from the oil field that Madison rescued Naomi from earlier this season. He trails a line of oil around the stadium’s parking lot and lit it on fire, then the trucks let their shambling payload free. The zombies are covered in oil as well so when they walk through the fire they’ll go up too. To make matters worse, Alicia, Nick, and Mel managed to get stuck in the parking lot between the wall of fire and the oil-covered walkers.
In the present timeline, the SWAT truck arrives at the stadium. It’s definitely seen better days. Naomi says The Vultures wouldn’t have dared go in and take the supplies she left there. Al rams the gate to find the entire diamond is filled with the dead.
It will be nice once this past and present story is wrapped up – which it seems might be the case after the upcoming episode. Too much of the first half of the season has been Al driving people around Texas while they “tell their story.” I’m ready to spend more time with the many new characters this season has introduced. Revenge stories can only go so long before the wheels start spinning.