Fear the Walking Dead: Six Hours [Review]

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 702, SIX HOURS.

It is a race against time on this week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead.  Baby Mo won’t stop crying because of hunger, Grace is struggling to adjust, and Morgan still believes he can build a future for his little family unit in “Six Hours.”  This was a one-hour examination of grief and postpartum depression, so for those shaken by “In Dreams,” this episode examines the long-term repercussions of that subject matter.

WE ALL LIVE IN A NUCLEAR SUBMARINE

Baby Mo’s cries echo throughout the very cavernous and very uninhabited nuclear sub.  Months after the bombs fell, Grace and Morgan continue to struggle to survive in the submarine rather than face the wasteland outside.  With milk running low for Mo, Grace eagerly volunteers to don a protective suit and face the elements.  

While scavenging a store for powdered milk or formula, Grace has to hide under a collapsed shelf to avoid a couple.  It seems Grace is not the only one with a baby.  After the couple leaves, Grace runs her Geiger counter over the food and concludes that it is too irradiated to take back.  On the way home, a frustrated and drained Grace screams at the sky.  Grace has no desire to be here anymore.  In a world full of invisible painful death and slow starvation, I’m on team Grace.

SIX HOURS

When Grace returns without food, Morgan prepares to go outside.  Grace attempts to volunteer again, but Morgan reminds her that she had set up a strict six-hour exposure protocol.  Grace has already exhausted her six hours on her excursion.  Morgan promises he will be back before the six hours expires.

While Morgan is gone, Mo continues to scream.  Grace is a hair’s breadth away from losing her shit completely.  After what Grace has lost with Athena and the world, and the pressures of living, it is no wonder she is ready to crack.  Grace is also likely experiencing postpartum depression.  Watching Grace pace, you can feel her anxiety.  Can Grace handle the crying?  Can she hold out for Morgan?  Morgan had recommended music to calm Mo, but after losing Athena, Grace can’t bear to sing to Mo herself.  Grace cannot be the mother that Mo wants.  Grace finds a tape recorder, and she plays music until both she and Mo fall asleep.

ROAD TRIP!

Instead of searching for food for their wailing baby, Morgan spent his time on a pet project.  The fact that Grace did not slap him immediately shows that she is more in control than I thought.  Morgan constructed a sealed environment in a car and even a little baby radiation suit.  The six-hour rule would still apply, but the car would give them the ability to drive to a less decimated area.  Or at least Morgan hopes it will.

On the road, Morgan adds what every road trip needs: music!  The only problem is the tape has Grace’s taped message for Athena on it.  Grace goes into full panic mode as she begs Morgan to stop the tape.  Grace claws at the tape to stop it as the song “In Dreams” starts to play.  Unable to face the grief of her lost child on top of the current situation, Grace creates enough commotion to distract Morgan.  Morgan does not see the roadblock until it is too late.

With the tire bent, the only way forward is to backtrack to the auto shop they had just passed before the accident.  To Morgan’s horror, Grace removes her mask.  Grace yells that she needs Morgan to protect Mo by giving up her share of the rations.  Morgan realizes that Grace is suicidal, but Grace says she had never wanted to live in a post-nuclear landscape.  Grace explains that she knew they would die regardless but this way will be longer and more painful.  When Morgan reminds her that they had agreed to take care of Mo, Grace argues that Morgan made that decision.

TOUR GUIDES

Mid-argument, a couple appears beside the car.  The woman, Bea, opens the car door while the man, Fred, aims a shotgun at Grace and Morgan.  Rufus the bloodhound peaces out of the situation and runs off.  Morgan half-heartedly calls for the dog, but Rufus is long gone.  The group heads back to the garage to fix the car, while Bea and Fred continue to delusionally call baby Mo their baby Emma.

Grace clocks that the man and woman are covering wounds on their face.  “Beta burns,” Grace whispers to Morgan.  Morgan is worried about the couple exposing themselves to Mo, but Grace is far more concerned about the six-hour limit.  Morgan asks the couple about the wounds on their faces, but Fred is understandably not into show and tell right now.

Though Grace was on the threshold of giving up more than once this episode, the immediate danger has pushed her into mama bear mode.  Grace tells Morgan she will fight until Morgan and Mo are safe.  Morgan hurriedly fixes the tire while the couple focuses on Mo.  “Look, I’m still here.  I’m not with the person I want to be with,” Grace mutters.  “Athena?” Morgan asks.  With a smirk, Morgan says he will never apologize for fighting to preserve their lives.  Grace argues that being a family with Mo is not the same thing as the life they had planned with Athena.  “It doesn’t mean it won’t be something,” Morgan counters.

KNOCK, KNOCK

Outside, the dead have gotten more than a little interested by the cries of baby Mo.  As the extra slimy dead claw at the windows and doors, Fred yells at Bea to keep Mo quiet.  “You remember what happened last time,” Fred says.  That pretty much explains what happened to baby Emma.  Morgan asks about the look of the dead.  Bea says that these walkers are from the crater, and they have a tendency to fall apart when you hit them.  Bea warns that you don’t want any of the remnants to touch you.

Grace busts out the tape recorder, and the music soothes Mo.  With the baby quieted, Bea says that they need to leave because it is not safe for the baby.  Grace invites Bea and Fred to leave town with them in the car to a safe place.  “You know about Padre too?” Bea asks.  Morgan plays to the couple’s emotions, and he offers to help them find and save their baby.  Fred throws a suitcase in the back next to Mo, and he declines Morgan’s offer.  Morgan manages to grab the shotgun, but Grace stops him from shooting out the window.  “You damage the car, nobody leaves,” Grace says.  With Bea and Fred in the car, Bea plows through the rotting door into the crowd of walkers.  

SHOWDOWN

Grace wants to let the couple drive to safety for Mo’s sake.  Morgan tells Grace that she is scared, and he won’t lose another child.  Morgan shoots out the tire to stop the vehicle.  Fred grabs Mo and takes off with Grace in pursuit.  After a quick fight with Morgan, Bea’s scarf falls away from her face.  Bea is missing her nose and covered with bubbly beta burns just as Grace feared.  

“I’m not one of them.  Not yet,” Bea protests.  “Let’s keep it that way,” Morgan says as he pulls Bea to safety.  I know Morgan is not a radiation expert, but there is no way he is keeping Bea from that fate.  Once safely holed up in a nearby building, Bea tells Morgan that they got their burns after the blast when they attempted to leave town.  Bea pleads with Morgan to help her get Emma somewhere safe before “the end.”  Morgan reiterates that Mo is not Bea’s child, and he had made a promise to Mo’s father to protect her.  Fred makes it clear that the route Morgan has chosen was one they already took.  Confused, Morgan asks where Bea and Fred wanted to go now.  Fred shows Morgan a map with a location circled named Padre.

“We know it’s safe.  We know it is better than here,” Fred says.  When Fred says people told him on the radio, Morgan is understandably suspicious about the veracity of the sales pitch.  Grace invites Bea and Fred to return with them to the submarine to buy some time to figure out a workable plan to escape the fallout.  “Does it look like we have time?” Fred asks.  And when pieces of your face are dropping off like a potato head, it isn’t like you can live in denial.  Grace clarifies that she means time for the baby to survive.  As the batteries on the recorder die, baby Mo starts to wail again.

UNDEAD PIT CREW

The group fixes the car to prepare to leave town.  Grace tells Morgan that he is scared to admit that his hope for a future may not be possible.  As Grace pleads to return to the sub, a truck revs its engine down the road.  Morgan lines up his rifle on the car while Fred and Grace head inside.  Fred takes baby Mo into the back room to keep the sounds as far from the dead outside as possible.  When the driver of the truck gets out, the outline of his suit is similar to CRM.  Though Morgan has not really dealt with CRM, he still has enough sense to take a shot at the person.  The driver falls to the ground.  A panicked Bea cries that they need to return to Emma.  Morgan, however, is preoccupied with the moving suitcase he had been using to brace his gun.  

“What the hell really happened to your baby?” Morgan asks.  The tiny baby growls and answers the ultimate question here.  Without a word, Morgan shoots the suitcase.  Morgan talks Bea into accepting that her baby is dead.  After some prompting, Bea admits that Fred had not wanted their baby to suffer.  If anybody has seen that infamous episode of M*A*S*H about the woman and the chicken, then this moment is a real nail-biter.  Fred is alone with baby Mo, and he is frantically begging Mo to be quiet.  

Morgan is pinned down outside by the dead, so he uses the tin can on a string to warn Grace inside.  Just as Fred is about to smother Mo, Grace shoots him dead.  With baby Mo continuing to cry, Grace holds her and thinks about Athena.  Softly, Grace starts to sing “In Dreams.”  Outside, Morgan honks the horn and drives into the crowd of walkers outside Grace’s building.   As promised, these special walkers explode like water balloons filled with grape jelly.

Though Morgan is happy to see Grace holding Mo, his smile fades when he notices the truck down the street driving away.  The driver survived after all.  Bea opts to stay behind with her family in the limited time she has left.  Morgan and Grace drive back to the sub with Mo.  Morgan apologizes for basically dreaming too big.  “You didn’t fail her.  You didn’t fail me,” Grace says.  “You’re not replacing Athena.  You know that right?” Morgan says.  “I know,” Grace whispers.  

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN

Once back in the safety of the submarine, Grace and Morgan are greeted by the dulcet tones of cocked guns.  Who are these masked and suited men?  After a quick question about the confrontation on the road, the men confirm they are clueless about the incident.  Howard says he is there on behalf of Victor.  And Howard is as surprised to learn that the man before him is Morgan as Morgan is to learn that Victor is alive.  “You must be Grace,” Howard says.  Howard offers Grace a place in Victor’s tower, safe from the fallout. 

“[Victor] is doing everything you couldn’t.  Food, water, security,” Howard explains.  Grace does not want to leave Morgan, but Morgan is desperate to make sure that Grace and Mo are somewhere safe.  Morgan accepts that Grace won’t go, but he makes a plea for the baby.  “She stays with us.  Whatever Strand is building, it’s not going to be what we have,” Grace says.  “She’s right.  It’s gonna be better,” Howard interjects.  Howard reiterates his offer for Grace and the baby, but she refuses to leave the sub.

After Victor’s men leave, Mo starts to cry again.  A quick look in the pantry confirms that all the food is now gone.  Grace wonders aloud about the identity of the man on the road, but Morgan brushes the question aside as low priority for now.  What is more important?  Baby Mo is crawling for the first time.  And baby Mo is crawling right over a secret second pantry in the floor.  A secret pantry that includes a stash of powdered milk.  Well hello, divine intervention.

CAMPFIRE BEANS AND BLOODHOUNDS

Old Rufus the bloodhound parted ways with Morgan over more than a crying baby.  It seems that Rufus picked up the scent of an old friend.  When Rufus followed that scent, it took him to the driver of the truck that had confronted Morgan.  At a campfire, Rufus helps himself to a can of beans while the driver grabs a shaking cardboard box labeled “Morgan Jones.”  The man lifts the undead head of bounty hunter Emile LaRoux.  The man then removes his mask.  Like all good soap operas, we got ourselves an old-fashioned vengeful twin.  “I’m sorry, brother.  Mr. Jones may have got the best of me today, but there’s always tomorrow,” Josiah LaRoux says.  

WORTH WATCHING?

Almost any episode that focuses on Morgan or Grace is worth watching.  Lennie James and Karen David are not only a marvel to watch, but the levels of their stories are engrossing.  The amount of loss, grief, and hope are astonishing.  The fact that Grace is barely in this world because her grief keeps pulling her closer to death is heartbreaking.  And the fact that Morgan has been on her path before and wants to show her the way out is difficult.  Grace’s points about the future they can expect are very valid.  Morgan’s hopes for the future seem undeservedly hopeful.  But watching these two emotionally raw characters is a thing to behold.

The episode is also worth watching for the big ending.  For years the shows in the Walking Dead universe have had a glut of rich character actors that are gone too soon.  It is nice that the show figured out to bring back an actor that was killed off well before he had been given a chance to shine.  I don’t know if this was always the planned story, but I for one am always happy to see a soapy twin storyline in the undead world.

ODDS & EGGS

• Why did Morgan leave any supplies behind in the submarine if he had no plans to return?
• Why did Victor send Howard out to head up a scouting mission?
• Howard must really hate green beans, because they left a can behind.

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