Fear TWD Midseason Finale Recap: Two Unhappy Endings and a New Beginning?

As the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead reached the halfway point Sunday, viewers were treated (if that’s the word) to callbacks galore, to past characters and mantras and even Madison’s old jacket. And if you forgot anything capital-M Meaningful that anyone had ever said, not to worry — this episode was hell-bent on repeating the series’ “greatest hits.” (At this point, only The Bold and the Beautiful repeats more dialogue!)

Plotwise, much of “All I See Is Red” concerned Morgan’s return to the dangerous state in which Rick found him back in Season 3 of the mothership. (Read that recap here.) He was blacking out and lashing out and just super eager to “clear.” Nonetheless, a sporadically wheezing Madison managed to handle him well enough to help launch a search for Mo and the prefects, who’d emptied the shipyard of its undead squatters by leading them into the swamp. Along the way, Morgan and Mo attempted to give us whiplash, with him one minute telling her to stay away from him and the next saying that he wanted them to be together (and her basically doing the same).

After Shrike assigned Mo the task of finding her father’s reanimated body — in a binocular around its neck were plans for PADRE’s expansion — the tween and Morgan were trapped once again on the Houseboat of Doom. To save Mo, her father gave her an oxygen tank and had her swim past the walkers, who apparently would not notice a youngster Little Mermaid-ing her way past them. Since Fear the Walking Dead runs on unlikelihoods, Morgan then came face to grody face with Shrike’s father. Upon seeing him herself, Shrike immediately turned back into a feeling human, although not a terribly bright one: She let him take a huge, honking bite out of her.

Though super-soldier Daniel and the PADRE prefects’ parents were supposed to be backup for Madison and Morgan, they wound up being outgunned by the kids in a shootout that left… um… nobody shot. Crane and Dove ordered the prefects to execute the makeshift army, but all it took was a speech from Daniel, and they couldn’t do it. (Wow, he must have even gotten through to Cockatiel and Pigeon!)

While all that was going on, Finch requested that Shrike be given a merciful death (which June allowed Crane to provide). Once Dwight and Sherry’s boy kicked the bucket, too, they decided to split up. He was going to go home and start over, he said. Now the leader of the prefects, Madison pitched the idea of reuniting as many of the children as she could with their parents. As for Morgan, after burying Grace and performing a variation on his “all life is precious” monologue, he took off with Mo in search of Rick Grimes.

So, a whole half-season and no Strand at all? Is Charlie still alive? Hmm. What did you think of the midseason finale — and the season so far?