Fear the Walking Dead recap: ‘Red Dirt’
I have a haunting suspicion that Jake, the moral compass of Broke Jaw Ranch and the only likable Otto, is going to become the next major casualty.
It seemed to be the direction Fear was heading toward even before he made the decision this week to try to broker a deal with Walker at his reservation: He’s one of the only things standing in the way of his father and brother teetering off the deep end into complete madness. Take that away, and the already fracturing community will follow suit. Take that away, and Alicia loses the glimmer of hope that things can still be all right in this messed up world.
As Jeremiah said in “Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame,” we retreat to our own in times of crisis — and now there’s a pretty big one. Tensions are high as Alicia and Nick fear for their mother’s safety when Madison and Troy make it back to the ranch with their men, their bloody, calloused feet plainly visible. The community wants answers, and one of the men, Mike (the same one who witnessed Troy nearly killing Madison in her sleep), gives his version of it: Walker and his men want their land back and will kill them all if they don’t comply.
The fear prickles as people want to leave the ranch, but Jeremiah, his sons, and Madison regroup in private to try to solve this dilemma. Troy faces the brunt of the blame from his father, who makes the remark that Jake needs to be more of a presence in the community. Troy is visibly affected, his face surging with memories of his childhood, when his brother shielded him from the drunken wrath of Jeremiah and the callous disregard of his mother. Yet, Madison — perhaps strategically; most of her actions seem to be strategic — comes to his defense.
Jeremiah declares they will not attack Walker, who, it turns out, tried to reclaim the ranch land through legal means before the outbreak. Jeremiah’s sense of security is now gone. This is someone who is terrified of losing everything he’s built and blinded by a false image he’s conjured of the unknown. Walker isn’t a threat to him, as Madison suggests he is. Walker is one of the “drunken, diabetic, welfare cheats” Jeremiah deems all those at Black Hat Reservation to be. Blame it on the alcohol.
Jeremiah’s world is changing. The “founding fathers,” the men and women who first came to the ranch with him, are dying out: Russell and his wife died in the fire, Phil was fed by Walker to the crows, and now Vernon, the last of the co-founders, wants to leave. With the end of the founders comes the death…
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