Fear the Walking Dead season 5, episode 1 review: Here to Help

Fear the Walking Dead welcomes back Morgan, Alicia, and team, who are about to be confronted with threats on multiple fronts.

After the season 4 finale ends rather optimistically, Morgan and Alicia find that their mission is nearly impossible. They have been seeking out people in need, but everyone they come across either dies or rejects their services. That is until they radio a man named Logan, whose group is trapped at a truck stop.

In order to reach Logan as quickly as possible, Althea flies the team in a small rickety plane, only to crash-land many miles short of the destination. The plane happens to take out some growlers that were hoping to snack on a pair of tasty kids in the woods.

Of course, the crash attracts a herd; Alicia and Morgan protect the teenagers and the group, including Althea and June, who are stuck in the cockpit, and Luciana, who has a metal rod in her shoulder. Alicia quarterbacks the counter-assault until the kids’ sister offers them a lift in her van.

The sister tells of ominous occurrences in the area and shows the crew a roadblock of dead with their insides stretched out to complete an unbroken line to obstruct the street. Alicia convinces the adolescents to drive on through and assist with their goal.

When they reach the truck stop, they do not find Logan, or his people, or any of the zombies that were supposedly surrounding them. While Morgan attempts to walkie Logan, Althea extracts the foreign object from Luciana’s shoulder. Alicia’s concern about their failure to make contact fuels the teenagers doubt that they should stick around, so they flee the truck stop.

Meanwhile, back at the denim factory that has been the group’s headquarters for months now, the original owner leisurely walks in to reclaim the territory. Logan is Clayton’s partner, but the former doesn’t share Polar Bear’s philanthropic world views. Logan radios Morgan to reveal his ploy – leading him far away from the mill so that Logan can take back his property without a fight.

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Strand, Charlie, Sarah, and Wendell didn’t take flight with Morgan and are outside the gates of their prior home. Charlie tells Sarah that she can find a way back inside, and Strand locates the tape that Al told him to watch. She once interviewed a man who owns a plane and hopes that Strand can bargain with him. Strand watches the recording and is confounded to learn that the man is Daniel Salazar.

At the truck stop, Althea reviews some footage from the earlier scuffle, where she impaled a walker dressed in full-body armor. She goes back to the site to investigate further and unmasks the recently-turned man. While looking closer at his belongings, she finds circular symbols among his documents. She is then tased in the neck by someone wearing similar attire.

Weekly Walkaways

• Before the group can even plan to make it back to the factory, they will have to escape from a radioactive town where someone is hanging heads from trees and constructing roadblocks with walker intestines. The chilling horror elements from the recent season of The Walking Dead (courtesy of the Whisperers) may be carrying over to Fear the Walking Dead, only with their own sadistic antagonists.
• If the armored attackers who subdued Althea are not associated with the people who hang zombie ornaments from trees, then the premiere has already set up three opponents for our survivors to face, including Logan, who appears less threatening on the surface.
• “Here to Help” marks the first Daniel Salazar sighting since the end of season 3, where he mowed down everyone in his path like a boss. When the dam blew, he was seemingly gone with the water. Ruben Blades has been a welcome member of the Fear cast since the very beginning and is sure to spice up season 5.
• Morgan continues his pursuit of purpose. He tells Alicia that they have to keep trying as long as they are still standing, no matter how hard it is. Without his determination to fight for the cause of selflessly helping people, Morgan would be lost.
• The MVP of “Here to Help” is Alicia for continuing to make her case as captain of her crew. She tears apart countless walkers with a propeller. Exhaustion doesn’t slow her, and bloodied hands only make her hold on to her weapon tighter. Then she directs all her teammates, as they get ready to charge straight into battle.

Fear the Walking Dead returns next week with “The Hurt that Will Happen” on Sunday, June 9th at 9:00 p.m. ET on AMC.