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Posted in: AMC, Fear The Walking Dead, Review, TV | Tagged: amc, amc plus, episode 8, fear the walking dead, fear twd, Review, season 8
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Ep. 8 Asked Way Too Much of Me (Review)
AMC's Fear the Walking Dead S08E08: "Iron Tiger" wasn't what I expected, but it was exactly what I was afraid of for the final episodes.
For the record? If you checked out my review of last week's midseason return of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, then you know that I went into these final six episodes with a newfound appreciation for the long-running spinoff and high hopes for how it would wrap up its run. In fact, S08E07: "Anton" set up a number of interesting storyline threads for the final five that had our "dumpster fires of random speculation" burning 24/7. And then S08E08: "Iron Tiger" (directed by S.J. Main Muñoz and written by Nick Bernardone & Jacob Pinion) happened, forcing me to confront a very painful truth about my feelings about this episode, this season, and the series. Things would've been so much better without The Clarks – Madison (Kim Dickens), Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) & Nick (Frank Dillane) – in it. It was a feeling that I thought I had gotten over last week – but this week's chapter brought all of that bad stuff back – and some new "bad stuff," too. With that in mind, we're throwing on the "MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!" sign and throwing down an image spoiler buffer before venting about "Iron Tiger."
So What Worked? I'm going to kick things off with some positives because there definitely were some – and they further demonstrate what the overall problem with the episode was (and possibly could be for the remaining chapters). Colman Domingo, Rubèn Blades, and Danay García (following last week's directorial effort) all gave impressive performances – each given opportunities to express to the viewers just how far their characters have come since their respective early days. In particular, we appreciated seeing Luciana (Gracia) in the community leader role and Blades' Daniel speaking truth to power when he went off on Madison at the end of the episode.
But top honors for this episode go to Alexa Nisenson's returning Charlie and Daniel Sharman's Troy Otto. I had mixed feelings regarding Charlie when she was first introduced, but the character grew on me over time – and Nisenson's growth as an actor is the reason for that. As for our "big bad," the combination of Sharman and the writers has given us a Troy Otto who is much more layered than first presented. In fact, by the end of the episode? Well, let's just say that feeling more sympathetic for Troy Otto (even after what he's done) than Madison Clark is probably not what showrunners Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss originally intended.
So What Didn't Work? After this weekend's episode, I would be more than happy if Madison left to go find Alicia – and that their story gets told some other time, on some other show. Because even with all of the amazing performances that this episode had going for it, it depended on Dickens' Madison to bring it all together. And that's where it fell apart because most of what went down had to do with more shitty Clark decision-making. In this case, an apparently grieving Madison (it was tough to distinguish her emotional states from one another) tells Charlie that the only way Charlie can make up for killing Nick is to kill Troy Otto. Once again, the needs of a Clark outweigh the needs of the many. But then… Madison sees the light!
Unfortunately, Charlie's already been captured by Troy – meaning our heroes have to rescue someone who wouldn't have needed rescuing in the first place if it wasn't for Madison. But that rescue doesn't go as planned – almost leading to Madison having to give up the location of PADRE to Troy (which I'm starting to think might not be such a bad idea) – before a sacrifice is made (which we're going to touch on in a minute) that changes things dramatically. And then, just when things appeared to have settled down (and Luciana & Daniel made the smart choice of distancing themselves from her), Madison tosses the keys to PADRE to Victor and wishes him the best of luck before heading off – the very same Victor whose life she had no problem making a mess of in last week's episode while trying to convince folks not to trust him.
One Last Thing…: Bringing back Nisenson's Charlie to only have her die at the end of the very same episode felt a little cheap – as if the return was less about the character and more about the move being a "means to an end" storyline-wise. It felt like the character was a "fan-servicing sacrifice" to the old-school viewers who are still bitter over how Nick was handled (I was happy to see the character go). But having Charlie die by her own hand – sacrificing her life for Madison's vision because it's what Alicia would've wanted – had a cruel and unnecessary heavy-handedness to it (and not even an original one at that).
Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 8 "Iron Tiger"
5.5/10
For the record? If you checked out my review of last week's midseason return of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, then you know that I went into these final six episodes with a newfound appreciation for the long-running spinoff and high hopes for how it would wrap up its run. In fact, S08E07: "Anton" set up a number of interesting storyline threads for the final five that had our "dumpster fires of random speculation" burning 24/7. And then S08E08: "Iron Tiger" (directed by S.J. Main Muñoz and written by Nick Bernardone & Jacob Pinion) happened, forcing me to confront a very painful truth about my feelings about this episode, this season, and the series. Things would've been so much better without The Clarks - Madison (Kim Dickens), Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) & Nick (Frank Dillane) - in it. It was a feeling that I thought I had gotten over last week - but this week's chapter brought all of that bad stuff back - and some new "bad stuff," too.
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