Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 6 Review: The Little Prince
Paul Dailly
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This is not the show I fell in love with years ago.
Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 6 continued to make me question why I am still investing time in a series that clearly couldn't give a crap about the past.
From terrible character decisions to truly awful dialog, "The Little Prince" was another installment that should have been left on the cutting room floor.
Sixteen-episode seasons are big for cable shows, and I can't help but think that Fear the Walking Dead would benefit from shorter seasons and a creative overhaul.
The saving grace of the installment was that Karen David returned as Grace. She's the only new character that's actually resonating and helping to propel the storyline forward.
David brings a lot to the table as a woman who is desperately trying to right the wrongs of her past while also living with the fact that she is slowly but surely dying as a result of her radiation exposure.
Morgan: Hey Grace, this is Morgan, do you copy? If you're listening, we're working on a way to get home. And, we found some people I think you're going to want to meet. Do you copy? I repeat: Do you copy?
It's evident the writers are looking at Grace as a potential love interest for Morgan, and that's not a bad idea.
Morgan is bordering on tedious of late with his big speeches about how the team needs to push forward and reap the rewards of it.
The dialog not only seems forced, but it doesn't feel organic.
Nothing about the way the characters are acting feelings organic right about now, and that's where the bulk of the problems with the show's current state lies.
It's a real shame because the radiation plot could have been one of the show's best, and things were looking good at the top of The Walking Dead Season 5.
There have been countless plot twists that feel too convenient to take seriously. There were many in this installment alone.
Salvaging the plane in such a swift manner was not believable.
Parts of it were spread across the radiation-filled land, yet everyone managed to band together and find it with ease.
More laughable was the way Al managed to put it all together like it was some sort of jigsaw puzzle. Hell, it wouldn't have surprised me in the slightest if the plane worked after that.
Related: Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 5 Review: The End of Everything
The hot air balloon used to retrieve the propeller was even more ludicrous. I'm not well versed in hot air balloons, but I'm sure there needs to be an equal weight across to keep things level.
As impossible as all this seems, we can do this.
Morgan
I'll give the terrible green screen a pass because, well, if I were an actor and they told me to get myself on to a hot air balloon that would be crashing, I would have probably quit my job.
But, the crash of hot air balloon could be seen a mile away.
It wasn't a well-thought-out plan from the get-go, and it left Charlie and Strand in a deadly situation with all of the radioactive walkers trying to kill them.
Out of the two, it's doubtful many fans would care much about Charlie being the one to die.
It would make sense, given the increased focus on her a few episodes ago.
Strand dying would probably be the final nail in the show's coffin, but we need to remember that this is a show that killed off all but one original series regulars.
If you watch Fear the Walking Dead online, you know that Strand has always been the beacon of light in the dark situations, which would make his death unforgivable, but it would just be par for the course.
Strand is also one of the best-written characters still on canvas, so his death would be a huge blow. With ratings falling, they would likely fall further if he were the one to lose his life.
Alicia pissed me off like never before with her actions. If you frequent my reviews regularly, you know that she's one of my favorite characters, but going into the radiation to look for a group of snotty teenagers who are causing more problems than they are worth is just plain stupid.
Related: Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Humbug's Gulch
Annie made her decision; let her live with it, and if it results in the children being killed, then that blood is on her hands.
Annie: Who's that?
Dylan: Don't worry. They're far away.
Alicia is now in danger because of her obsession with saving the living. It would be admirable if she were venturing into these lands with the appropriate clothing to prevent her from breathing in radiation, but she's chosen to put her own life on the line.
Another character who is circling the drain is John Dorie. Shielding Dwight from the truth about Sherry was frustrating because it would have given Dwight the closure he needed to live in the present instead of wallowing in the past.
It was stupid on Sherry's part to lead her love on a wild goose chase only to give up at the final hurdle. Dwight's purpose on the spin-off has been to find his lover, and we need to see him move beyond that.
I was initially intrigued that Austin Amelio would be bringing his The Walking Dead character over to the spin-off because he was lost in the shuffle on the main series. There were too many characters to give him a decent arc.
But his storyline was infinitely more appealing on the OG series. We need progression from characters, not for them to stay the same week in and week out.
John should have been able to tell Dwight the truth to allow him to move on. It's difficult to watch a series that is doing all of these characters dirty through terrible plotting.
The actors are some of the best on TV, and they should get good material.
What are your thoughts on the latest dumb twists?
Do you still care for to watch?
Hit the comments below.
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
