Fear the Walking Dead season 4 finale review: So, no Alexandria?

Fear the Walking Dead’s season 4 finale leaves with far more questions than answers. Except where our survivors are headed, and it ain’t Alexandria.

Fear the Walking Dead‘s finale left a lot to be desired. I’d say the moment that defined the entire finale, and what those watching were going to have to sit through for about an hour (longer if you count commercials), was Morgan’s brilliant decision to leave the group in search of injured and insane Martha. We get it, Morgan. You don’t kill anymore and you really, really want to help people, likely to make up for all the violence caused by you and your stick on The Walking Dead.

But as John Dorie tries to explain to Morgan, sometimes people are truly past saving and he has to accept that. But of course, Morgan can’t. Partially because he is that stubborn, and also because Fear the Walking Dead‘s survivors can’t actually head to Alexandria right now. Morgan’s pals over on The Walking Dead are now 18 months ahead thanks to a time jump in the story. Thus “I Lose Myself” did the work of torching our group’s plans of heading to Virginia, and leaving us with what looks to be a repeat of Madison’s Stadium community, only this time it will be a denim factory.

I’ll start with a recap and then get to some takeaways for Fear the Walking Dead‘s finale.

“I Lose Myself” begins with a huge sigh of relief, as we learn Althea is alive. But uh, not so well, as she’s running from a herd of walkers. After a quick escape into a garage, Al continues a bit of last week’s theme by miraculously finding a nearly-dead radio, and attempts to get a message out to Morgan and the others. She does catch a bit of luck, as the passionate journalist turns to find a news van filled with equipment. She grabs what she can from the van, loads up a nearby cop car, and shoots out of there.

Althea’s luck runs out just as quickly as she found it, as she comes face to face with Martha and a walker-fied Jim. Martha tells Althea she watched her interview tapes, and believes the two are cut from the same cloth. When Al asks how that could possibly be, Martha notes Al offers aid only to get interviews in return, so she’s not really helping. Before much more can come of this discussion, Martha lets Al know she’s going to carry a message to Morgan, then swiftly knocks her out.

When Al wakes up from the blow, we learn her radio message was indeed heard, and John and June were able to locate and save her. Thus all the survivors are finally reunited and getting ready to head to Virginia. Or so we think. Martha left an ominous message for Morgan, and thus he feels it is his duty to find her and “save” her. John pleads with Morgan to leave her behind so they can head to Alexandria, a city everyone now knows about (as well as the other communities, and King Ezekiel and his tiger).

Morgan wants John and the rest to go on without him to Virginia, and to do good by leaving supply boxes on the road. John’s able to get Morgan to agree to a two-day time frame to find Martha and return. Our survivors head to the gas station Morgan found initially, where we see them discuss what’s next for them. Alicia, Strand and Luciana agree that moving forward is the best decision. John and June share a moment of their own. June wants to explain to John why she was hesitant before about going back to his cabin, noting she was afraid she would not be who he thought she was. John disagrees, offering one of his sweet remarks to June that he’s always known who she was: “It doesn’t take a whole day to recognize sunshine.”

As for Morgan, he’s able to locate Martha, who is face down in the dirt over her husband’s grave. Morgan drags her into the cop car he’s driving, ready to take her back to the gas station and then off to Virginia.

What happens next didn’t shock this viewer, but somehow got the best of Morgan. Martha gains a few sympathy points by telling Morgan how she ended up this way — how she and her husband were left for dead. Pitying her, Morgan offers to give her medicine for her injury, opening up a divider window to the car. Martha yanks his arm and causes the car to crash. Back at the gas station, everyone succumbs to a sickness, which we learn is thanks to Martha mixing antifreeze with all the water bottles there.

When Morgan wakes up from the crash, we see Martha’s stabbed his leg and has written Morgan’s fateful words on his forehead: “I lose people. I lose myself.” We have to give it to this character for always keeping a sharpie around. Despite Martha’s encouragement for Morgan to kill her or he’ll be killed, he refuses, sticking to his nonviolent(ish) ways. Martha taunts him, saying if his friends end up dying, he will become what he used to be, the vengeful vigilante he was back in Virginia.

Once Morgan learns his friends have been poisoned, though, he breaks — just a bit. Despite having been seriously injured, he’s able to handcuff Martha to the car and escape. In Morgan’s eyes, he can’t kill her but handcuffing her to the car will ensure she can never hurt anyone else.

Morgan struggles to get back to the group, finally finding a radio that works to warn them they’re suffering from antifreeze poisoning. June says they need ethanol, and just their luck, a truck outside is full of it. But there’s also a herd of walkers forming out there. Just perfect.

Our survivors rally and battle their way through to the truck. Luciana and Strand are tasked with securing the ethanol. As Strand struggles to get any out, Althea — in her tank — panics that the walkers are starting to make it inside the gas station. She guns the mini-herd down, destroying the tank that was filled with their last hope.

Seemingly out of options, the group returns inside the gas station, and Althea attempts to record a final, fateful message. And just when we think all is lost, Morgan appears with… a truck full of Jim’s beer from his former brewery. Alcohol will do just fine to wash out the antifreeze poisoning, and yes, even underage Charlie gets a bottle.

Morgan, after washing off Martha’s message on his head, returns to find her having somehow chopped off the arm that was handcuffed. She’s wandering nearby as a walker, and Morgan ends her undead life.

In the final moments of the finale, we learn Morgan has changed his mind about going back to Virginia. Instead, he wants to continue Polar Bear’s legacy of delivering supplies to those who need it. The group locates the denim factory he used as a base, and Morgan says it is as good a spot as any to set up a new, budding community. Alicia notes this could even further the mission her mother had with the Stadium to do something “more” for those out there in the post-apocalyptic chaos.

We end things with Morgan and the fellow survivors having beefed up their rides, ready to head out into the unknown and deliver some much-needed aid. As Morgan says on the radio, “Hang in there, we’re coming for you.”