Fear the Walking Dead season 5 episode 11 review: Alicia and the art of hope

Alicia took a big step forward in processing her trauma — and just in time because the conflict with Logan is heating up, and the squad needs her skills.

This week on Fear the Walking Dead Alicia was able to start healing from some of the trauma she’s experienced — although not in the way she expected. Ever since she first came across the painted trees, she’s wanted to find the person painting the trees.

When Strand and later Wes asked her why it was so important that she find the person who painted the trees, she said that she wasn’t sure, except that the person doing it saw the world in a way she wanted to see it. It seems like she’s searching for a new perspective that will give her some hope and help her see that there is still some beauty in the world.

Art does have the power to heal trauma, and even though Alicia didn’t get the perspective check she expected this week, she still found a way to use art to help her process all the trauma she’s been through and find a way forward. The surprise reveal of Wes as the artist — and the reveal that he was hunting that man down to get back the book he wrote — says a lot about the value of art in the apocalyptic world.

Even though most people think that surviving in that world is just about physical survival from day to day, the qualities that make people human, like the ability to love, to see beauty, and to have empathy, are just as important. Surviving just for the sake of surviving isn’t sustainable long term. As characters throughout The Walking Dead universe have expressed over and over again, survival has to mean something in order to be worth fighting for.

Could Madison Return?

The tree Alicia was painting at the end was a clear tribute to her mother. “No one’s gone until they’re gone.” This is something that Madison said often, and to fans it’s a sign that Madison might still show up at some point in the future. Although it seems like she was definitely killed when she led the herd away from Nick and Alicia and into the stadium in season four, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have survived.

After all, Daniel Salazar survived the fire at the compound and being shot in the face at the dam. One thing that is certain is that, in the world of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, unless you see a body there’s always a chance that the person could still be alive.

But it’s just as possible that Alicia is simply working through the pain of losing her mother and trying to find her way by paying tribute to Madison with her art. She tried to keep her mother’s legacy alive by becoming a fierce fighter like Madison was, but now she’s going to have to find a way to balance that ability to kill with the ability to love.

The Fight With Logan

Logan’s roadblock almost became a major conflagration when Morgan went over Logan for talking about Jenny and Duane. The situation with Logan is going to come to a head soon because Logan is going to keep doing whatever he can to try and force one of the squad to tell him where those oil fields are.

Morgan’s question about why Logan wants the location of the oil fields instead of just accepting some gas from the squad is a good one, and it hints that there’s more to this conflict than just Logan wanting control of the oil fields.

Could Logan be working for someone else? Is he trying to find the oil fields to make a deal with CRM? Either way, the Fear the Walking Dead squad is going to have to end this conflict one way or another pretty soon if they want to be able to keep performing their mission to help people.

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