June’s game changing choices in Fear The Walking Dead 606

June was forced to make some big decisions on Fear the Walking Dead this week. Did she make the right ones?

One of the most impressive things about the glow up that Fear the Walking Dead has gotten this season is how authentically these characters are shown to be dealing with trauma. We see a lot of trauma in The Walking Dead universe; it’s a daily part of survival. We don’t, however, usually see the aftermath.

The characters stoically endure loss after loss and trauma after trauma and keep going with their lives. This is a valid creative choice, but it is refreshing to see the characters on Fear TWD this season really struggling with the fallout from those traumas.

It looks like all of the characters are going to be forced to reckon with their trauma this season. In last week’s episode “Honey” we saw Sherry and Dwight splinter because Sherry is still struggling to process her Negan related trauma. Dwight is too, in his own way. In “The Key” we saw John Dorie, who has the purest heart in the apocalypse world, in a deep existential struggle as he tries to figure out to reconcile life under Virginia’s rule with his authentic dedication to doing what’s right.

This week it was June’s turn. She had some big choices to make and she made what she thinks are authentic choices but in the end, those decisions may change the course of her future as well the futures of the people she considers family.

Saving Virginia

Obviously, the most controversial choice June made in this episode was the choice to save Virginia’s life by amputating her hand after she was bitten by a walker. If she had done nothing Virginia would have died and no one would have been able to blame June because of the bite. It was the perfect out for June and the perfect way to end Virginia’s rule. There was would have been no retaliation against any of June’s loved ones and they could have assimilated into the communities that Virginia has built. So why didn’t June let her die?

Virginia was probably trying to manipulate June into amputating her hand by talking about her love for Dakota and asking June to make sure Dakota was taken care of. June would have been able to see through that manipulation easily. However, Virginia does authentically care about her sister, and June can relate to that.

But possibly the real reason why June didn’t let Virginia die was that she decided, in those few minutes, that having leverage over Virginia would give her what she needed to help more people. She knew that she could get finally get her to the hospital. And she planned to staff that hospital with as many of their people as possible to get them all back together in one group. Then they could all leave Virginia’s community together.

It was an authentic decision for June, but will it cost her a future with John?

Choosing To Stay

At the end of the episode as June made plans for the hospital John tried to tell June that he still planned on escaping but she told him that now she wanted to stay. Even though it was a painful decision he took what he knew might be his only opportunity and left anyway. He knew that now June would be safe from Virginia’s wrath because of the leverage she has. But what will the cost be to their relationship? Did June just sacrifice her future to stay in Lawton?

It’s possible that June just saved their future by keeping Virginia alive and by staying in Lawton. John doesn’t know yet about whoever sabotaged the oil well and is leaving those cryptic messages everywhere but it’s very possible that this new threat is far worse than Virginia. June may have given them a powerful ally by keeping Virginia alive, and now that she’s working with Virginia she may be in a unique position to keep everyone she loves safe.

It will be interesting to see what the fallout from June’s choices is, and how this new threat develops. But one this is for sure – it’s fantastic to see Fear The Walking Dead go deep into who these characters are and show the aftermath of the trauma and tough decisions they’ve had to make.

Don’t miss the midseason finale of Fear The Walking Dead this Sunday, November 22nd on AMC. Live tweet with us @SonyaIryna and @CulturessFS.