Season 5, Episode 11: You're Still Here
PLOT: Alicia goes on a spiritual journey while a stranded motorist causes trouble.
REVIEW: After two episodes that brought to mind George A. Romero movies – DIARY OF THE DEAD with Channel 4, DAWN OF THE DEAD with 210 Words Per Minute (from the director of TREMORS!) – here we reach an episode that is thoroughly, uniquely Fear the Walking Dead. Specifically the show that Fear has become since the new showrunners took over last season, as You're Still Here dives into what the villainous Logan (Matt Frewer) would call "kumbaya horseshit".
Logan is lurking around in this episode and has a tense confrontation with Althea (Maggie Grace) and The Walking Dead crossover character Morgan (Lennie James), but the main focus here is the spiritual journey Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) has been on ever since getting splattered with irradiated zombie blood in episode 7 of this season. After that happened, she swore off killing zombies, has been taking aikido lessons from Morgan, and has become fascinated by the sight of painted trees that someone has written "If you're reading this, you are still here" on. Now she's on a mission to find the person who paints these trees, which would seem to me like a hopeless endeavor in the zombie-filled apocalypse, but Alicia thinks it's possible and she has dragged Strand (Colman Domingo) along on her road trip so he can kill zombies for her. Alicia's goal here is to get this painter to show her how to have such a beautiful, hopeful view of the world.
It has been disappointing to watch the character who was the show's most badass zombie killer turn into a pacifist who's obsessed with tree paintings, especially since it has rendered her so helpless that she has to call out for Strand to save her from a couple zombies at the beginning of the episode. I consider Alicia to be the most important character on this show, since she has been around since the beginning and the characters who I previously thought were the most important – her mom Madison and brother Nick – made their exits in season 4. But this is not the Alicia I want to see. I want her to be a strong, zombie destroying leader, not a flower child in distress.
There has been some speculation that Madison could still be alive and be the person who is out there painting trees, but I never gave that thought much consideration. Painting fancy messages on trees doesn't seem like an activity that she would get up to. I would understand Alicia's quest more if she seemed convinced that it was Madison doing all this, but that isn't the purpose she states.
As Alicia and Strand wander the countryside hoping to bump into this tree painter, they cross paths with Wes (Colby Hollman), a young man who has found himself stranded on the road after a run-in with Logan and his lackeys, who thought he was part of Morgan's group. Wes is an interesting, complicated character with his own agenda and a cynical view of the world. The opposite of what Alicia is looking for. Alicia and Strand meet him early on, and spend the majority of the episode dealing with the tough situation he gets them caught up in.
Thankfully, this complicated situation involves a lot of zombies, as the characters end up trapped inside a police station that's surrounded by the flesh-eaters. Which is a bigger problem for Alicia than ever before now that she relies on other people to do all the zombie killing for her. Even with Alicia stepping back this episode did still have some cool action moments, including one in which Strand causes himself some trouble when he accidentally fires a tear gas canister into a zombie's guts, and another where Wes gets to act like a hero. Something this character doesn't seem to do very often. In fact, toward the end of the episode he's the cause of a scene that was actually quite sad.
While it's frustrating to watch Alicia be a lesser character than she used to be, You're Still Here held my attention with its examination of who Wes is and the moments of zombie action. I don't have high hopes for the rest of this season because I have no interest at all in what's going on with Logan and his search for the oil fields that Morgan and company have access to, but this was a decent episode when taken on its own.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: Unfortunately for the zombies, the best zombie moments in these Walking Dead shows often involve zombies being taken out of this world. Such is the case for You're Still Here, where my favorite zombie moment involves Wes showing off his shooting skills by wiping out the flesh-eaters that have Alicia and Strand trapped in the police station.
GORY GLORY: There were some gross sights to behold in this one, like the moment where a zombie gets wrapped in vines and pulls itself apart while trying to reach some fresh meat, and another where a bunch of zombies are seen feasting on an animal carcass. But my favorite display of gore comes when Strand impales a zombie through the head, then manages to rip its off head off its shoulders when he pulls his weapon away.
FAVORITE SCENE: At the end of the episode, Alicia sets aside the "I can't kill zombies anymore" mindset and stabs a zombie in the head.
FINAL VERDICT: