Fear the Walking Dead: Strand’s rules cut the rope
By Susie Graham
Victor Strand made a harsh move at the end of Sunday’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead. Victor has been the mystery since the beginning yet he’s the most consistent.
Victor’s mystery doesn’t come from inconsistency in his actions, rather in his hiding of certain motives or agendas that he may have. However, he never intended to have company on his trip on Abigail. Is he really obligated to disclose everything to his guests?
Strand is in an interesting predicament as a survivor and as a character. He did save Nick, but Nick’s family and group saved him and brought him back to his house. They all could have separated though at any juncture. Strand could have said, have my house and good luck.
Audience members have the benefit of 7 seasons of The Walking Dead to temper their perspective of Strand’s pragmatism. People are very forgiving of Strand here, including me, where we might have really hated him in season 1 of The Walking Dead, as a Shane-like character who didn’t want to go back for a “douchebag” like Merle Dixon.
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Dave Erickson talked to Entertainment Weekly about Strand and his decisions:
"“Here’s the thing: Strand, you know, it’s his boat, and I think that at the end of last week when Madison and Travis brought Harry back to the boat and wanted to save that little boy, Strand said, “No, we’re not going to do this. Children are the definition of dead weight.”But the truth of the matter is, if Harry’s brother had not shown up with his rifle and demanded the return of his brother, Strand would’ve lost that argument. He was outnumbered. Madison, Travis, Alicia, Nick — they all would’ve backed the idea of bringing this boy on board, and he knows that, and I think he missed that conflict by the skin of his teeth. So, this week, when he sees them trying to play that card again — he’s adamant. You can’t do it.It puts Madison in an interesting position because Travis has to step up. First of all, he has to let everybody know that Mexico is where they’re going, and he’s backing Madison’s play. And then when he sees her backed into a position that she doesn’t like to be in, her instinct is to take care of Alex and take care of Jake, but she knows that she’s brokered this peace and this deal with Strand, and she doesn’t want to compromise that either.So it puts Travis in a position where he has to do half measure, which he hates, and he puts them on the raft. But for Strand, what he realizes is this half measure, this compromise, is one step closer to him losing control, and at that point, he’s pacing upstairs because he’s fearful that it’s going to be this today, it’ll be something else tomorrow, and suddenly, you know, it becomes mutiny.So when he goes down there, that’s his statement. That’s him saying, you know, we’ve given them some water. We’ve given them food. I’m not bringing them any further. It’s my boat, and in the future, you’ll remember this. You’ll remember the lengths that I’m willing to go to. But it absolutely puts everybody in a very frayed, challenged position going into the next episode, but then something else rears its head, and it takes that off the agenda for a while.”"
Strand sounds like The Governor in that description. He needs to establish his authority over this paradise that he’s provided for his people. It’s also a little “Strandtatorshop”. Strand is saying just what Rick did after the farm. He’s telling them if they think they can do this without him, have at it, but if they are going to board his boat, it’s not a democracy any more.
I love the mélange of characters built into these characters. It’s fun to make parallels and comparisons, but, of course, Fear the Walking Dead is completely separate, and the characters have their own personalities and their individual distinctive experiences irrespective of The Walking Dead.
So instead of wondering if Strand is the going to be like new Governor or Merle or Rick. I need to remember that Strand is the new Strand!