Fear The Walking Dead: A Bad End

In a series called “The Walking Dead”, people are GOING to die. But, there’s a way to do it, and a way NOT TO. Chris was an example of the latter.

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way right now: Unless in the very unlikely event of Brandon and Derek lying about killing him (Which would make no sense) Chris is dead. I do not believe he’s alive or hiding somewhere, or any other ridiculous possibility. He’s dead, and I accept that.

That said, and, while I’m a pretty staunch defender of Fear The Walking Dead, I feel the way Chris’s death was handled was awful.

This isn’t the first time, nor likely the last time, that someone will disagree with how a death was handled on a Walking Dead show. Whether it’s because of a character’s popularity, departure from their comic equivalent’s death, etc., people aren’t necessarily always going to be happy how certain characters die. It’s just the way things are.

Case In Point: Beth

A great example of what I speak is the reaction to Beth’s death in The Walking Dead’s season five mid-season finale, “Coda”.

In the aftermath of Beth’s death, there was a great deal of anger at how it was done. I recall seeing a great many people on Tumblr expressing their rage at Beth’s demise for a great variety of reasons.

People complained that Beth’s death was only used to further another character’s story (Though, frankly, that could be argued of many TWD characters), that “her story wasn’t over”, I even saw people try to make a case that she was alive, somehow, despite her death being quite final. All of these were amongst the reactions I saw after her death.

Rest assured, I’m not going to argue that Chris is alive still, nor that because “his story wasn’t over” that he shouldn’t have died because of that. I will argue, however, that from a story perspective, Chris’s death could have been done better, but, first, let’s look at his death and see why it could have been done better.

Abrupt and Brutal

If there’s two words to describe Chris’s demise in the first half of the Fear The Walking Dead season two finale, they’d be “abrupt” and “brutal”.

Was it brutal in the same sense as Travis’s bludgeoning of Brandon and Derek? Nope. Not even slightly.

But, it was brutal in its “matter-of-fact”-ness. There was no lengthy scene, no Chris begging Brandon like James did, not even Brandon giving him the courtesy of an apology like he gave James; Brandon and Derek just walked up to a crippled Chris…and gunned him down like an animal. That’s it.

I think, of all the deaths I’ve seen in either Walking Dead series so far, that might have been the most brutal. No other character that I can think of had such a heartless and swift death. If nothing else, the stickler for accuracy in me sees that as one of the most honest depictions yet of how cheap life can be in a zombie apocalypse, and how suddenly it can end.

A Missed Opportunity

My biggest criticism of Chris’s death, while I certainly found it accurate (Perhaps the most accurate yet), was that it left me feeling like a huge opportunity was missed.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the way the death went down (Actually, as I write this, I start to like it more and more for its aforementioned accuracy), Hell, I could even picture his death still going down the same way, but, it’s the abruptness that bothers me the most.

In “Date Of Death”, we watched Chris literally leave Travis in the dust. And, in “Wrath”, we watched Chris get put down like an animal. Literally, the next episode.

We had almost no time to really absorb this new Chris, this eerily calm, increasingly remorseless version of him. We spent so much of the season watching Chris drift closer and closer to this darker place that, when he finally crossed over, we weren’t ready to watch him just get squashed like a bug (Incidentally, how were Brandon and Derek NOT squashed like bugs when the truck flipped? It’s just weird, is what I’m saying).

I feel like there was so much opportunity for character development from Chris from this point. I can picture a season three of Fear where we follow Chris, Brandon, and Derek as they’ve crossed back into the U.S., but Chris, without anyone really to guide him, becomes increasing callous and violent.

In this scenario, we could see Chris start to rack up kills until, finally, even Brandon and Derek start to see Chris as dangerous, and either abandon him, or at the first opportunity (Perhaps even the crash, though at a later point), get rid of him.

Another possibility could have seen the opposite. We could have seen Brandon, Derek, and Chris take on a new companion that Chris befriends. We, through Chris, would watch as Brandon becomes progressively worse, eventually executing Chris’s new friend for an even flimsier reason than James was.

In this scenario, we could see Chris slowly begin to understand what Travis was trying to teach him. We could see Chris finally realize, just before the crash how much Derek and especially Brandon are not his friends, and are, in fact, becoming dangerous killers.

Chris, possibly daydreaming about what Travis was trying to tell him, would realize he needs to get away, only to flip the truck. Chris would end up gunned down by his “friends”, just as he starts to get back to normal.

What’s Dead Is Dead

Chris, however, is dead. And, sadly, none of these scenarios (I had more, believe me) can come to fruition.

Perhaps more than any other death in Walking Dead, Chris’s leaves so much on the table. I believe and will continue to believe that the death was supremely effective, but its timing was the complete opposite.

They cut off a potentially great character study in Chris; Either a tragic tale of a descent into evil, or an equally tragic story of discovery and redemption, far sooner than I believe they should have.

Hopefully, season three (And any potential seasons after that) will give us a great many compelling stories for our main cast, so that this blown opportunity, while perfect fodder for a potential “Walking Dead What-ifs” article in the future, doesn’t become a glaring example of a great direction the writers could have taken that could have saved the series.

Next: Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Assumptions

But, what do you guys think? Were you okay with Chris’s death? Upset it didn’t come earlier? Or, do you agree with me that the writers left a great opportunity on the table? Let me know in the comments!

And, of course, if you like this and want to hear my thoughts on how to survive the zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book: The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can get it on Kindle here and on iTunes here!