Fear The Walking Dead Villains: Who’s The Worst, Part 2
By Liam O'Leary
As the zombie outbreak becomes a full-blown zombie apocalypse, people in Fear The Walking Dead became worse. But…who was THE WORST?
As we delve deeper into Season Three of Fear The Walking Dead, it occurs to me, I forgot to ask who was the worst villain of Season Two! Well, allow me to rectify that mistake!
Since this season was much bigger than its predecessor, obviously, we have more baddies to sink our teeth into. On top of the season being bigger, the villains seemed bigger in their villainy, too. Some were straight-up criminals, some were twisted sociopaths, others we watched slowly descend into becoming Shaniacs.
But, who was the worst? I suppose the only way to find out is to break things down, and we’ll start with…
Reed
We’re starting off with a doozy.
Early in Season Two, we were introduced to a band of pirates, the worst amongst them was Reed.
Why? Well Reed was the enforcer of his brother Connor’s (We’ll get to him) crew, ensuring captives did as they were told.
If all he did we simply hold people hostage until his cohorts took what they wanted, that wouldn’t be that bad. However, that wasn’t all he did.
Reed also helped lull other mariners into a false sense of security, feigning panic and desperation as he, Jack, and Vida would make their way onto peoples’ boats before taking them hostage.
Now, these two things don’t make an especially evil person. They don’t. What does is his penchant for killing people.
He makes it perfectly clear to Alicia when she recognizes Jack that it’s “no skin of [his] nose” to kill the group; A fact he states about as casually as if he were saying he prefers hot dogs over hamburgers.
Additionally, see the look on his face in this picture? This is him attempting to kill Strand as he tries to escape the siege. He looks this way because he’s annoyed Jack wouldn’t do it. That right: Killing someone is as routine to him as a tedious chore.
But, that isn’t enough. Reed also seemed to get a bit of a kick out of hurting and taunting people.
Upon having captured the group, he repeatedly taunted Chris, threatened to kill him if Travis didn’t restart the ship and made a point of squeezing Ofelia’s wounded shoulder when he discovered her gunshot wound.
Oh, and he seemed to take umbrage with the very idea of Travis insulting his intelligence. When Travis tried to say how complicated starting The Abigail without the key was, Reed immediately assumed Travis was saying he was simple. Don’t worry, this will all come together.
You see, I wasn’t being completely accurate earlier. As Jack later reveals to Alicia, regardless of what his brother says, Reed, inevitably, kills everyone on the ships the pirates take. God only knows how many people he’d already killed!
When you add all of this together, you get a picture of someone who appears to be some sort of sociopath. He seemed narcissistic, needlessly cruel and seemed to enjoy wielding power over others, particularly the power over life and death. In short, a serial killer.
I honestly don’t know what else to say here. The only thing that prevents Reed orbiting Martin territory is the fact that we didn’t see him actually kill anybody. If we had, he’d likely end up amongst the pantheon of great Walking Dead villains.
That aside, he’s still quite unique in the Walking Dead universe: A full-blown serial killer with countless bodies under his belt. A textbook example of someone who, once the walls of civilization come crumbling down, truly becomes a monster. Reed epitomizes my oft-used phrase: “The zombie apocalypse brings out the worst of us, and the worst in us.
Next: I Am My Brother's Keeper