Fear the Walking Dead 414 recap: MM 54

This week’s Fear the Walking Dead has the group trying to make it through the day following the Filthy Woman’s attack. Here’s your recap of “MM 54.”

Mile Marker 54. It’s sunny and bright, suggesting this is the past.

There’s a wrecked car and a couple who have been in an accident. The man in the passenger seat has been impaled. He knows he doesn’t have long. His wife, Martha, tells him someone will come for them. She’s the Filthy Woman, only she’s not filthy yet. A truck races past and doesn’t stop. Two more cars go by and no one stops.

A Walker comes out of the tree line and she kills it. (That explains why everyone was driving past so quickly.

She gets back into the car and tells her husband that someone will come. He tells her that he wants her to survive. They hold hands.

That night she looks at the walker in the road and mourns her dead husband. She still thinks someone will come, but it’s too late because her husband has turned. He’s stuck in the car but he’s trying to reach her. She wraps a scarf around her hand, takes a piece of glass, and puts him down. Later that night, she digs a grave for him with her bare hands. Later she sits by the grave and cries.

Eventually, the madness starts to take her. She’s talking to herself, alternating between laughing and crying and screaming. Then she makes a fire and sits by the grave.

The next day a truck stops at the site of the wreckage. The woman unloads a box at the mile marker sign. She greets the Martha and offers her some food, supplies. Martha corrects her use of “further” instead of “farther.” She was an English teacher. Stevie, the trucker, thanks her for her help. Martha says she doesn’t help. She stabs her with the pole and kills her.

Next we see Martha using Stevie to kill someone at the next marker. She keeps rotating the walkers with the victim that came before. As it happens, there was a whole network of trucker helpers and Martha was systematically killing them. Her thought: When you help, no one can fend for themselves. She asks the next victim where to find Polar Bear, the man who started this process. She gets into the truck and asks for Polar Bear. But she gets Morgan instead.

Credits: The scene in the distance has changed. There are skyscrapers and a burning building, with smoke billowing into the air.

After the attack, Morgan’s ears are ringing but he’s okay. He gets up, grabs the radio and checks Luciana, who is out cold. June points out the leaking gas.

In the front cab, Wendell calls to Sarah, who hurt her arm. Jim helps unbuckle the seatbelt and they get down as the van turns around.

Wendell tells Sarah and Jim to stay put. He lowers himself outside but finds that his chair has been busted. Everyone gets out of the back of the truck and Al runs for the van, where Filthy Woman unleashes Quinn Walker and aims a gun at June. Wendell shoots Filthy Woman and Morgan saves June by killing the walker.

The truck catches fire so everyone gets out in a hurry as the truck explodes. Jim’s yeast cake was in the truck and he’s upset about that. But what he doesn’t see is a hillside full of walkers heading their way. Filthy Woman gets back up and closes up the van. She drives off, leaving the group to fend for itself. They have no boxes, so supplies, and very little ammunition.

The radio is melted so that won’t be much help. Alicia and Charlie have arrived on scene but the burned out truck has been abandoned. She tells Charlie to stay in the car but she gets out anyway and asks why the woman on the radio would do this. Alicia is near tears but she pulls herself together. They consult a map. Charlie thinks they could be out there. Alicia decides that they probably went East. They drive off.

Sarah and Morgan are on the road and there’s a herd of walkers heading for them. They built a makeshift chair for Wendell. Al picks up that Sarah was in the Marines. Morgan spots a hospital sign but Jim is upset and wants to leave. They say he can go his own way because Morgan saved them so they head out to the hospital, and Jim eventually follows because he can’t face the herd. They’re on a road and in the distance there is a city.

Morgan looks out at the walkers at the window. They have managed to find shelter inside the hospital and June has been able to look at everyone. She tends to Morgan’s hand and he says they won’t be able to stay long, but she thinks they need to stay long enough to catch their breaths.

Inside the hospital Sarah, Al and Wendell look for supplies. They find more walkies and Al tells them not to call in case FW is listening. Sarah says Wendell is ready for another shot. Wendell can understand that when you try to help people things happen. Al asks how he ended up in the chair. He tried to help a friend from being hit by a car when they were ten and he couldn’t walk after that. He wanted to help people even more but when he tried to become a Marine they wouldn’t even process the application. Al understands. Bad things happen when you try to help people.

Charlie and Alicia run out of gas so they keep walking. They find some cars and get gas. Alicia admits that they aren’t looking for their friends, they’re going to Galveston because that’s where the beach is and it’s the only thing she can do for Charlie.

Jim finds Morgan and thanks him for saving his life on several different occasions. He guesses that Morgan wanted to try his beer. Jim is on the verge of an apology but the barrier at the window falls apart and they run from the herd coming in through the opening.

The walkers are surrounding the hospital and heading into the open door. Jim starts freaking out and blaming Morgan for putting them in danger. He says Morgan has to get them out of this, but Sarah tells him to be quiet. Morgan’s solution is to go up. They hit the stairs, looking for a door that doesn’t have walkers blocking it. Wendell has a new wheelchair but they have to pull him up. When they find a clean floor, they build a new barricade. Morgan tells them they need to secure the other stairwells.

Al asks Sarah about the Marines. She says she quit over their code of conduct, and Al guesses it had to do with Wendell being rejected. They find that the stairs are blocked. Morgan wants to go to the roof and he suggests the elevator. June says hospitals put generators on the roof in case of flooding, so Sarah and Al head to the roof. Jim gets attacked by a walker and for the first time he has to fight for himself. He does it.

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Sarah and Al find that they’ll have to split up and Al tells Sarah to go ahead so she can be with her brother. Al says that’s more important than Sarah can know, hinting that she has lost a lot herself.

Luciana, Wendell and June have to make a run for it as the doors fail. The rest of the group meets up at the elevators and Al says she’s close to fixing the generator. The lights come back on and they get inside the elevator. They get to the roof and find that it’s safe. Sarah calls to Al but doesn’t get a response. Luciana says she’s smart and will find a way back to them. Jim sees that they are surrounded by walkers. June spots Jim’s bleeding hand and goes to clean it, but she realizes that he’s been bitten. There’s nothing she can do. “I have beer to make,” he says, refusing to believe his fate. He wants to know how long it will take for him to turn but she doesn’t know.

June goes to Morgan, who is struggling with the realization that he didn’t help Jim with the walker and now he’s going to die. June says he did everything he could for him. She’s confident that Al will make it back. They made it this far. She asks what’s next. Morgan laughs, because he doesn’t know. But he got them there. June asks if he can get them out. She’s confident that he will find a way.

Alicia and Charlie continue their journey through the woods. Charlie knows that they’re too far from the coast and she thinks they should have gone back to look for them. Alicia knows that it comes with risks, so she’s trying to get Charlie to the beach. She thought it would be helpful. She thought it would be “good.” She needs good things at this point. Charlie agrees. There’s a noise, and Charlie goes off because she can hear water.

They come to the lake and see that it’s flooded. It’s like a beach. Alicia smiles. Charlie goes to the edge and finds John Dorie’s hat. Across the lake they see something that makes them both smile. “Holy shit,” Alicia says.

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.

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