Fear the Walking Dead 512 recap: Ner Tamid

This week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead features a look at hope and faith in the apocalypse. Here’s your recap of “Ner Tamid.”

Fear the Walking Dead episode “Ner Tamid” begins with a rabbi lighting a candle before starting his prayer. When he pauses, you can hear the dead outside and he says that he’d let them in if they were alive, but they have nothing to talk about. The knocking continues, though, so he dons his jacket and grabs a gun. When he opens the door the walker falls to the ground and he uses the bayonet to kill it. He continues his search outside and finds that the gate is unlocked.

After locking the gate he sees two walkers attacking a car. He fights one off but the other one knocks him to the ground. Then the car door opens and he’s able to shoot it. Charlie pokes her head out and he says hello as if these were the most normal circumstances. Charlie says she saw the light from the temple and Rabbi Jacob Kessner explains that the light is “Ner Tamid”, the flame of truth that guides people to God. He offers her food and a towel.

The camera pans back to show that the temple is surrounded by a wall of fencing and cars to keep the walkers out.

This week’s credits feature a night scene with the SWAT van in the foreground. It’s open and there’s a light inside.

A walker moves along in the darkness but the SWAT van runs him over. The rest of the convoy follows until he’s a pancake. They form a circle and quickly set up their fencing, working together in unison. They’re a well oiled machine. Sarah throws a welcome mat down and steps down on it, telling everyone to gas up.

The next morning John tells June that the group is getting worn out. They’re driving by night and defending themselves during the day and it’s wearing them down. Dwight comes up and Sarah tells him they’re going to Tanktown, but he says that the head count is off and someone is missing.

Next we see Charlie as she wakes up in the temple. The light is coming through the stained glass windows and it’s a beautiful sight. She smiles.

Outside, the Rabbi is clearing the fences. Charlie offers to help and he teases her about sleeping in. She makes noise to draw them over and she reveals that she was separated from her group. He says that they need to get her back to her people, and she asks if he really thinks God brought her there. As a man of the cloth he’s not going to give her direct answers, but when his watch beeps he excuses himself to the day’s service.

While Rabbi Jacob prepares, Charlie asks what happened to all of his people, and he says the same thing that happened to everyone else. He used to talk to his congregation about the souls of the dead rising after they die and now he’s praying with an empty temple as if they are there.

Suddenly the lights flicker and he panics. The car battery that he was using to power the light is starting to go out but Charlie has an idea.

Charlie calls June and explains that she didn’t get left behind, rather she ran away from the group in search of a place that they can call home. She tells June that they need to come see the temple for themselves.

Jacob heard her conversation. But he’s distracted by the walker at the door. He guesses that there is a gap somewhere in the fence and he tells her to wait inside while he checks the perimeter. As he walks around we see the barren wasteland that was the temple’s gardens. He sees a walker coming out of a building and he pulls her out and kills her, then he patches up the hole. The walkers inside try to break the door down and the look on his face suggests he knew these people. They were his people. He puts his hands on the door and says a prayer for the walkers inside.

Charlie turns the light back on and Jacob smiles. John and June says that it was the least they can do since he protected Charlie. He asks how many people there are and June says 36, which is the number of righteous people left in the world. Charlie wants to stay and help mend the fence. John offers him a candy, and Jacob checks to make sure it’s kosher. He offers John a yarmulke to wear for hashem and John puts it on, then he puts his hat on over it.

Outside June kills a walker and then tries to explain to Charlie why the temple won’t work as a home for the group. It’s not perfect, Charlie says, but it’s better than the convoy. She lived like that before and she doesn’t want to go back to it. June wonders if this is what her anger is about, the past, but she assures Charlie that the caravan won’t go bad. Charlie isn’t so sure.

Sarah and Dwight share a drink and Sarah can’t believe that Dwight actually likes it. They search for signs of anyone in the distance. Sarah asks how long Dwight has been on his own, and he admits it has been a long time. He says that he almost lost it a few times but the idea of Sherry being out there kept him going. He says he’d watch the walkers and wonder how far they had been wandering.

He spots Logan’s people in the distance. They found them.

Charlie discovers that Jacob has been keeping a vineyard in the backyard. Charlie thinks God led her there for a reason, and she reveals that she wants to stay there but Jacob doesn’t think it’s a good idea. She wants to stay and help keep the lamp lit.

Sarah calls and says Logan’s people caught up to them. They head out but they need the SWAT van. Unfortunately, the whole courtyard is full of walkers. Jacob reveals that they’re there because of him. It’s his congregation.

Jacob explains that his people created a community there and they were low on supplies, but he left to get more and when he returned they were all gone. From the roof they can see that there are too many of them to fight off.

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John decides to climb down a ladder to a nearby van. June follows. They use the ladder as a walkway to walk over the walkers to the next car. Charlie and the Rabbi watch as June makes the trip.

Sarah and Dwight drive ahead of Logan’s men. One of them calls on the radio. It’s Rollie, the man Dwight freed, is in one of the trucks.

John and June continue their trek to the SWAT van. John falls down but he’s able to make it to June. They have one more trip across the ladder to make but the ladder falls and they’re surrounded.

Charlie asks Jacob about his gun but he can’t use bullets on his people. June tells Charlie that she knows how they fix this. Charlie refuses to believe that they could give the temple up. Jacob reveals that he doesn’t believe in God and hasn’t in a long time. He says he actually left them because he was losing faith. He was looking for faith and when he came back they were dead. He doesn’t know what happened to them while he was gone. He’s alive because he didn’t believe in God. He’s trying to hold on to the past and warns her not to lose her people. Finally, Charlie admits that June is right. She wipes away tears and asks Jacob if he has anything that makes a lot of noise.

June tells John that maybe she was wrong about staying on the move. John says it might just be the world they’re living in.

Suddenly there’s the sound of a horn. It’s Jacob, blowing into a ram’s horn. They lead the dead inside the temple and then John and June lock the dead inside. Jacob and Charlie watch from the upper levels and he apologizes that it’s not a place to call home. The light goes out. Jacob’s watch beeps and hashem calls.

Sarah says the tanker is running low on gas. It lets up under a bridge with Logan’s men right behind them. Sarah says if they go down, they go down with the ship. Dwight says it has been fun riding with her. “You too, Babyface,” she says. Suddenly the trucks drive away. The SWAT van rolls up and saves the day.

Charlie apologizes but June says she has been pushing too hard. June says that she thought she would find what she’s looking for. Jacob comes up and says that he’s ready to look for what he needs. June smiles and says that they will keep looking.

Sarah asks Jacob if he knows when Yom Kippur is and she reveals she’s also Jewish.

Dwight is worried that Logan’s men left for a reason. They don’t do anything by chance.

Logan’s men radio him and say that they’re as far from him as possible. They pull up on a quarry and Logan tels Doris that they’re on their way to the promise land. Looks like Logan found the oil fields.

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