Review: Strong start to Fear TWD season 6 with ‘The End is the Beginning’

Fear TWD delivers on a promise of a darker season 6 with a very strong premiere

Morgan Jones is dead, or maybe he’s just undergoing a major transformation. Either way, the Morgan-led Fear TWD season premiere delivered a solid story that alternated between a Western and a fever dream, and it culminated with a very satisfying transformation for a beloved original character.

The past two seasons of Fear the Walking Dead have been steeped in cautious optimism as survivors tried to create a better place in the middle of the apocalypse. Sadly, optimism rarely goes far in the world of the undead and that optimism is gone in season 6 as Morgan Jones proves that he’s not only alive but he’s a wholly different person. This Morgan is trying to finish one last mission before death claims him.

He’s so close to death, in fact, that the dead don’t seem to care about him anymore. (It turns out he’s not immune, rather he has a serious gangrene infection)

Morgan is being pursued by a bounty hunter named Emile (played to perfection by Demetrius Grosse) and during the cat and mouse game he encounters a man named Isaac. Isaac used to be one of Virginia’s rangers but after seeing Morgan’s videos he wanted a different life for himself and his pregnant wife. Later we learn that Isaac is dying, too, and he needs Morgan to help care for his wife Rachel and their newborn daughter, Morgan. They’re living in a village that had once been flooded, so on the map it looks like a lake.

By the end of the episode, Emile is dead and Morgan is sporting his clothing and his battle ax and he’s ready to take on Virginia in the next phase of his life. “Morgan Jones is dead,” he tells her.

This episode was dark, as promised, and it felt like a complete departure from anything we’ve seen on the show thus far. It had the grit of season 3 and the uncertainty that came with the first season. Season 6 wouldn’t even be possible without the worldbuilding done in seasons 4 and 5, which set up a hopeful and optimistic future so that season 6 could tear it apart. Any hope Morgan had of not killing people is gone, replaced by someone who now knows that hesitation will get you killed and you have to kill or be killed in this world or your loved ones will be in great peril.

Lennie James delivered an incredible performance in “The End of the Beginning”. James has shown so much range in the character dating back to season 1 Morgan trying to survive the early days of the apocalypse with his son to “Clear” Morgan to pacifist Morgan and beyond. This new version of Morgan gives James room to play with the character even more, which is impressive for a character who has been around for over a decade.

The episode was written by showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, and it was directed by Michael E. Satrazemis. If ever you needed to make a case for season 6’s anthology format, this episode wins the argument. The storytelling in the episode is top notch and it’s visually stunning as it gives James room to do what he does best.

One of the many compelling aspects of the three-act episode came with the overarching stories that will play out over the course of the season. There are the two men spray painting “the end is the beginning” on the submarine hull while waiting for their key to arrive, and then there is the mystery of the person who helped Morgan after he was shot and left him the note. Those stories are in addition to the stories of the rest of the group, hinting at big things to come in the first half of the season.

We can’t wait to see where Fear TWD goes from here, but if the season 6 premiere is any indication, the future of this dark and macabre apocalypse is very bright.