Fear TWD season 6 episode 3 review: Die Hard meets the apocalypse

Fear TWD season 6 continues to deliver complex and multifaceted episodes

There’s a lot to break down in Fear TWD season 6 episode 3’s “Alaska.” From fighting off walkers to get to the roof of an office building to dealing with a whole new outbreak, “Alaska” had it all. Director Colman Domingo brought the masterpiece of an episode to life, and it delivered on all fronts.

After a season spent trying to inspire hope in dark times, the survivors find themselves in the middle of even darker times. “Alaska” follows Al and Dwight’s mission as Virginia’s scouts, but their journey takes a detour when they decide to rendezvous with Isabelle after they hear her on the radio.

The discovery of a whole group of people living in an office building would be big enough, as it’s not often you find large groups living in the same place they started out in the apocalypse anymore, but in the case of Nora and the survivors there is a whole new layer of complications: They have the plague. They have zero reason to trust Al and Dwight, which suggests that they have seen some things, and when Dwight contracts the plague the whole episode turns upside down.

Add to that walkers in stairwells, tight spaces and the freaking Black Plague and you have all of the ingredients of a very successful episode.

I really enjoyed the easy going relationship between Dwight and Al. They are very comfortable with each other, respectful of boundaries and supportive when the other needs it. We’ve seen friendships like this in the TWD Universe but this one is special because Al and Dwight are both lone wolves who are perfectly capable of working on their own, yet they realize that they’re stronger together.

Al’s choice to send Isabelle away is a big one. She has been searching for Isabelle for all this time, and indeed the only reason they ended up in the building in the first place was to find her, but at the end of the day Al’s connection to Dwight, the desire to do the right thing and her desire to protect Isabelle were more important and that says a lot about Al and the person she is.

And obviously Dwight’s reunion with Sherry was everything fans could hope for. You could see in their eyes how happy they were to see each other and it was a reunion for the record books. Of course, now that Sherry is back, it will be interesting to learn what she has been doing, how she ended up in the city and what she knows about Virginia (and CRM, for that matter) because Virginia hinted that she knew Sherry.

Now that we’ve met Nora and the other survivors in the office building, the big question is whether or not we’ll see them again. (Hint: Likely yes, because Nora is going to be a recurring character on the show) Al and Dwight want to protect them from Virginia, so it’s possible that they connect with Morgan somehow.

What intrigues me the most, though, is the idea of using the rats to “weaponize” the Black Plague. Over the years we’ve seen walkers in rivers, wells and lakes to contaminate water supplies, as seen most recently with Dante’s sabotage in TWD season 10. Who would want to kill groups of survivors, and why are they resorting to such extreme measure to do it?

That there is a whole case of Cipro, the drug needed to cure the plague, on the roof of the building is a huge coincidence, or it could be anything but a coincidence. Did CRM know the plague was out there, or did they stock it so that they could use it when they cleared the building?

“Alaska” is another great episode that challenges what we think we know about this ever-changing TWD Universe, and it helps to lay the foundation for the larger story that is coming as the season progresses.

Fear TWD airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.