Fear The Walking Dead: IS Virginia The Bad Sister?

If you saw this week’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead, then you saw the same revelation that I did: Dakota murdered Cameron, and then, to cover it up, murdered John, too.

I was floored, to be honest. We’ve spent the entire first half of this season sympathizing with Dakota for wanting to get away from her ruthless older sister, who murdered their parents. Throughout the season, she’s been trying to help Morgan’s group establish their own permanent home away from the Pioneers and even snuck away to join them at the end of the season finale; It’s what made her actions in this week’s episode such a swerve.

After finding what Dakota has done in this week’s Fear The Walking Dead, have we misjudged Virginia? Is she REALLY the bad sister? I’m not so sure

This revelation has made me take a serious look back and reassess both Dakota and Virginia, and while Virginia is no angel, I’m starting to wonder if she’s really as bad as we’ve been led to believe.

Let’s go back a second and look at what we know about Virginia. We know that she was an efficiency expert before the outbreak, that she tried to have Tom killed when she and her Pioneers took over Tom’s Paradise Ridge apartment complex, we know that she killed Logan and the remainder of his crew after having second thoughts about forcing Morgan’s group to give up Tank Town. We know that she sent Emile out to hunt down Morgan after shooting him and leaving him to die at the end of last season. Like I said, no angel.

But, as bad as she is, her actions, from her standpoint, make sense; she was an efficiency expert, after all. Why kill Tom? Because, once they’d take over the apartment complex, he was “surplus to requirements,” a leader with no one to lead, and a potential threat to her rule. Janis? After this week’s episode, it seems like Virginia’s desire to get rid of her wasn’t as personal as we might have thought, just a belief that she might carry a grudge. Why keep a loyalist from the old regime?

Logan and his crew? If they were, potentially, going to help Morgan’s group (And not take Tank Town to give to her), they just become more enemies, and therefore, more potential threats. Morgan? Same thing.

Virginia had, to her credit, been holding up her end of the bargain with Morgan and wasn’t harming anyone from the convoy and just finding them some odd job to do at one of the communities. Still, she feared that, with Morgan’s fate uncertain, it could foment rebellion among the rest of the group, which could undermine the stability she’d created.

Ruthless though it is, it all, on some level, makes sense. Virginia is, above all else, a pragmatist and doesn’t just kill people for stupid reasons.

Contrast that with Dakota. As we would discover in this week’s episode of Fear, Dakota was the one who killed Cameron. By extension, because Virginia was trying to cover for her, Dakota also got Janis killed, as she ended up taking the rap for the murder.

This all might have been one thing if Dakota had killed Cameron in self-defense or mistaken identity, but as would also be revealed in this week’s episode, the reason Dakota killed him…was just stupid.

Dakota killed Cameron because he’d caught her sneaking out of Lawton and was going to tell Virginia. That’s it. Say what you will about Virginia, but one thing she’s been consistent about is her concern for her little sister, constantly worrying about her when she’s thought her in trouble, even willing to negotiate with Morgan in exchange for her guaranteed safety, so…what the Hell was Dakota worried about? That Virginia would kill her?! If she was going to do that, don’t you think she would have by now?

My point is Dakota’s reason for murder was petty. You could chalk that up to the ruthless efficiency of Virginia’s leadership having unintended consequences on her, but, come on, Dakota is not disturbed the same way Lizzie was; she clearly knows, on some level, what’s right and what isn’t.

What makes this all the worse is that, when John realized what she’d done, while he was angry, he also openly told her he believed that mentoring her was his reason for carrying on in the apocalypse. She didn’t listen, not only shooting him but then just shoving him off of the bridge into the river below. Dakota murdered John basically to stop him from telling people something he was telling her he wasn’t going to tell people!

Even if we say this makes sense to Dakota, it still looks petty compared to why Virginia kills people. Virginia’s reasons aren’t “good” by any means, but it makes sense to someone running a large collection of communities in a very ruthlessly efficient way. On the other hand, Dakota’s seem…out of proportion, like killing a mouse with a sawed-off shotgun.

After this week’s Fear The Walking Dead, I’m wondering if maybe Virginia, as bad as she is, is the better of her and her sister, that, ruthless though she may be, doesn’t do things for no reason, whereas Dakota…you don’t really know what she’s going to do next, or why. If I’m honest, I’m also starting to wonder if Virginia really did murder her and Dakota’s parents, we only have Dakota’s word to go on, after all, and that doesn’t count for as much as it used to.

What do you guys think? Which sister do you think is the bad seed? Virginia? Dakota? Or, do you think one is just as bad as the other? Let me know! I’m curious! If you like this and want to learn how you can survive the zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!