Fear The Walking Dead, Season Six: Who ISN’T The Worst?

1) Virginia

Virginia, as villains goes, is little more complex than most. Yes, she’s a ruthlessly pragmatic dictator, but it isn’t simply because she’s a megalomaniac. We learned in this season, there’s a method to her madness, so to speak.

Before we get to that, let’s get some of the good things she did out of the way.

Firstly, she’s a woman of her word, having upheld her end of the bargain she and Morgan made at the end of last season and didn’t kill any members of the convoy before Morgan’s reemergence. She even found jobs (Sometimes good jobs) for some of them. She made Dwight and Althea advance scouts, allowing them the freedom to explore eastern Texas. She made June (With Sarah as her chauffeur) the Pioneers’ chief medical officer, following the death of Doctor Holt sometime after the group was absorbed. She made John one of Lawton’s rangers, allowing him to put his skills as a police officer to good use. She also put Charlie and Janis into the “Suicide Squad” (The collection of people Virginia found no other use for but to try to kill a herd of walkers inside a dark warehouse), that’s not cool, but under Strand’s leadership, they were able to clear out the warehouse. Then she promoted them all so, I think it balances out.

She also recognized The Beginners for what they were: A dangerous cult of weirdos that needed to be stopped. So, all-in-all, she was okay, she’s not running for “Governor” anytime soon, let’s just say that.

Now, as to why she’s does what she does, that all comes down to Dakota. As we learned in Virginia’s final episode, she was not Dakota’s older sister, but her mother. This puts some of her actions in a different light.

For example, the reason she kept a tight rein on Dakota (Enough that Dakota chaffed under it) was that she was trying to protect her, better than her parents protected her as a child and Dakota in turn. Furthermore, as we discovered more about Dakota, we also learned the reason why Virginia chose to railroad Janis over Cameron’s murder was not necessarily out of spite, but because she knew if Dakota’s personality flaw was discovered, the community would have demanded, at best, Dakota’s exile, and at worst, her execution.

Does this excuse Virginia railroading Janis? No, but, I’m also inclined to think that, considering Janis’s despair after Cameron’s death, Virginia probably figured Janis wouldn’t care one way or another what happened to her. Who knows? Janis may have expressed as much, giving Virginia what she saw as the green light to use her as a scapegoat, and protect Dakota.

I know this isn’t an excuse, but it must be difficult discovering that your daughter is a monster and that you have to build a tower of lies in the hope that it’ll buy you time to try to find a solution to that problem. If nothing else, it makes you realize that Virginia’s actions weren’t necessarily out of ruthlessness or callousness, but rather, out of desperation, and vain hope of avoiding something that was, ultimately, inevitable.