Fear the Walking Dead Cindy Hawkins season 7 episode 3

In the most recent Fear the Walking Dead episode “Cindy Hawkins,” we got a look at what June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) and her father-in-law John Dorie Sr. (Keith Carradine) have been up to since the bombs were detonated. They took refuge in Teddy’s (John Glover) bunker and have actually faired quite nicely.

This episode showed a Ground Hog Day of sorts, where each day’s routine was precisely the same. But, even though the pair were stuck in the bunker, there were many things available to keep them occupied. There was food to prepare, electricity generated by a stationary bike, and even board games to play. This was a bit of a sad nod to June and John Jr’s days at the cabin playing Scrabble.

Teddy set this bunker up to sustain him for the long haul. He didn’t buy into his theory for all of his words about the end being the beginning, which is typical of most cult leaders. But, luckily for June and John Sr., they were able to survive in his bunker.

Fear the Walking Dead Cindy Hawkins

Life seems to be going smoothly for the duo until it isn’t. A shift in the ground reveals another room, and it isn’t something pleasant. This room is where Teddy committed the murders of the girls that John Sr. was investigating. The scene that meets John and June is gruesome. The room is a torture chamber complete with the embalming apparatus like Teddy was using at The Holding.

The episode takes us deep into John’s guilt over never finding the body of the last of Teddy’s victims. Her name was Cindy Hawkins (Brittany Bradford), and he promised her mother he would find and put her to rest.

When John starts to hallucinate visions of Cindy, the viewer knows things are bad. The episode has a horror vibe to it with the gruesome corpse of Cindy appearing in various states of decay, the tunnel vision we see from John’s POV out of his gas mask, the closed-in feeling of the bunker and the noises that are amplified throughout the episode.

In addition to John’s torment, we learn that June has been counting down the days until it would be safe to venture out, but she confesses this was something she made up. She doesn’t think she can face the outside world without her John Dorie. It is such a sad realization. The focus has been on the fallout and how they will survive while poor June is still reeling from losing her true love.

The episode ends with June and John situated in Strands tower with no knowledge of his betrayal of Morgan. Things are going to get interesting as the groups reconvene and things come to light.

The final scene is a verbal altercation between Strand and Morgan, where they each draw their line in the sand. Strand believes he can do what Morgan couldn’t, and Morgan is all for that as long as Strand doesn’t hurt anyone. If he does, Morgan will be coming after him.

Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC on November 7 with “Breathe With Me.” This episode is currently available on AMC+.