Fear The Walking Dead, The Portrait: Things To Note

Fear the Walking Dead season 7 episode 7

1) This week’s “Previously” focuses on June and John Dorie, Sr., being taken in by Strand but not wanting to stay until they realize they can’t leave (From “Cindy Hawkins”). Strand reveals to Dwight and Sherry that he has Wendell and has encountered Morgan (From “Till Death”). We also see Sage telling his fellow Stalkers that he’s found what they need to get everything they want: The dud nuke (From “Breathe With Me”).

2) During the montage of Strand rejecting people looking for admission into his tower, Arno reveals that he was a carpenter (Which goes a long way toward explaining how the Stalkers had a catapult). Is this before forming the Stalkers, or was he trying to infiltrate until he could get more of his group inside?

3) The woman we hear Strand refuse entry to was, apparently, a soldier who picked up field medicine from someone in her battalion. Did Strand refuse her because he already had June by this time? (We can tell that time has passed between her call and Arno’s)

4) The third-person Strand refuses describes himself as a former lieutenant within a local fire department.

5) Perhaps because it’s Strand or perhaps because of the unique situation everyone in the vicinity finds themselves, but Strand’s questions for the potential “intakes” are different than questions we’ve seen asked to potential recruits in The Walking Dead, specifically, asking “Where were you before this? (Presumably, Strand meant the warhead launch) and “How did you survive out there?”

6) As Howard questions Strand’s decision to reject all the people who have applied that week, suggesting that he at least meet them, citing their valuable skills. Strand replies that he can see what others don’t see about people. This feels like a callback to his existence as a conman prior to the outbreak, seen especially in his assessment of Nick Clark back in season one’s penultimate episode, “Cobalt.”