Fear the Walking Dead, Survival rule of the week: Getting into trouble
By Liam O'Leary
Fear the Walking Dead: Think about what you’re doing
If being impulsive is a thoroughly bad thing to do in a zombie apocalypse, what do you do instead? Simple: Think about what you’re doing before you do it.
Let’s just imagine, for a moment, how much better things would have been for Strand had he just decided, even at a moment where he didn’t want Alicia coming near him, not to kill Will.
First, let’s assume, for argument’s sake, Strand, while not wanting Alicia around (And, frankly, finding Will’s relatively goody-goody nature grating), still decides that he can use Will as a bargaining chip. He could then use the threat of violence against him to keep Alicia away and stuff him in some storage closest somewhere in The Tower.
Next, let’s assume everything else happens just as we saw it, leading to Alicia and Morgan arriving at The Tower and being greeted by Strand. Alicia’s presumed fate is revealed to him. Just as it happened normally, Strand agrees to take in Alicia’s flock, and guarantee them safety, attempting to honor his friend in the possibility that she does not survive.
At this point, instead of Alicia finding Will’s walker and deciding to throw down the gauntlet, Strand reveals that he has Will under lock and key, even revealing his intent to chuck him off the roof, but choosing not to, because he knew she wouldn’t approve. Instead of Strand causing his only friend to hate him, she sees this as him still having a glimmer of the humanity he tried to cut himself off from while under Virginia’s thumb.
In the end, Strand winds up with a large influx of new people, he gets his best friend and the closest thing he’s got to family back. After she finally recovers from losing her arm, he can rely on her to be the soft touch he felt he desperately needed in his community.
All of this could have come from Strand just stopping for a second, thinking about what he was doing, what might (And could very likely) happen, and how the one might affect the other.