Fear the Walking Dead: Daniel, Luciana and Wes in Ofelia

AMC recently aired the eleventh episode of the seventh season of Fear the Walking Dead. This episode was titled “Ofelia” and highlighted Daniel Salazar’s (Ruben Blades) deteriorating mental health. Some other things went down in this episode that viewers are questioning.

This episode was an amazing one as it was the directorial debut of Alycia Debnam-Carey, who plays Alicia in the series. Much of it was spoken in Spanish, which is unique for primetime TV in the US. This episode also addressed mental health in an apocalypse. Mental health is such an important issue, and it is fantastic that a series set in an apocalyptic world can shed light on this subject.

“Ofelia” took a deep look at where Daniel is mentally. His memory is quickly fading, and Luciana (Danay Garcia) is working hard to keep him grounded by speaking to him in Spanish and other cognitive exercises but will it be enough?

Daniel has become fixated on locating his daughter Ofelia who died in season 3. He endangers his life by going out on his own in search of her. Luciana and Wes (Colby Hollman) follow, endangering their lives and being captured by Arno (Spence Granese) and his Stalkers.

Fear the Walking Dead – Ofelia

Arno has overheard their conversations on the walkies regarding a stash of weapons. He, of course, wants them as he too wants to take over Strand’s Tower as it is the safest place to be, and everyone knows it. He captures them and tries to make them give up the location of the weapons by putting Wes in his cage suspended over a horde of walkers. This ends with Arno being killed in his own device as Daniel partially feeds him to the walkers.

But, during this time, viewers see Daniel, although experiencing much with his memory loss, still exhibit his combat skills. He can get a knife away from one of their captors; he most likely knew Arno’s gun was empty due to its weight and can scam the group and send them to the wrong location. These skills from his past are triggered by a different part of his brain, showing that even though age and mental health are affecting him negatively, he is still an instrumental member of the group.

This leads us to Luciana and the lie she tells him. This was a shock to see her take such great care of him throughout the episode and then seem to take advantage of his state and lie to get him to do what needs to be done.

But, Daniel would have done the same thing if the situation had been reversed. This isn’t going to be a popular opinion because Daniel is a fan favorite, and we must protect him at all costs, but it is a fact. Daniel is a survivor, and in past seasons, viewers have witnessed him do whatever it takes to survive.

Luciana’s decision to lie to Daniel has caused Wes to leave and head to, of all places, Strand’s Tower. It seems to be an extreme move on his part as Strand is bad news and only looks out for number one. Wes, who defends his actions of killing his brother Derek in this very episode because Derek killed friends of his and would have gone on to kill more of them, is now going to turn on those same friends? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

You can’t say Luciana’s decision was immoral and then partner with a man whose every move is evil and feel good about yourself.

It will be exciting to see how Luciana and Wes’ decisions affect the next chapter leading to the war brewing between our survivors.

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