Fear The Walking Dead Theory: Will Wes Turn On Strand?

In the Fear The Walking Dead episode, “Ofelia,” Wes arrived at Strand’s Tower, and in the most recent “Sonny Boy,” Wes appears to be fitting in quite well. But, is this something that will last?

He’s seen Luciana lie to Daniel and tell him Ofelia is trapped in Strand’s tower, he’s left Morgan’s group, joined the Tower as one of Strand’s security guards, and after Howard and John’s deaths, he’s slotted himself in as Strand’s new second-in-command. This is quite the change in a short period of time.

But, between how bothered Wes is with people being people and how quickly Strand loses faith in those close to him and disposes of them, will their new relationship last that long?

Fear The Walking Dead theory: Wes will turn on Strand.

Let’s start with why Wes is even with Strand in the first place. At the end of last week’s episode, Wes, so disgusted with Luciana’s decision to lie to Daniel about Ofelia being held captive in the tower, decided to turn his back on his friends and join Strand because, as he sees it, at least Strand is honest about being a heartless bastard.

Wes is considerably cynical, long-living by the motto “People are people” (by which he means “people suck”); he is also, at heart, an idealist: He wants to believe in the good in people. He just winds up frequently disappointed.

He joined Morgan’s group after seeing Alicia and Strand rush to try to save Janis from a herd of walkers and hearing Morgan’s message of generosity via the truck stops; he finally saw people trying to do good in the apocalypse. Wes wanted to be around people trying to do right rather than just do the same greedy, self-serving things so common before the apocalypse.

Yes, he may respect Strand’s “honesty” in how ruthless he is, but how long will he put up with Strand murdering people just because of his paranoia? Better yet, when Wes realizes how much Strand had been lying to and manipulating people, including Howard and John, how long will it be before he sees Strand as worse than he currently sees Morgan and Luciana?

This is, of course, assuming that Wes isn’t playing his own game to undermine Strand. We’ve been led to believe that Wes has become so disgusted with what he sees as hypocrisy by Morgan and Luciana that he’s thrown his lot in with Strand, but has he, really? Is he really siding with Strand, who literally throws people away on a whim, over Alicia, who, despite her mistakes, has been consistently trying to find a home for all the non-hostile survivors she meets? I’m not so sure. John was playing his own game, trying to maneuver things to try to influence Strand; why not Wes?

I think Wes may indeed be bothered by Luciana’s deception. Still, it may be more because he knows it will inevitably backfire and may have joined Strand to play a long game, trying to get in with Strand more organically than anyone else in the group has been able to achieve (and thus, making Strand trust him just a little bit more). When Alicia returns, he can pull the rug out from under him right when it would be the most effective.

But, what do you think? Do you think Wes will turn on Strand, or do you think he’s really loyal to him? Do you think this whole Luciana thing has made him give up on people and see things Strand’s way? Or do you think that he’s just playing Victor? Let me know! I’m curious! If you enjoyed this and want to learn how to stay alive in a zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse!  You can also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!