Fear the Walking Dead season 7 episode 14 Wes’ unlikely transformation

Fear the Walking Dead’s most recent episode, “Divine Providence,” brought the battle for the Tower to Strand’s (Colman Domingo) doorstep. With the mote of walkers gone, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and her army could walk right up to the Tower, and the war that was declared several episodes ago could now begin.

Many events occurred in this episode, but the focus here is on Wes (Colby Hollman). In the previous episode, he was on a mission to retrieve baby Mo from Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) to bring the child back to Strand. The last we saw of him was in the bunker that was being overrun by walkers, and we never saw if he made it out.

This week showed that he somehow found his way out and back to the Tower, where he is situated as Strand’s right-hand man.

Fear the Walking Dead – Wes

The remainder of this article will contain spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead season 7, episode 14, “Divine Providence.” 

Wes has always been a character who sought out people doing good in the world he now finds himself in. Since his introduction, there has been no sign of any mean or malicious intent with this character. He recently became so appalled at Luciana’s (Danay Garcia) treatment of Daniel (Ruben Blades), where she took advantage of his deteriorating mental health and lied to him to get him to do what she needed him to do, that Wes leaves Morgan’s (Lennie James) group.

He is the person who killed his own brother Derek (Chinaza Uche) because he ordered attacks on innocent people knowing that Wes was among them. An act he feels very guilty about, and it was extremely hard for him to do.

Now, viewers are expected to believe that Luciana’s one lie drives him to Victor Strand, a man whose every move is self-serving no matter who gets hurt in the process? Sure, Wes says that at least Strand is upfront about what he does and makes no secrets about his motives, but that goes against everything Wes has stood for since his introduction.

In this week’s episode, Wes easily takes charge of the Tower and the Rangers, a group that has been very loyal to Strand and Howard before his death. I just can’t get behind such a drastic change in a character like Wes. If this transition had occurred over time, perhaps, but over the course of three episodes, he has gone from a mild-mannered “let’s do good for others” person to taking over Victor Strand’s tower? If it was that easy to overtake Strand, Morgan could have done this at the beginning of the season as he is a much more seasoned adversary than Wes could ever be.

And then this leads to Wes’ death, which isn’t a surprise when you go up against Strand. Wes deserved a much better story to go out on. He should have died a hero’s death trying to do good for others.

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