Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Striking The Balance

Fear the Walking Dead – Divine Providence

Compassion VS. Pragmatism

One of the threads that’s been carried throughout this season is that Strand, as much as he’s tried to convince himself otherwise, has been building the tower for Alicia. By the middle of the season, Strand finally started admitting it and, instead of driving her away, actively began working towards locating her so that he could bring her into the bosom of his fledgling community.

On the other side of the coin, we’ve seen Alicia actively want nothing to do with Strand since the midseason finale. All his actions repulse her since his ill-conceived effort to stop Teddy Maddox’s nuclear attack in last season’s finale, and she wants to create something better for her friends and the followers Teddy left in her care.

This episode finally saw the pair confront each other and air out where they both were, philosophically, in relation to one another and on the idea of how to run a community. As Strand attempted to convince Alicia to stay with him in the tower, he finally admitted something that I don’t think Alicia had known up to that point: The reason Strand had done all the brutal things he had to create and maintain the tower was so Alicia didn’t have to.

The way Strand saw it, he was doing the necessary evils that sometimes come with running a community and keeping it going. He knew Alicia would never approve of these things, but he ultimately believed it needed doing so that the place could one day be ready for her, like demolition to part of a house to make way for a new owner.

A zombie apocalypse will be a tough world to live in and survive; you’re going to need to be a harder person. You will have to use violence to defend yourself, your supplies, your home, and your group: It’s inevitable. If you aren’t willing to fight hostiles, they’ll walk all over you and steal the food and supplies you need to survive, and at worst, they’ll wipe you out and take your stuff, anyway.

However, suppose you go too far and start utilizing violence against people for relatively minor infractions because it will minimize potential threats. In that case, it won’t be long before you create a state of fear and distrust in your group, which could easily tear it apart and lead to them turning on you.

The balance here is knowing that you will have to use violence in the apocalypse — You can’t be ignorant of that –but resorting to it only when you know that another person is being a threat to you or someone in your group. If you have a reasonable belief that another person can be reached, you should try, but always be ready to defend yourself if they can’t.