Fear The Walking Dead season seven: Who isn’t the worst?

Fear the Walking Dead – Howard

Before the apocalypse, Howard was a historian, presumably focusing on pre-Civil War Texas. He seemed to be good at his profession, but he was greedy. He wanted more glory and the money and prestige that came with it, and so, to do that, he lied, forging a letter from William Barrett Travis, who fought and died at the battle of the Alamo. As many such lies often do, Howard’s was discovered, and that revelation and subsequent fallout caused Howard’s wife to leave, taking their son with her.

Obviously, this all happened before the outbreak, but because of this separation, Howard didn’t know the fate of his estranged wife or son. When the outbreak hit, Howard, separated from his family, focused on the only thing left in his life he found worth caring about: History. He went around Texas, collecting as many historical artifacts from across the state as he could, and gathered them all together at the tower, a place where he could keep them from the dead, and the many other disasters that could befall them, all in the hope of preserving them for future generations.

Then he met Strand.

As I mentioned in my “Who’s The Worst?” list, Strand began to steer Howard towards acting less like his own man and more like Victor’s lackey. As time progressed, Howard evolved from serving as Strand’s receptionist to his lieutenant, ordering around the rangers and carrying out executions in Victor’s absence.

However, when confronted by John Dorie Sr. as he searched the tower for baby Mo, Howard confessed the reason he was willing to do Strand’s bidding, including things so far removed from the man he was before the outbreak, was because he hoped that his wife and son would find their way to the tower. In preparation for that possibility, Howard threw himself into everything Strand asked, under the misguided belief that Strand would, in time, build the tower into a proper civilization. Thus, the things he was doing at his boss’ behest would aid in making that civilization safer, more efficient, and more effective. Essentially, Howard had fallen into the fallacy that the ends justify the means, that because you’re working towards something “good,” whatever you do in service of that goal is acceptable.

Howard had hoped that, by being willing to do these sorts of things that he wasn’t proud of, but believed necessary, he could build a civilization that his wife and son could be proud of and one that would far outlast both the dead and the nuclear fallout. He hoped his and Strand’s actions would be the first rough steps towards rebuilding civilization, which would forget their missteps and remember their noble efforts to preserve and restore the world that was lost. He wanted to be vindicated by history and work toward building a place his descendants would live in to give him that vindication.