AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead
Season 5, Episode 6: “The Little Prince”
Directed by Sharat Raju
Written by Mallory Westfall

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “The End of Everything” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Still Standing” – click hereThe kids are all back at the rest stop. They watch Gulliver’s Travels and live a somewhat normal life. Morgan (Lennie James) checks in from the road to make sure Annie (Bailey Gavulic) and the others are okay. The grownups are soon back, along with Al (Maggie Grace) again, and Dwight (Austin Amelio). Morgan tries to tell the kids there remains “something to fight for,” that life is worth living “for each other.” Ironic to see grownups telling kids to stay positive for the future, usually it’s the other way around and youth are fighting for a better way forward. Such is life in the post-zombie apocalypse. Plan is to fix the plane and get across the mountains.
You just KNOW something won’t go right.

Morgan calls Grace (Karen David) to let her know the plan. She’s too busy doing what she’s done for the last long while, heading into the irradiated area over and over again. This is a way of living for many, an endless routine, and Morgan knows how that feels, once having lived a life of routine to the point all else washed away. Right now he’s learning a new routine with his old staff gone.
That’s the name of the game after society falls— learn to adapt.
Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Morgan work on the plane’s landing gear while others do their own part. Little Dylan (Cooper Dodson) is the one who took The Little Prince as inspiration, suggesting they try getting the plane to work again. It’s a bit of a fumble in the dark for everybody. At least they’ve got people like Sarah (Mo Collins), who works “better with a five–out–of–ten buzz” but has plenty of skills. Al’s no slouch around most mechanics, either. A propeller blade comes off the plane when Al starts the engine successfully. It doesn’t kill anybody, thankfully.
Then they get a call from Grace, warning of “another meltdown.” Shit.

June (Jenna Elfman) talks with Annie. The girl’s intent on going back to how things were before the group found them. She can’t manage to fully trust, despite her brothers Dylan and Max (Ethan Suess) being fairly tight with our survivors. She later tells Alicia about what happened to them, how they were confronted by irradiated “growlers” and the grownups tried to fight, only to fall ill from the radiation.
John (Garret Dillahunt) and Dwight are out looking for the latter’s wife— nice to see them together, they have much in common in regards to keeping hope alive about their significant other lost in the wasteland. The cowboy shows off the Scrabble tiles he holds onto that June used to confess her love to him.

“So don’t throw that hopeless horse shit
up in the air to land on us.”

On the road, Dwight tells John about his former life before being “sent away.” He’s unsure of himself now, not willing to believe he has the strength left in him to do what’s necessary to find his wife / save her. But he’s got a cowboy with him, and where there’s a will, there’s a way. John uses a trick he learned from “Cary Grant in a movie” and rubs a pencil over a receipt pad— it was signed Honey, which is how Dwight lovingly refers to Sherry. This gives them a path to follow. When they find a car with a note left from her, John sees it’s the “last letter.” Sherry doesn’t want Dwight to die looking for her. Oh, my.
The cowboy lies. He can’t bring himself to tell his new friend the truth.

Grace takes Morgan to the last area she explored. She needs help. They suit up to go inside and he sees his staff, wrapped in plastic. It’s tough to let go, after what he went through with Eastman, who bestowed him the weapon. A nice parallel between him and Grace— she insists she’s “not stuck.” She’s not letting him go into the area with her, refusing to allow another person to put themselves in danger. She just needed help clearing the roadblock. Now, she heads off by herself.

An awesome, interesting development: Strand and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) have a hot air balloon, plus propeller blades. That’s what they were going back to the brewery for, to get a balloon for Augie’s Ale. Such a beautiful moment of hope in the middle of all that death and grim loss. Bitter to the sweet comes when Alicia tries to get the kids to see the balloon’s arrival, and she finds they’ve already cleared out of the rest stop.

“Find something to live for
and live.”

And things are going sideways, as expected.

Victor doesn’t have enough gas to get all the way back. He and Charlie have to bring the balloon down right into the radiation. The two lose radio connection as they drop. Simultaneously, bad ass Alicia is heading into a maze of gutted walkers left by the kids to keep people off their trail, and Morgan has to go on foot into the irradiated area. Holy fuck. This is bad for Morgan, Charlie, and Strand. Even getting blood from a walker on them can potentially kill, due to the radiation.
A shitty predicament.
Great episode! This season’s been stellar. The radiation adds a whole other layer of fear. Excited for more, and to see how all the various plots work out in the lead up to the mid-season break. Buckle up— that’s all Father Gore can say.

“Still Standing” is next time.