AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead
6×02: “Welcome to the Club”
Directed by Lennie James
Written by Nazrin Choudhury

* For a recap & review of the season premiere, “The End is the Beginning,” click here.
* For a recap & review of “Alaska,” click here.
While Morgan’s off on his own, his friends are still under the thumb of Virginia. We see a bunch of people being given a “final chance” by Virginia, meaning they’ve got to fight their way through a horde of zombies only using spears. Except when the men go to release the zombies there’s a problem, and the door won’t open properly. It’s like the walkers are all covered in oil or something sticky. A bunch of people get nabbed by the dead. And the door doesn’t get shut until all but one of them are left.

Alicia and Strand are doing their part for the community, no matter how dirty the job. They have to deal with bullshit from the rangers, as well as their literal shit on latrine duties. They’re still not wholly welcome additions to Virginia’s operation. One ranger named Marcus pulls his gun on Strand, threatening violene, but young Dakota’s the only one who can put a stop to it. So, Alicia and Strand get cuffed up and taken to see the boss. Virginia’s in the middle of getting a haircut from none other than Daniel, who’s in a strange state of mind like he’s forgotten everything. She receives Alicia and Strand, chastising the latter for supposed assault on a ranger. Virginia decides to give the pair a new post more suited to their abilities.
At the factory where the episode opened, Strand and Alicia are brought to clean out the walkers trapped behind that gate. Why’s it so important? What’s inside? These two are certainly some of the best to put on walker clearing detail. They run into Charlie and Janis, each brought there for disobeying the rules. Rangers stay away from that area where the night team got sucked into the horde of walkers. Strand’s starting to devise a plan to take out the rangers, perhaps with the help of other prisoners.

We find out that the sticky stuff inside is molasses. Tanks inside are breaking, and that’s what’s causing such messy chaos. The survivor from the night team is there cleaning up, admonishing himself for standing by watching the others get killed. He admires Strand for standing up to a ranger. Alicia and Strand get supplies sent over to help them clear the walkers, though they’re very simple supplies. She doesn’t think his idea for a plan is smart, yet Strand thinks they have no other choice. Then they discover Dakota stowed away in that truck, refusing to go back to Lawton. The girl wants to help—and she’s Virginia’s sister! Dakota explains how nasty Virginia can get if people go against her. She says there’s a weapon in there with the molasses, something her sister wants to get her hands on badly. She then reveals the deal Strand made with Virginia. He tells Alicia he made a deal to help them all because he needs his friends to survive. So she says they need to protect their friends and not enact his plan. Instead they’ll try to go the way of the molasses zombies.

Strand has the crew setup a cattle run where they’ll herd the walkers. The door’s opened. The group at the end make noise to draw the walkers further down. Then the killing begins as they finish off walkers and drag them from the back end of the run. There are many, and they start to fall, some of them bunching in the middle and starting to nearly topple the run. Charlie goes to close the back of the gate and almost gets pulled into the horde; Alicia manages to save her with some help from Dakota. A couple rangers spy Dakota and make a fuss. Virgina’s called over the radio, so Alicia and Strand want to get working again before she arrives, and that’s when the run falls apart, letting walkers out everywhere. There are still plenty of walkers left inside, so Strand and the rest get back to the killing. The rangers get chomped, leaving Dakota with Strand—they’re separated by the horde of zombies now. Strand gets to the RV nearby and tries using the horn to draw the walkers. But it does nothing.
What does Strand do? He uses the cowardly dude, stabbing him in the leg, and tossing him out to draw zombies. Looks like Victor hasn’t forgotten the kind of person he really is deep down. This gives Alicia and Janis a chance to grab the guns, mowing down the walkers. Of course Strand plays off Sanjay’s death as supposed sacrifice. Yikes.
Strangely enough, Virginia is happy to see the walkers cleared. She was actually looking for a leader, and she sees it in Strand. She wants to form an army of her own, not just with rangers but with infantry men and women. Everyone else is taken away while Strand gets no answers about this so-called army. He’s being given a higher rank in Virginia’s community. Perhaps he can train his army for other purposes? We’ll see.

Victor is giving his army people new assignments now. He’s sending Janis somewhere else. And he’s also doing the same with Alicia, believing they need to be split up because he thinks that feelings for those close only make him weaker. So he has to send Alicia away, to do what he believes is necessary. Alicia doesn’t care about what he has to do, but Strand’s scared to let those he cares for most see that part of him, the part  that’ll do anything necessary to survive, like what we saw with Sanjya earlier.
Problem is, will they survive apart? Hopefully so.

When Daniel whistles he hears someone respond from the trees. He finds himself confronted with a zombie. Before the dead thing can reach Daniel he’s taken down by someone. Morgan has returned, and Daniel, in fact, does remember everything, greeting a friendly face after so long.
Hmm. Danny’s playing tricks!
Great episode! Plus, it was directed by Lennie James, our beloved Morgan. Always enjoy seeing Strand because he’s one of the series’s best characters since the early days, and same goes for Alicia, whose presence just makes me happy. Excited for more, and to see what Strand has in store, not to mention what’ll happen with cowboy Morgan showing up.