AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead
6×06: “Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg”
Directed by Sharat Raju
Written by Alex Delyle

* For a recap & review of “Honey,” click here.
* For a recap & review of “Damage from the Inside,” click here.
A woman runs through the wasteland, behind her the sound of horses’ hooves. Virginia and a couple of her men have chased the poor woman down. Ole Ginny does what she does best: talk bullshit. “This doesn‘t have to be the end for you,” she tells the woman, who’s not even sure what she did to deserve any of this treatment. She asks the lady, Paige, about the spray paint, those END IS THE BEGINNING tags. Paige works for the mill, and there’s mention of a man named Jasper who “lost his leg.” She accuses Virginia of being a big scaredy cat. Then Ginny decides they’ll take Paige back to Lawton where they can torture the truth out of her. But Paige snags one of their guns, telling them this is all about “the future” before blowing her own brains out.

A bunch of radios are going off in a sea can, which is the base of operations for June’s little hospital setup. She and Mo have an injured man on the table after dragging him back through a horde of walkers. Luckily the guy’s not bitten: he has a ruptured appendix. Damn. This means June needs to do an appendectomy. She’s never done one herself. She HAS seen them done, so that’s at least something. Plus, Mo’s got experience as a Marine, even if it’s only a bit of boot camp. If I were this dude on the table I’d still feel pretty good about two ass-kickers like Mo and June looking after me. Once they stabilise their pal Malcolm, they begin, and June makes the initial incision. Unfortunately the infection sends Malcolm into shock and he flatlines. So June straddles him and starts in on CPR. Sadly he’s dead and there’s nothing either of them can do. June’s so intent on saving the man she keeps going, despite Mo’s insistence to stop.
And that’s when Malcolm reanimates, nearly chomping on June, but Mo is there to watch her back and put zombie Malcolm down for good. It’s all quite the blow to morale, being unable to truly help anybody with their meagre setup, and Ginny’s not about to construct an actual hospital facility because, y’know, that’d be an actual smart thing to do instead of playing Mrs. Fascist. Most of all it affects June mentally, and that’s when sweet John Dorie suggests they could get out of there, make a go of it alone. He tells her he feels like he won’t last much longer. What happened with Janis clearly destroyed him in a deep way. He’s afraid of ultimately losing himself, who he is at his core.
The lovers are interrupted when they’re called to Tank Town, where there’s apparently been an accident. They plan to go check out the situation, then make their break for it on the road. When they arrive at the quarry there’s a true disaster going down with people funnelling out of there injured, covered in soot. Luciana’s there, explaining to June that one of their wells has blown which has left many burned and wounded by projectiles in the explosion. People are stuck inside where there are fires raging, so Luciana, Mo, and June want to go back in to pull them out. This is when Virginia and her rangers show up. Ginny’s going to go in with the women, too. She’s only doing it for herself, not her injured people.

The women head around the other side to the quarry, where flames reach for the sky and oil’s raining down around them. Legitimately a disaster zone. Luciana and June break the bad news to Ginny: this could go on for months, even years. The Kuwaiti oil fires went on for nearly a whole year before they were extinguished. Right now the women all notice THE END IS THE BEGINNING spray painted on their equipment. Of course this makes Ginny very angry, and she’ll have a new crusade to go on later. June gets looking for the injured as they all attempt to help wounded people out of there, whereas Ginny only wants to interrogate people. One of them is Wes with a piece of metal in his gut. Then they find a strange dead corpse with razor blades taped to its fingers. VERY CREEPY! Love it.
Poor Wes is on death’s doorsteps. June and Luciana are trying to get him out of there, however, Virginia won’t allow it before interrogating him. They can’t even get any drugs in him first. Ginny reveals they found spray paint cans in his bunk. She thinks he’s being “spreading destructive ideas” around her various communities. She’s not letting Wes go anywhere until he tells her the truth. He claims not to know. We’ve seen him do his artistic thing. Could it all be coincidence? Either way, Ginny starts torturing. She’s cut off at the pass when June injects Wes, putting him out. So, so intense.

The mobile hospital unit is full of walkers when June tries to load Wes up, meaning they’ve all got to do a bit of zombie killing before they can get out of that hellish oilfield. June sends Luciana and Mo off while she and Virginia continue to down the dead. Eventually the two remaining women are forced to take cover in one of the shacks, and they’re barely inside when everything blows sky high, crumbling the makeshift oilfield and just about everything around it. June and Ginny come to in the rubble. In the struggle, Virginia gets a bite right on the hand.

“Some dogs you just gotta know when to put out to pasture”

CUT THE HAND OFF, GINNY!
What’s she going to do? They’re stuck, at least for the foreseeable future. If she lets that bite set in, there’s only infection and zombification in the future that comes afterwards. And Virginia begins the process of doing exactly that, nipping on her flask and tying off her arm. She rushes for an axe, but June grabs it away, not wanting to let a woman like Ginny save herself after purposefully putting so many at risk only moments ago. This leads to the two women fighting brutally until June gets the upper hand, putting the axe to Virginia’s throat. June has to do double duty, giving her friends instructions over the walkie while keeping Ginny at bay. Thank the gods the others keep Wes stable through it all.
But what will happen between June and Ginny? The latter begs that her sister Dakota will be take care of in her absence. In the end, June decides to lop off Virginia’s hand. Maybe she’ll live to regret it. Who knows—I’d bet Ginny won’t learn, even after losing a part of her body. A little later, John finds them safely.

In the aftermath, June tells her sort of angry friends they’ll get a genuine hospital facility. She’s ready to trust Ginny, if only for now. Mo and Luciana aren’t so sure they’ll be able to do this all by themselves. That’s why June enlisted the aide of another Marine, or at least “someone who should‘ve been” one. Thus, Mo and Wendell are reunited. The tougher part comes when June has to tell John they’re not leaving. He really doesn’t know if he can hang on to himself there. When they’re all heading down the road, John decides not to follow, breaking off on his own path once more away from his sweet June.
Another great episode. Really love the interesting relationship brewing between Virginia and June. Still don’t think that Ginny’s turning a new leaf. It’s also devastating to see June and John split apart again; Dillahunt’s acting is next level in those final, silent moments while he drives away. A real heartbreaker there.