Fear the Walking Dead
8×03: “Odessa”
Directed by Ron Underwood
Written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg

* For a recap & review of 8×02, click here.
* For a recap & review of 8×04, click here.
When Madison comes to she finds herself like Finch did in the previous episode, strapped down and facing a zombie head; right now, the head has a bag over it, but the inevitable is coming at some point. June a.k.a Blue Jay is brought in to get Madison ready. They’ve got quite a history together, too. Lots of histories going on in this post-zombie apocalypse wasteland; the world is now one giant haunted house. June tells Madison about what Shrike has her doing there, looking into various ways to slow or stop the effects of “carrion bites.” Then Madison asks June to find a list of names of children she ‘collected.’ She wants to help the parents of the kids she stole.

We see a flashback to Shrike a.k.a Sam and her brother, Ben (Daniel Rashid), along with their father, a military man, General Krennick (Michael B. Silver). Dad’s obviously the reason why Shrike likes bird names; he liked birds because they “live in families cooperating to raise their young.” Once upon a time, General Krennick and other military men were looking to “seed new communities.” He wanted to branch out and find people to trade with, other communities on which they might rely and vice versa. He gave his daughter the codename Shrike because while a shrike is small it is “brutal when it needs to be” and “doesn‘t hesitate to protect its family.” Judging by where Shrike is nowadays there’s some kind of tragedy in her past.
In the current timeline, Shrike unveils the zombie head, explaining to Madison that soon Morgan a.k.a Nightingale will be right there next to her. Not far outside we see Mo and Dove on the train tracks, trying to get a look at what’s happening inside. Mo’s worried about Finch, who obviously hasn’t been seen since his surgery. She’s beginning to question PADRE. She draws one of the train’s guards away in hopes of getting a better look. She manages to slip inside, stopping Madison from getting chomped on. June takes this opportunity to knock Shrike out, stab the zombie head, and then save Mo from the other PADREs, starting a bit of a gunfight inside the train car. Obviously the apple didn’t fall far from the tree with Mo; another Little Ass Kicker, half grown up already. But Dove interrupts the escape attempt, as Shrike wakes up. Mo demands answers about Finch, and June reveals the truth to Dove, which gets the girl questioning Shrike. Madison chimes in trying to convince Dove that PADRE has been lying to all of them. She’s actually the one who took Dove from her parents. She tells Dove about the list and wanting to help all the stolen children. This finally convinces Dove to do the right thing. She wants the truth from PADRE, or else she’ll kill Shrike. We now discover that PADRE is actually General Krennick. Oh, shit!
In the woods, Madison, Shrike, June, Mo, and Dove are stopped by a group of parents seeking their lost children. The group are held at gunpoint. Then they’re introduced to the commander of the parents’ crew: none other than Daniel. Goddamn, what a reunion! “It looks like we all have nine lives,” says Daniel. It has been a long while since Daniel and Madison have seen each other. They catch up a bit about who they’ve become since last they were together. Daniel fills Madison in about what happened to Charlie, as well; at least up until they were separated. He laments not being there for Charlie, or Luciana. He and Madison also talk about what’s next. Eventually Daniel questions Shrike about why PADRE separates children while not being separated from his own child. Shrike just talks more shit about their way of life. She doesn’t have any answers.
Soon a group of PADREs show up trying to take Shrike, but Mo, Madison, and the others try to tell the PADREs the truth of Shrike and her father. “PADRE has a lot to explain,” Dove says. When a PADRE is about to radio back home, Madison takes Shrike and puts a knife to her neck. Mo insists for Madison and June to take Shrike and continue on while her, Daniel, and the others deal with the PADRES there.

When General Krennick went out on a mission with the others from the island, Sam and Ben sneaked onto the boat, stowing away. The general’s kids found his binoculars, and Ben wanted to take them to his father. Ben locked Sam on the boat and took off alone despite her pleas. She got out of there, trying to catch up with her brother. They got lost in a labyrinth of sea cans at the shipyard. Sam saw a sign on one of the cans reading DEAD HERE, as she came upon an abandoned camp. At the same time, Ben got trapped in the midst of a bunch of zombies.
At PADRE, Krennick, over the radio, questions Finch, and insists that PADRE’s the one who saved him, not the others. Suddenly there’s a radio transmission from Madison telling PADRE that they have Shrike. Madison demands answers for “every kid” who was torn away from their parents. They also get a transmission from a woman called Diane (Jennifer Christa Palmer) in Daniel’s group; Diane believes that Dove is her daughter. Madison asks for Dove’s file, or she’ll reveal to the other PADREs Shrike’s identity. Yet Shrike tries to tell Madison this was all about protecting children from what happened there before.

So we flashback to Ben, trapped amongst the zombies; he was saved by his father. General Krennick gunned down some zombies until he was out of ammo. He and his kids tried to flee, but again found themselves surrounded by the undead. They were trapped. The general and his son got Sam up onto a sea can. Then Ben climbed up with help from his sister and his father. But General Krennick didn’t make it, getting a bite taken out of his face by a walker. “Don‘t let this die,” he told his children while a swarm of zombies ate him.
Madison has enough, smashing the mirror separating PADRE from his community. And behind the glass is not General Krennick at all, it’s Ben and an elaborate ruse. “We are PADRE,” Shrike tells them all. Years ago, after they lost their father, Ben and Sam continued what their father was doing, but it obviously went bad along the way. They were lying to everyone from the beginning, sheltering other young people and children from the truth about their parents. Ben and Sam kept everyone believing their father was alive by using his voice via technology. And now, they’re still collecting children, just by force. Madison gets to find out Dove’s identity: Dove’s real name is Odessa; her mother was Ava and Madison had a hand in her fate.

Ben and Sam keep convincing themselves they’re doing things right, even if they’re going on experimenting. They’ve taken their youthful trauma over losing their father and turned it into EVERYBODY’s problem. Twisted shit, really. And now Madison is back in the custody of PADRE, the community-at-large remains unaware of the truth about Krennick, and June will have to go back to the experiments.
While on the river, Madison asks June about her children. June says Madison “wouldn‘t have recognised them” and the people they became. Luckily, Daniel and his friends interrupt Shrike on land. He orders Shrike to let their friends go. June tries to convince Dove to go with them instead of harbouring anger against Madison, yet Dove refuses. Shrike thinks the other children will react the same, however, Mo doesn’t believe that’s true. Madison also doesn’t think the kids will follow her if she finds them, in spite of Daniel’s belief in her. She thinks Morgan is the one to do the job, and, y’know, she’s probably right.

And what about Shrike’s plans to use all the ‘carrion’ in the shipyard? Oh, mercy.