Fear the Walking Dead
8×05: “More Time Than You Know”
Directed by Heather Cappiello
Written by David Johnson & Calaya Michelle Stallworth

* For a recap & review of 8×04, click here.
* For a recap & review of 8×06, click here.
Grace comes back to consciousness on a boat on the river. Dwight’s driving. Morgan and Mo are watching over Grace while Sherry and Finch sit nearby. There’s gunfire coming from the PADREs not far behind in another boat. Morgan and Shrike radio back and forth together. She says she’ll get them to the train car if Morgan will help clear the shipyard of “thousands of carrion” to help with PADRE’s future. Shrike only wants to be rid of the zombies; she doesn’t care how, or with whom Morgan does the job, so long as it’s done. On top of that, the job must be done by hand so as not to potentially destroy any of the supplies within the shipyard. If Morgan can do the work, Grace will have a chance to live, and it’s her only chance now. But that means Morgan needs to assemble enough hands to help. He tries to get Daniel and the parent army to lend a hand and he’s denied. He thinks their small group of friends can get the job done, whereas Grace is being realistic.
Grace reveals her cancer from the radiation to Mo; tragic that they only just got together again and Grace only has months to a year to live. Mo’s determined to get as much time with her mom as possible, though. Right now that means getting out from under the PADREs. Thankfully they’ve got Dwight and Sherry alongside them to help. Morgan keeps insisting they try to get to June. This is not the plan Grace has in mind. She’s about ready to die and she wants to spend her last bit of time alive with Mo and Morgan in a specific place, giving over coordinates written on a piece of paper; the coordinates lead to “a repeater station.” Mo says nah, they’re going to try getting to June and the train car.

While Morgan and Mo take Grace in a boat, Dwight, Sherry, and Finch are on land and PADREs are after them. Morgan tries appealing to Shrike over the radio, telling her to back of Dwight and Sherry, urging that it’s him she wants instead. Dwight and Sherry split up, as she takes Finch and he fires on the approaching PADREs. In the boat, Grace wakes up, realising they’re not going to the station. She says their future is at that station. Over the years she’s scavenged for supplies and collected “things to make a home,” a place to be safe as a family together. Grace knew PADRE was safest for Mo, but she never wanted to have to send her daughter there. She feels bad for waiting too long before doing anything about PADRE’s lies. She wants Mo to see it at least once, and Morgan says they’ll go after they find June.
Then in the sky there are more flares above the river.
Little Finch is burning up with a fever, so Sherry calls over the radio to June, who tells them to check the bite; it looks really bad. Sherry explains what’s going on with their son’s bite and June says the infection “could be back,” but can’t judge over the radio. Dwight and Sherry offer to send the coordinates to the station so they can meet June. Then June radios Morgan, who insists they’ll meet her at the train car afterwards. The big issue is, if what June is doing isn’t working then it won’t matter when they all meet up because it won’t help Grace. But here’s to hoping. Mo doesn’t want to give up on her mother, but Grace and Morgan try to explain it’s not giving up, it’s “accepting how things are” in reality. The more pressing reality are the PADREs bearing down on them. Morgan plans to meet them at the carnival, getting off on land and leaving his daughter and Grace in the boat. He assures Grace they’ll see each other again soon enough, kissing her hand before pushing them back onto the river.

Morgan’s trying to find Mo later via the radio. He can’t reach her because Mo’s on the train tracks, pumping along on a train cart trying to get her mother to the car where they’ll meet June eventually. That’s when they run into a group of PADREs. Grace tells her daughter to call Morgan, but Mo’s reluctant, she’s not willing to go back to PADRE now that she’s seen a future, of any kind, with her parents. Mo’s sure that the PADREs won’t hurt her. She tells them “there is no PADRE,” he died long ago. Yet the PADREs believe in PADRE as “an idea.” Mo pushes forward on the train cart and says they’ll have to kill her to stop her.
At the station, Dwight and Sherry find the place Grace was planning to take her little family after PADRE. They’re soon joined by June. In a while, June and Mo radio together. June says that if Grace already has cancer, then they don’t have to worry about how much radiation it will take to help heal Grace’s zombie bite; that may buy Grace a bit of time to spend with her daughter and Morgan. This also means Mo has to do the work while June directs over radio. Once things are done, they just have to wait.

In a while, Mo realises Grace’s temperature keeps going up. She asks June what it means and is told that her mother didn’t get the radiation treatment in time. Grace won’t have a lot of time left because of the zombie bite. Mo radios her father, who heard everything across the radio. He asks to speak with Grace, who says “It wasn‘t meant to be.” He apologises for not taking her to the station like she wanted, but Grace understands. He worries he won’t make it to the train car before she dies. He wants Mo to leave, but zombies are crowding the train car already outside. “You know what you have to do, right?” Morgan tells Grace. She knows, and then she tells Morgan she loves him. Morgan responds with love, too.
In the train car, Mo faces having to potentially kill her mom. She’s also mad at herself, believing she took away the time they had left together at the station. She feels she wasted their time by going to the train car. Grace insists that isn’t true; her daughter was only trying to save her. She tells Mo about the time she and Morgan were nearly about to end their lives when they heard baby Mo crying: “You gave us a reason to live.” Mo already gave Grace and Morgan more time together. And now, Grace dies, leaving her daughter alone in the train car. Mo can’t bring herself to put Grace out of her misery. Her mother comes alive again as a zombie and attacks her. They wrestle until Mo shoves her zombie mother to the floor. But Mo can’t get out of there and they end up wrestling on the ground. She’s nearly bitten before her father gets there and has to kill Grace. He holds his daughter close then, shielding her eyes from her dead, zombified mother.
Some time later, Shrike and the PADREs are outside calling for Morgan, so he heads outside, leaving his daughter inside. Morgan faces Shrike, who’s brought his old weapon to him. She wants to put him to work right away. Morgan rushes up on Shrike, putting his blood-stained weapon to her throat. He isn’t afraid of death; he’s only afraid of leaving his daughter alone. Shrike claims she’s attempting to shield all the lost children from the pain she once experienced. She tells Morgan to stand down, or else Mo will be in that kind of pain. Mo comes out and tells them she doesn’t want to feel the pain. Morgan says he doesn’t want his daughter to run away from her feelings. But Mo wants to work to help PADRE, hoping the other PADREs will join her since they’ve been training to do this kind of thing. Her father isn’t happy, telling Mo that the zombies will kill her. Mo doesn’t listen, heading off with her PADRE friends, and Morgan’s left at the hands of Shrike. Now Morgan’s ready to fight because he takes down the PADREs watching him and runs for it. Except Shrike takes him down.

Morgan screams “I don‘t die!” at Shrike, sure that she’s not going to be able to kill him even if she tries. So Shrike and her PADREs lock Morgan inside the train, firing off flares to draw walkers. They leave behind his weapon, as well. Not a great spot for someone to be in, yet that someone IS Morgan Jones. If anyone can get out of there it’s Morgan. That’s if he doesn’t go crazy first. He’s not good in enclosed spaces alone.