Fear the Walking Dead
8×11: “Fighting Like You”
Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
Written by Nick Bernardone, Jacob Pinion, & Kelly Jane Costello

* For a recap & review of 8×10, click here.
* For a recap & review of the series finale, click here.
“Mississippi Queen” rings out into the wasteland. Zombies follow it, along with people carrying lanterns. Some zombies are collected by Troy and his remaining men, then loaded into the back of a truck. After that, Troy continues to lead the herd now with his daughter Tracy back in his care. He only cares about making Madison pay, using Tracy’s dead, zombified mother. Troy continually blames Alicia for everything, and of course he blames Madison for teaching Alicia everything. He also denies that the St. Christopher medallion his daughter’s wearing belonged to Alicia. Their chat together is interrupted when their truck is rammed off the road.

Hours later, Troy wakes up in bad shape with a tree branch poking through his shoulder and the driver’s seat. Tracy’s terrified, especially since her father can’t get himself free from the seat. She begs him to do something, but he can’t do anything from this position. He tells her to find Russell, to leave him behind. He says this is “everything we fought for” and only wants Tracy to live, if anything. Tracy gives the medallion to her father, then she runs.
Across the radio waves, Victor makes contact with Madison. He tries to convince her not to do what she’s doing alone. Victor and the “friends of Alicia” are still sticking around while the rest have left to flee the herd. Madison winds up running into Tracy again at the SWAT truck. She asks the girl about the herd, yet it’s no use. Tracy tells Madison where Troy is reluctantly, then she gets zip-tied at the truck. After that, Madison’s ready to go kill Troy. Tracy does everything she can to try stopping Madison, but it’s not enough; Madison only wants revenge.
Before Troy’s men can find him again, he’s located by Madison. But the two of them struggle with each other, as Troy’s zombie wife looks to chomp Madison. Quickly, Madison gets free, puts the zombie woman down, and gets the upper hand against Troy with a sledgehammer. Troy tries to give himself more time by saying he’s the only one who can tell Madison where the herd’s being led by Russell. He wants to see Tracy, too. Madison is very reluctant to do this but she agrees, so she radios to Victor and lets him in on the plan. She also rips the tree branch out of Troy to make their journey a bit easier.
At the truck, Tracy watches a video of Alicia, looking up at Alicia’s mechanical arm. Then Victor arrives with the women. Tracy’s sure that her father will die, regardless of when it happens. But the women think Madison is more willing to give out “second chances” than it appears. They say she only needs reminding of who she was before. Meanwhile, Troy buries his wife. It doesn’t sit well with Madison, who doesn’t get to bury Alicia. So we finally hear about what happened to Troy and his wife Serena. She was bitten and Alicia saved her, apparently. Troy was surprised that Alicia even helped them. Alicia knew from experience how to remove Serena’s arm appropriately. So, why would Troy kill Alicia for this? He says Serena changed, she wanted to be like Alicia. One day, Serena got an SOS that turned into an ambush and robbery, which left her bleeding out until she died in Troy’s arms. Tragic, yet not Alicia’s fault, either. Troy just needed a scapegoat is all. A pitiful man. And when Madison’s distracted for a second by a zombie, Troy attempts to run. Troy falls into a pitfall that was setup in the woods. Then Madison gets KO’d by PADRE’s own Ben. Uh oh.

Now Madison and Troy are captured together. Ben wants PADRE back and says he’ll let Troy and Tracy go if Troy gives them a hand. An enticing offer, so long as Troy calls off his men. Madison takes a chance to call out over the radio to Strand, giving out their location, though she receives a crack in the face for her efforts. Crane is still a self-righteous dickhead, believing he’s a saviour to all. He threatens to kill both Troy and Madison if they pull any funny stuff on their little joyride together. Strand reaches the barge, just not in time. Off on the road, Crane tries to taunt Madison, but the ride gets shut down quick after Daniel and Luciana ambush the truck, killing the driver. Madison and Troy get out of harm’s way, as Crane and his men are overrun by zombies.
At a nearby cabin, Luciana and Daniel plan to kill Troy, but Madison explains they’ve got to keep Troy around to find the herd. Not ideal for anybody. Madison says her “eyes are wide open” about Troy. She’s going to make sure he’s incapable of hurting anybody else once he’s served his purpose. Off on their own, Troy tries to ingratiate himself to Madison. He thinks she has more mercy than she pretends to have. Madison notices bad terrain up ahead, so they need another way around. Yet they have no time to do it when Crane shows up firing at them. So off they go above a swamp full of zombies being sucked into the soupy, muddy earth on a rickety rope bridge. Instead of chasing them, Crane opts to chop away at the ropes and sends the pair of fugitives into the water. He tells Troy about what happened to his sister, why he wants revenge against Madison. He also goes on pontificating. We also hear how “No one‘s gone until they‘re gone” has inspired people in a lot of different ways, not all of them good ultimately. Madison’s had a ripple effect throughout Fear the Walking Dead, even when she wasn’t seen and believed dead by the audience; she was out there, having an effect on everybody she met, and even those she never met personally.
Crane gets chomped by zombies, but this still leaves Troy and Madison up to their necks in water, sucked down in the mud while zombies surround them. Troy decides to tell Madison about the herd’s location, right before he’s about to go under the water. Madison says that PADRE’s better off without “people like us,” as she goes under, drowning. A while later, she comes to, spitting up water. She believes that Strand and the others saved her, but Victor reveals it was Troy who did it. Troy admits he also didn’t tell the truth about his wife. Apparently Serena didn’t regret following Alicia. Troy says Alicia gave Serena the St. Christopher medallion, and Serena gave it to him, to remember what he was “fighting for” and it was Alicia who helped them see that. He says he didn’t want Madison to die believing in nothing after all this, and he wants her to give him a second chance, so that he might be able to honour Alicia somehow. Madison’s willing to give Troy enough of a chance to help them with the herd. From there, who knows.

Great use of “Hair of the Dog” by Nazareth, as the SWAT truck pulls up with Madison at the wheel blasting on the herd, wiping out a whole bunch of zombies. “We know how to herd, too,” Dove says, as more trucks turn up to lead the walkers. Finally the herd’s broken up, split into pieces. Strand thinks Troy’s worth giving a second chance now, but Daniel and Luciana think he’s only trying to feel less guilty about himself. Is Madison willing to risk letting Troy into their communities? The two of them talk while Madison holds Alicia’s arm. Troy says he’s changed and he’ll do what he can to honour Alicia’s memory. But Madison doesn’t trust him. She sinks Alicia’s mechanical arm into Troy’s gut. “This is how we survive,” Madison says. As Troy bleeds, he tells Madison that Alicia is Tracy’s mother, not Serena. Troy says he took Alicia’s child to make up for his own loss since Serena died before their baby was born. Holy! Shit! Madison still has a blood relative living amongst the wasteland. But Tracy runs off after hearing the shocking news.