We are nearly at the halfway point in Season 7 of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead. This means that everything is gearing toward a likely cliffhanger before the show goes on hiatus.
And, because Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) is the resident bad guy, Episode 7 gives viewers a much closer look at his “community” — and of how this tyrant leader is holding up under the strain of it all.
Victor Strand gets his portrait painted
In true dictator style, Strand thinks he is the king of the world. So, what king doesn’t get his portrait painted, hey?
An artist is one of the select few that Victor has let through his gates, and she is called in to paint the most epic of portraits. Victor gives some specifics too, he wants her to paint the real him, what he sees, not her interpretation of him.
Because nothing says your edge on reality is slipping quite like wanting someone to read your mind.
The poor woman gets to work and it takes many sessions, so viewers get to see just how many people are trying to get into Victor’s tower and safe from everything outside.
He rejects all of them. This is based entirely on his gut feeling, so he is even turning away medics.
When the pic is done, he takes one look at it and throws it over the side of the building. By this point, even Howard (Omid Abtahi) is getting sick of his s**t.
Baby Mo is sick
In the middle of all this, Morgan (Lennie James) turns up on his doorstep and begs his way in on account of Baby Mo (Avaya Jeniel) being sick. At first, Victor won’t let him in but, finally, he relents.
June (Jenna Elfman) tends to Mo and even gets a chance to have a side chat with Morgan while Victor attends to some other drama. June is going to stay, though, because according to her leaving the tyrannical rule of Virginia (Colby Minifie) is what got John Dorie Jr. (Garret Dillahunt) killed in the last season of Fear the Walking Dead.
Morgan wants to talk some more about it all, but a flying zombie hits the window, and there are bigger problems at hand. Like the next zombie that breaks the window and sails on into the tower.
The Stalkers play their hand
The ones catapulting the walkers are the Stalkers. You know these guys, they’re the ones who really did take that Mad Max meme seriously.
Since they picked up the stray warhead that didn’t explode in the Season 6 finale of Fear the Walking Dead and they got rejected by Victor, they decide to force their way in. They give Strand one hour to comply or they will start loading up their catapult with nuclear walkers.
Victor gets poisoned
In the middle of all this, Victor gets poisoned. Or, so he thinks because he is also losing his grip on reality. You know you are a truly evil leader when you are paranoid enough to think that everyone wants you dead.
June confirms it, though. Luckily for Victor (not so much for everyone else), whoever poisoned him likely didn’t give him a big enough dose to kill him.
Morgan tries to reason with him while he’s sick and says that he can help stalk the Stalkers because he has people on the outside — he just needs a radio to contact them.
Cue more paranoid Victor Strand.
However, eventually, he has no choice in the matter and is a title a*shole by making Morgan give up Baby Mo (who has been diagnosed with a double ear infection at this point so must be feeling particularly bad) while they head down to the armory where the radio is kept.
Dragging his poisoned a*s along with Morgan, they end up at a standstill and Victor finally gives Baby Mo to Morgan while he ducks off to use the radio.
Realizing he has just been had by Morgan, he asks that he search for Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) because Victor figures Alicia is not wanting to be found by him on account of him being an a*shole. I mean, he’s not wrong.
Morgan, being not a major douche, comes back to save Victor after he gets rid of the Stalkers, stating that he did so because Alicia wouldn’t want him to find her either once she heard he let Victor die.
Except, that’s the thing, it’s here that Strand works out that Morgan was the one to poison him.
Morgan gets exiled –but meets old friends
Strand takes Morgan to the roof to throw him overboard. However, Grace (Karen David) phones it and lets Victor know that only she can hunt down the rogue nuclear walkers that escaped during the kerfuffle.
She offers to move in with Victor so long as Morgan gets to live.
Victor agrees to this and has Morgan exiled.
This means it takes it no time at all to be found by the Dark Horse and bought back to another camp belonging to the Stalkers. These are the good guys, though, and it turns out that Alicia is the head of this group.
After a very brief hugfest, walkers turn up — nuclear walkers.
And, even though Morgan makes it very clear to not shoot, the shooters are trigger happy and blast the walkers until they all explode.
Episode 7 of Fear the Walking Dead ends with Alicia’s entire group now having to outrun the nuclear fallout from these blasts.
Season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead is currently airing every Sunday night on AMC.