Fans already know that Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) is a questionable character who usually puts his motivations ahead of those around him. However, the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead may have just pushed this character firmly into the villain category.
Be warned, spoilers are ahead so look away now or read the recap if you aren’t already up to speed on Episode 15.
Sunday night’s penultimate episode for Season 6 of Fear the Walking Dead saw Morgan’s (Lennie James) group trying desperately to stop Teddy Maddox (John Glover) from destroying everything with a dozen nuclear missiles he located on a beached submarine.
While Morgan was happy to make the ultimate sacrifice to save everyone else, he wasn’t quite expecting to have Strand throw him to the walkers to achieve their objective.
Luckily, Morgan survived and lived to fight another day and give Strand some serious side-eye. Many viewers also joined him in casting the stink-eye at a character who is often loved for being borderline bad.
However, Fear’s showrunner Andrew Chambliss insists that Strand felt he was justified in his behavior.
Why did Strand do what he did?
According to Chambliss during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Strand felt that Morgan had come to terms with dying during the mission so he used him as live bait to get past the group of the undead and successfully complete the mission.
“In his mind, that’s completely justified,” the showrunner explained.
“I mean, it’s sacrificing Morgan to save everyone else. And he’s spent the entire episode seeing Morgan on this kind of self-sacrificial bent, where Morgan thinks the reason he survived the gunshot at the end of season 5 and has survived this entire season is to do something like this. So in Strand’s mind, he can justify that by saying, ‘It will allow me to get to the weapons control room to stop Teddy, and I’m giving you [Morgan] exactly what you want. You get to go out being the hero.”
Will Morgan ever forgive Strand — do they even have time?
While Strand may feel justified in his behavior when Morgan survived, it became apparent that there would be a discussion later about how royally Strand had messed up. Not to mention that the rest of their group had heard what Strand did, thanks to Dakota (Zoe Colletti) spilling the beans.
Strand and Morgan have never really seen eye to eye on matters, so it seems likely that the pair will not lose much sleep over their friendship should it be unable to survive. In fact, Strand will likely continue to live separately from Morgan’s group regardless.
Although, with one nuclear warhead released before Morgan and Strand could stop Teddy, there may not even be time for the discussion Morgan insisted upon.
The location of where this weapon will strike has not been revealed, so it is possible it could be close by. Plus, the synopsis for the Season 6 finale also hints at the possible end for many characters in Fear the Walking Dead.
“Everyone desperately scrambles to live out the coming destruction on their own terms.”
However, as per usual, viewers will have to wait until the episode airs in order to find out more.
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.