Fear the Walking Dead: Dwight and Morgan's Reunion Was the Best Season 5 Scene So Far

How did Morgan's reunion with Dwight go down?

Warning: Spoilers follow for Fear the Walking Dead through Season 5 episode 3, "Humbug's Gulch."

Fear the Walking Dead's fifth season has gotten off to a rocky start. Not just because of the many hurdles and harrowing dangers our main characters have faced, but also on various creative levels.

With the premiere, we re-joined the Fear cast as they attempted to help someone, which was their big mission statement coming out of Season 4. They had a warehouse full of supplies and a clear credo about helping stragglers and wanderers out on the road. Quickly, after a plane crash left them stranded in this new special somewhere, we'd learn that, to date, they'd helped no one. Nothing had panned out.

Soon after that revelation, their entire operation got swiped from them. Then they lost one of their own (again). For weeks, they've all been separated in places that more or less look alike -- some more separated than others since Strand is way back near their home base and apparently needs a plane to get to the others. The geography is confusing, most every spot has a sameness to it (a lot of places enclosed/bordered by thick forests), and there's no single driving story (like, there's also a nuclear plant disaster nearby?).

And with this week's chapter, "Humbug's Gulch," a new core cast member has been brought in. Like Morgan, he's a fellow A-Show alum - Austin Amelio's Dwight. It almost feels like too much with all the plot lines the show's currently juggling (and we're only three episodes in!). On top of this, Ruben Blades' Daniel re-emerged last week, for the first time since Season 3.

But the end of the episode gave us something special. When everyone on the Away Team, except Althea (the missing one), came back together, Morgan laid eyes on Dwight, instantly recognizing him. And what followed was really all we needed with regards to what this show's currently about. Prefacing this, Season 5 has also been filled up with a lot of heavy-handed speechery about redemption - long, solemn patches of dialogue about whether or not it's worth it to try and help people when you keep failing, or if any of us even deserve happiness. (You know, the usual lofty ideas tossed around in a zombie apocalypse.) After nine seasons of The Walking Dead and four seasons of this show, absolutely none of it is unfamiliar territory.

But seeing as how most of these characters - save for Alicia, Strand, and Daniel - are new to each other, there's a major ragtag element at play here. It worked for most of Season 4 but it's faltering a bit in Season 5. Still, there's this idea that if you can survive long enough into a zompocalpyse, no one you meet is without serious sin - everyone must have done something awful to still be around.

So when Morgan meets Dwight (after Dwight was found searching for Sherry inside Jon Dorie's old Wild West theme park town), he doesn't need to, or want to, talk about their old lives. Dwight, so certain that Morgan was about to attack him, was relieved to find a new and accepting Morgan. Remember, the last time Dwight was around Morgan, Morgan was in full-on "kill any and every Savior" mode. After Benjamin died, Morgan lost it and regressed back to his insane Terminator self. This was the man Dwight thought he was seeing.

"You take 20?" Morgan asked, as Dwight slowly backed away. Morgan actually seemed pleased to see him, only inquiring about the route he took to get to Texas. But, overly aware of the fire and brimstone everyone had to get through in order to survive, Morgan didn't even want to address past pain. "You don't have to say it," he said, when Dwight tried to apologize. "We're all trying to start over," Morgan said, nodding to the rest of the group.

This brief moment felt more real, and spoke louder, than all of the show's Season 5 speeches so far. Doing more with less, this relatively light scene was way more effective than the show's standard heavy-handedness. It's a shame, given the twist at the end of "Humbug's Gulch," regarding the kids we met in the premiere, that so much dire and dour dialogue was wasted on those youngsters because they were more or less pretending to be lost and scared. To a certain degree.

Anyhow, here's hoping that we're able to get clearer messaging from smaller scenes going forward. Of course, next week, Morgan and Dwight could delve into a long conversation about vindication and absolution and this whole moment will retroactively come undone, but we can wish for the best, can't we?

For more on The Walking Dead, read about the comic's latest twist and how that big death could affect the TV show, learn about the second upcoming spinoff, check out our review of The Walking Dead Season 9 finale.


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Fear the Walking Dead

Release Date: Sept. 20, 2015
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