‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 8, Episode 5 Spoiler Review

Major spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 5 inside.

The final season of Fear the Walking Dead has been doing well so far regarding providing closure to its long-term fans and its characters. Although the main antagonist group known as PADRE aka P.A.D.R.E. is fairly new to the show. They have popped up in past seasons through cryptic mentions and brief appearances similar to how the CRM slowly crept into the franchise over time.

This latest episode marks the second last instalment of the first half of Season 8 which has heavily focused on fewer characters than usual such as Lennie James‘ Morgan, Karen David‘s Grace Mukherjee, Zoey Merchant‘s Mo, Jenna Elfman’s June Dorie, Austin Amelio’s Dwight, and Christine Evangelista’s Sherry.

Episode 5 (“More Time Than You Know”) slows things down to say goodbye to Grace Mukherjee played by Karen David due to being bitten by a walker in episode 4. Although her character’s death bears importance to both Morgan and Mo’s personal character development, overall it feels relatively rushed and bears a similar feel to how Chandler Riggs’ Carl Grimes was suddenly bitten and killed off.

What makes Grace’s walker bite different from the rest is that we’re made to feel that she may be able to survive the infection despite the bite being in a fatal area on her body. This is because the final season of Fear the Walking Dead has shown June and PADRE being able to seemingly slow the infection down through the use of radiation therapy. This makes for an interesting goodbye as it leaves you genuinely unsure as to whether or not Grace’s bite will actually be the end of her journey.

Morgan and Mo spend the majority of the episode disagreeing with each other as Morgan believes Grace should be put to rest with Mo convinced that Grace can be saved. On top of all this Dwight and Sherry are dealing with a similar situation as their son also has a fatal bite that they believe can be cured via the same methods.

Related: ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 8, Episode 4 Spoiler Recap Review

June is stuck in the middle as she is the only one who can apply radiation therapy professionally but due to the circumstances can only really choose to help one. This only adds to the intensity of the episode’s plot. ‘Who will survive?’ is the thought that comes to mind multiple times when watching episode 5 of the final FTWD season.

Final Thoughts

The captivating performances from Karen David, Lennie James, and the show’s newcomer Zoey Merchant truly sell what the characters are going through and allow you to emotionally emphasise with them despite how chaotic their situation is.

Despite character deaths being no stranger to any show set in the universe of The Walking Dead, S8 E5 of Fear the Walking Dead manages to approach it with originality. Great performances all around, stunning visuals and amazing practical effects make for another pleasing instalment of FTWD.

4 out of 5 stars.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 5 now streaming on AMC+