Fear the Walking Dead Fans React to John Dorie’s Heartbreaking Decision in Episode 606

The honeymoon is over for newlyweds June (Jenna Elfman) and John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt), who take different roads in Sunday’s Fear the Walking Dead. “Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg” sees former ICU and trauma nurse June, already spread too thin as the chief of medical operations for the 800-plus survivors living beneath Virginia (Colby Minifie) and the Pioneers, called to a turbulent situation at Tank Town. When John plots an escape route because of the ugly mustard that occurred inside the walls of the rotten Lawton settlement, where Virginia executed one of their friends falsely accused of murder, the couple finds themselves at a crossroads.

June and trucker-slash-assistant Sarah (Mo Collins) are “stretched too thin, serving too many people, spread too far apart,” June says after she fails to save Malcolm (Dalex Miller) during an emergency appendectomy. The pair can’t help who they need to help out of the makeshift ER set up in the back of Sarah’s 18-wheeler, but Virginia has declined June’s appeals to build a hospital.

While en route to the Paradise Ridge community in the privacy of John’s truck, he proposes they run away together to the Texas cabin where they first met. Before she died, Janis (Holly Curran) told him where he could find a stash of supplies to escape Virginia, but John turned her down because he believed he could exonerate her as the killer behind Cameron’s (Noah Khyle) mysterious death.

When June says she’s not going to save anyone by running, he tells her, “Me. You could save me.” He confesses he can’t continue living inside Lawton, admitting to his wife, “I just have a feeling if I do, I’m not gonna last long.”

John can’t bring himself to tell June what happened with Janis — Virginia touted him as a hero and promoted him with a key to the future for “solving” Lawton’s murder case — but he’s “gotta get as far away from this place as possible.”

June says Virginia will hunt them down, but their new life together can start with a head start on disappearing. She resists leaving their friends behind — Morgan (Lennie James), Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), and the others — but before June can answer if she’s going to come with him, they’re interrupted by a radio call from Luciana (Danay Garcia) reporting an accident at Tank Town.

Arriving on-site at the same time as Virginia, June agrees to run away with John after the Pioneer leader indicates she’s there to investigate the cause of the supposed accident — later revealed to be sabotage carried out by the new enemy group behind targeted attacks on her settlements.

When misfortune forces June to save the life of a zombie-bitten Virginia, she successfully negotiates for a hospital under her charge with Luciana, Sarah, and Wendell (Daryl Mitchell) calling the shots. Reunited with John, he says their plan is simple: they split off at a fork five miles down the road and keep going until they reach the cabin.

“John, the hospital is happening. We can’t just leave,” June tells him. “I don’t want to leave. Every time I run, it leads me to something worse. I don’t want to run anymore.”

“We can’t stay here. I can’t.” The situation is too close to what first drove him to retreat to his cabin: the police officer-turned-gunslinger was left guilt-ridden after he was lauded as a hero for accidentally killing a man during an attempted gas station robbery.

As June prepares to leave on a scouting trip with Sarah and Wendell, she tells John to follow behind. John trails the semi-truck until the fork in the road, breaking off to the right when Sarah parts left. John drives off alone, pained by the decision viewers are calling “heartbreaking”:

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Fear the Walking Dead next airs its midseason 6 finale, “Damage From the Inside,” on Sunday, November 22. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.