After splitting up the group of survivors led by Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and dispersing them across her western settlements, Pioneer leader Virginia (Colby Minifie) is saddling up for civil war on Fear the Walking Dead. Season 6 of the Walking Dead spinoff saw Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) promoted from latrine-cleaning worker to high-ranking Ranger at the Lawton settlement, where Virginia is keeping a pregnant Grace (Karen David) as leverage over Morgan. No longer bound by his no-kill code after eliminating bounty hunter Emile (Demetrius Grosse), Morgan has spent the half-season tracking down and recruiting the survivors separated by Virginia at Humbug’s Gulch.
Videos by ComicBook.com
But the mission to reunite the group is threatened when its members pick sides, setting the stage for a schism when Fear returns with its second half of the season.
In “Damage From the Inside,” Strand sends Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) after Virginia’s younger sister Dakota (Zoe Colletti) when she goes missing following an ambush on a Ranger convoy. When Alicia and Charlie find Dakota seeking shelter with Ed (Raphael Sbarge), Alicia radios Virginia and offers to trade Dakota in exchange for their release and a fresh start.
But when Morgan returns and reveals he attacked the convoy to capture Dakota and trade her for Grace, Alicia reneges on her deal with Virginia. The new plan is to run away with Charlie and Dakota at the stadium where Madison (Kim Dickens) died, but Morgan is determined to reunite the group and keep them together.
“Why turn Dakota against us if we don’t have to?” Alicia says, stopping Morgan when he attempts to radio Virginia. If they want to get everyone out, he says, handing over Virginia’s sister is the only way. Alicia prepares to leave, telling Morgan she can’t do it his way.
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done so that we can all be back together. And it doesn’t work if it’s not all of us,” Morgan says, promising to do whatever it takes to get them all to the burgeoning community hidden in a dried-out valley.
That community is already home to Rachel (Brigitte Kali Canales) and the group of survivors led by Nora (Devyn Tyler) and Lee (Todd Terry), who Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Althea (Maggie Grace) rescued from an office building crawling with bubonic plague-infected rats in “Alaska.” Episodes later, in “Honey,” Dwight and Al used lookalike walkers to fake their deaths and joined Morgan’s community.
Helping Morgan in his search for Grace is amnesia-faking inside man Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades), who remains inside the Lawton settlement with Strand and the captive Grace. Ranger John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt) defected from Lawton when he fled in “Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg,” leaving without June (Jenna Elfman).
The newlywed couple went their separate ways when June convinced Virginia to construct a hospital for the 800-plus people living across her settlements, with Luciana (Danay Garcia), Sarah (Mo Collins), and Wendell (Daryl Mitchell) staying on as its workers.
When Strand returns to Lawton and tells Virginia that her sister is with Morgan, along with Alicia and Charlie, she demands to know what side he’s on. “Yours,” Strand claims, carrying out duties as the leader of Virginia’s army. After Virginia reveals she’s keeping Grace prisoner, Strand turns cold: “Who do you want next?”
“All of ’em,” Virginia growls. “I want every single person we took from that damn gulch.”
Fear puts Team Morgan and Team Virginia on a collision course when season 6 returns with new episodes in 2021. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.
