Fear the Walking Dead Recap: What to Know Before Watching “USS Pennsylvania”

It’s a race to stop “the beginning” when Morgan (Lennie James) mounts a mission aboard a walker-filled nuclear submarine in Fear the Walking Dead‘s penultimate episode of the season, “USS Pennsylvania.” Escaped serial killer Teddy (John Glover), along with former naval weapons officer Riley (Nick Stahl) and newest “the end is the beginning” believer Dakota (Zoe Colletti), plan to launch missiles from the beached submarine and destroy everything to unlock their new beginning. Warheads will destroy everything except Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey), who Teddy locked away in a cold war-era bunker beneath the Tramlin Hotel resort.

1. Teddy spent decades in prison. The murderer mortician is a convicted serial killer put behind bars by detective John Dorie Sr. (Keith Carradine), who finds himself once again out to stop the charismatic cult leader after Teddy’s life sentence is commuted by the zombie apocalypse.

2. Teddy obtained both missile keys. When two of Teddy’s followers fail to retrieve the key that Morgan took off the body of bounty hunter Emile (Demetrius Grosse) early in Season 6, he sends Riley to track down Morgan while a pregnant Grace (Karen David) goes into labor. In the episode “In Dreams,” Morgan gives up the key only after Riley threatens to shoot Grace.

3. Alicia learned what Teddy has planned. In “Mother,” Teddy tells a captive Alicia that the key will launch a missile from a beached submarine washed ashore in Galveston, Texas. It’s only after everything is destroyed that worthy survivors can “begin again” and rebuild the world.

4. Dakota escaped and joined Teddy’s group. Dakota is after the “fresh start” she failed to find with Morgan and Alicia’s group. She sneaks away from Morgan and Alicia’s dam community after vengeful widow June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) guns down Dakota’s mother, Ginny (Colby Minifie), in “Things Left to Do.”

5. Dakota turned on Alicia. In “Mother,” an armed Dakota sides with Teddy, who affectionately nicknames her “Sioux” after Sioux Falls: his favorite city in the Dakotas.

6. Alicia was locked in a bunker. Alicia manages to radio Strand (Colman Domingo) with orders to alert Morgan about the submarine, but she’s recaptured and locked away in the bunker where Teddy says she’s “going to rebuild the world.” When a defiant Alicia tells Teddy she won’t make the world the way he wants it to be, Teddy says: “That’s what I’m counting on.”

“USS Pennsylvania” premieres tonight at 9/8c on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things from The Walking Dead Universe.