‘Fear The Walking Dead’ season six episode two recap: Victor Strand’s dark rebirth

**Spoilers for 'Welcome to the Club' below**

After Morgan (Lennie James) hogged the spotlight in this season’s Fear The Walking Dead premiere, attention turns to Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) and Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) for episode two. There’s plenty to get stuck into, or stuck to in the case of a zombie horde that gets covered with molasses (more on that later). Here are the standouts from Fear The Walking Dead season 6 episode 2, ‘Welcome to the Club’.

Biggest plot twist: Victor Strand commits to the dark side

Victor has always had a mean streak, but in season five he was in a more positive headspace. In season six, however, he seems ready to show his vicious side again. First, he appears docile when he agrees to go along with Alicia’s plan of clearing out the sticky walkers for Virginia (Colby Minifie). It’s a strange decision, because we know he’d rather do things his own way.

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Unbeknown to Alicia, her plan only works because Victor sacrifices innocent Sanjay to the walkers as a distraction. He’s now convinced the only way to escape Virginia’s grasp is by forgetting his past self entirely, separating himself from Alicia’s methods so he can make tough calls against his nature. After Morgan’s reversal last week, it’s yet another plot twist featuring a dark rebirth.

Fear The Walking Dead
Colman Domingo plays Victor Strand in ‘Fear The Walking Dead’. Credit: AMC

What’s that mysterious item? Stop with the keys already

Another recurring theme in Fear season six is the importance of keys (or other trinkets). We already have one in Morgan’s possession, but now there’s the key Victor was awarded as the leader of Virginia’s army, which “affords him some privileges”. Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) also hands his wife’s Saint Christopher medallion to Victor, which he passes to Alicia before she departs, for some reason we’re never told…

All these keys will likely have some importance down the line, but right now, it feels like a hackneyed way of stitching the anthology format together.

Colman Domingo
Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) goes down a dangerous new path in the latest episode of ‘Fear The Walking Dead’. Credit: AMC

Most suspicious new arrival: Virginia’s sister Dakota

If there’s one rule in The Walking Dead universe it’s never trust children. In Fear The Walking Dead season 6 episode 2, we meet Virginia’s younger sister Dakota (Zoe Colletti), who seems suspiciously willing to give Victor and Alicia a helping hand.

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The motives she gives are sketchy at best – Dakota wants to escape her older sister, but doesn’t say why. Later, she saves Charlie’s (Alexa Nisenson) life during the walker clear-out, but don’t chalk that up as proof of her purity just yet. We want to believe a well-intentioned child can exist within this universe, but Dakota just gives off bad vibes…

Fear The Walking Dead season 6 episode 2
Zoe Colletti as Dakota in ‘Fear The Walking Dead;. Credit: AMC

This week’s biggest question: who is Virginia preparing an army for?

Despite all signs pointing towards a hidden weapon concealed in the walker-infested warehouse, it turns out that the whole thing was an elaborate job interview for Virginia’s army. Victor Strand is now their strategic leader, which is a bizarre turnaround considering the reason he took part in the “trial” was as a punishment for disobeying her rangers.

The assembling of an army suggests Virginia is either considerably spooked by Morgan’s threat from last week, or more logically, she’s preparing for an even greater fight. The most immediate threat, however, is Morgan. He now resides on her camp’s borders with Daniel Salazar, who has been faking memory loss to Virginia, but drops the act as soon as he bumps into Morgan.

Their meeting at the episode’s end teases a potential trojan horse in Virginia’s organisation, but what about last season’s unanswered questions? We still don’t know about those submarine survivors, or why so much of the storyline involved nuclear radiation. Has all that stuff been forgotten?

Key quote: “I don’t want to drag you down with me Alicia. I need to forget who I am” – Victor Strand

Fear The Walking Dead season 6 episode 2 airs October 19 at 9pm on AMC

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