Fear the Walking Dead, TV Shows

Fear the Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 13: Recap & Review of ‘Blackjack’

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Tonight is a new episode of Fear the Walking Dead called Blackjack. Fans aren’t sure what to expect of Season 4 Episode 13. Some episodes this season have been questionable (looking at you, Madison’s death… and Alicia’s magic escape from the locked cellar.) But other episodes (like all of John Dorie’s) have been enjoyable. We’re going to provide a no-holds-barred, stream-of-consciousness recap and review while we watch the episode below.

Here we go.

First of all, did anyone else feel really bad for Quinn last week? Creepy Woman (that’s her name) turned him into zombie fodder. And now Creepy Woman has Ali’s van, which is just adding insult onto injury.

I kind of like the new character Jim on Fear, the beer brewer who once led the fight against another apocalypse on 12 Monkeys. I hope he gets a chance to really shine.

OK, so Jim is watching Wendell kill a zombie by spearing him with the back of his wheelchair. But Wendell’s partner, Sarah, took the kill (and the point) away from him.

June is pretty much obsessing over Quinn after finding a zombie with weird writing on its face. Creepy Woman decides it’s a good idea to let zombie Quinn respond to June’s walkie talkie. “I let him become what he was meant to be,” she tells June. “He’s not weak anymore.”

Morgan recognizes the voice as the woman who was beside a box on the road. (And it sure did look like she was poisoning that water, in case you didn’t notice.) She knows Morgan’s name (and everyone else’s) because she’s been listening to their radio conversations and she has Ali’s van with all those videos. She wants Morgan to stop trying to help people because it’s making him weak, and she doesn’t want to be forced to make Morgan strong again.

This is such a weird viewpoint. It’s like she thinks she’s the personal creator of evolution itself.

I’m honestly not sure if we’ve learned this woman’s name yet, so I’ll just refer to her as CW (creepy woman) for the rest of this review and recap.

Next we return to Strand’s world. He’s waking up and gets a book and has lots of canned food stocked up. He’s at a Ranger Station overlooking a lake, and looks pretty comfortable with his current status.

(Meanwhile: Derek thinks the song right now is from the Last of Us soundtrack. I can’t confirm, but that’s an interesting theory.)

Dorie dispatches a walker with his ax after chopping some firewood.

Dorie said he’s seeing grackles fly solo, which is a totally new thing. He’s building a raft and Strand’s not very interested in all of that. “We both know these aren’t friendly waters,” he comments. Dorie tells him the raft was built for two, and if they wait for the water to drain it could take weeks. Strand feels like he has enough supplies to survive without leaving.

But Dorie sees this as a chance to get out of a dangerous situation. “As soon as I find June and Charlie, I’m coming straight back for you,” he tells him. But he warns Strand that he might run out of food. Strand is worried, though, that the raft will fall apart. I can kind of see both their points here.

Next we have Luciana visiting the Nolan Public Library. She’s looking for Charlie (who the heck knows why everyone is looking for Charlie, sigh.)

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Luciana finds a very injured man stuck in a car. He’s been there since the storm and isn’t in very good shape. “Why do you want to help a total stranger?” he asks her. “I have some things to make up for,” she says.

Next we’re back to Dorie building his raft. Dorie is pretty much my favorite character on this show right now. He doesn’t let anything really get him down and he’s a good, practical survivor. So is Strand, so it’s interesting to see their viewpoints differ on what to do next.

The raft immediately starts to sink, and that’s when they see it… An alligator. OH NO!

This is a very real danger in Texas, by the way. Not as bad as in Florida, but alligators used to live in a drainage area near my house growing up. Scary.

Now we head back to Morgan and Jim (imagine Morgan and Cole from 12 Monkeys, for a moment. Now THAT would be fun to watch.) Morgan is determined to stop CW because she is hurting people. He’s going to find all their friends and protect them from CW, including “Polar Bear” (the man who used to own the 18 wheeler.)

Jim is concerned about CW saying that she knows what Morgan is capable of. He has some bad memories from his time on 12 Monkeys and people hiding their true intentions.

“I’ve got some things I’ve got to make up for,” Morgan says mysteriously. If they say no, he’s going to take their truck, Morgan announces. And Ali will help him.

Then there’s this cool moment where Morgan demonstrates his fighting skills to Sarah, and she gives in.

OH MAN AN ALLIGATOR/CROCODILE JUST TOOK OUT A ZOMBIE. That thing is fast folks.

They take a break for a philosophical chat.

Now we’re back with Luciana. The man tells her that the only thing keep him alive is the car. Uh Oh. 🙁 And the only person left looking for him is the one person he doesn’t want to see.

Luciana is not having an easy life, folks. 🙁

All the old man wants is some beer, and Luciana is going to find it.

Now it looks like Dorie and Strand are considering turning a car into a boat…or something like that. Wait, no, it’s a camper shell they’re going to turn into a boat. That’s pretty creative!

Morgan in sheer defiance of CW leaves another box and writes, “If you need help VF Channel 4.”

Now back to Strand and Dorie’s world (which I’m enjoying most of all, to be honest), the two are still working on free the camper shell. But then Strand risks his life to get a bottle of wine (WHAT?!) and the camper goes flying down the hill with Strand and the walker inside.

Luckily, the walker gets killed in the process, because the same spirit that helped Alicia escape the locked cellar also helped Strand. It’s the spirit of Madison, woooooooooooooo.

👻👻👻👻👻👻

Well, Strand and Dorie had a falling out and now Dorie is left to work on the camper alone. 🙁

Now we’re back to Luciana seeking out a beer for the dying man. So there’s a very real theme here about the importance of alcohol in a post-apocalyptic world folks. Make a note.

Dorie and Strand made up and Strand believes enough in Dorie to take off on that camper boat with him. Nice. 🙂

Luciana failed to find beer, and the man in the car tells her a story to help her feel better. He didn’t want to be around anyone once, so he found a job to take him away from everyone. But then the world changed and he realized he made the biggest mistake of his life. He couldn’t help his old friends so he found a way to help new people. “Just because you weren’t able to help me, Lucie, doesn’t mean you’re not going to be able to help someone else.”

It appears that the guy Luciana was trying to help might be “Polar Bear,” the trucker who lost his 18 wheeler. Now THAT makes the whole story a lot more interesting! And we know why he was leaving those boxes. Wow.

Luciana finds Morgan’s box, and some beer inside that Jim left.

Meanwhile, Morgan and Dorie are on the raft, making a run for it, while the sound machine they set up attracts zombies… but then stops working way too soon. The zombies are leaving and now the crocodile doesn’t have another prey to focus on. It attacks immediately.

OH CRAP.

It looks like they’re not going to make it off the island and to the other side. Dorie is heartbroken that they can’t make it, but Strand is not about to take chances with that crocodile.

I don’t blame him.

Luciana returns with beer for the trucker man. “I watched someone die and I couldn’t do anything to make him feel better in his last moments. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.” Awww, that was pretty touching. 🙁 The man enjoys his cold beer and offers her some notebooks listing where he left supplies. (I hope CW hasn’t poisoned those yet!)

Ohhhh man, Morgan just heard Luciana on the radio! 🙂

But Dorie is heartbroken and he eats the licorice, giving up on ever finding June again. 🙁 Poor Dorie 🙁 (Derek meanwhile is asking me just how bad things have to get if you’re going to eat gross licorice. He has a point, haha.)

Luciana is with Morgan now, and they reach Alicia and Charlie on the radio. Alicia is near mile marker 84 and now CW heard them too. So I’m worried that 1) the box is poisoned that Alicia found and 2.) CW is about to go try to kill Alicia (good luck with that.)

Morgan tries to change CW’s mind with words, just like he did Sarah and Jim and company. But I don’t see it working this time because CW is craaaaazy. CW needs to be locked up and fixed that way, like Morgan once was.

Oh crap. The van that CW stole from Ali is now following their 18 wheeler. So much for Morgan’s speech.

Annnnd CW is unleashing the van’s weapons. “You lose people, you lose yourself,” she tells Morgan, totally not caring about his heartwarming message of hope.

Alicia and Charlie hear the whole thing.

Now it appears that we’ll get CW’s back story, and we won’t spend a week wondering if Morgan and Ali and Jim are dead. They’re alive, but in danger…

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. CW is certifiably crazy. The alligator was really hungry and actually exists in that part of Texas. And Dorie and Strand were always fun to watch together.

What did you think?

    Stephanie Dwilson started Post Apocalyptic Media with her husband Derek. She's a licensed attorney and has a master's in science and technology journalism. You can reach her at [email protected].

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