After a lot of disappointment caused by the chapters “Mourning Cloak” (7×10) and “Ophelia” (7×11) Fear the walking dead (since 2015), especially because of how well the seventh season was going, you press the “play” button with some fear that this will happen again with “Sonny Boy” (7×12). But from the very beginning everything goes smoothly. Parallel montage before the credits of what the audience thinks is happening and the ongoing totalitarian horror looks very promising.
Also, the mystery we’re facing, with the possible repercussions of one character and the other, the different interests at stake, and Keith Carradine’s John Dory Sr. as Hercule Poirot from Western, awakens our curiosity and desire this story was written by Jacob Pignon and Justin Boyd, who wrote the other three episodes from “Damage Within” (6×07) and “Until Death” (7×05) respectively, works as it should.
He takes the opportunity to dig into the former sheriff after “JD” (6×13) and “Cindy Hawkins” (7×03) and, unexpectedly, in the helpful Howard Omid Abtahi, whom we knew little about before what we were told here. But fascinating intrigue is not built and worthy of Agatha Christie that we wished it were possible, but they reveal secrets to us very soon; too much for us to enjoy this chapter as much as most of the season Fear the walking dead.
The Discomfort of Totalitarian Horror
However, there effective turns which we don’t foresee, especially after what happened to Alexa Nisenson’s Charlie in Mourning Cloak. The second apocalypse, caused by the insane Teddy Maddox played by John Clover, continues to wreak havoc on top of starving corpses. And Sonny Boy manages to make terrible character decisions. disturb us until notice it in entrails. With Colman Domingo’s Victor Strand “Beyond Salvation”.
We wonder, on the other hand, whether this plot involves the final descent into hell of John Dory Sr. Keith Carradine, which is shown to us from bad to worse with some easy assembly of detail drawings; the work of director Ron Underwood, who retired from directing feature films such as jerks (1990) or My great friend Joe (1998) to episodes of television series: monk (2002-2009), Lock (2009-2016), A long time ago (2011-2018) or Good fight (since 2017).
So he came to take charge of the quartet Fear the walking dead currently between “210 Words Per Minute” (5×10) and the real “Sonny Boy”. In which, moreover, we feel a rainy atmosphere, very suitable for despotic uncertainty, and uses a contrapuntal song in a scene that clearly needed it, so that the sensible digression that occurs then, and which plays with our expectations, is not devoid of dramatic hardness. And it pays off.
Bringing “Fear the Walking Dead” back on track

make us nervous for the dangers faced by Keith Carradine’s John Dory Sr.; again, with contrasting music. And it is soon confirmed that our fears were not unfounded and, if we were already greatly saddened by the fate of the beloved character played by Garret Dillahunt, sealed in The Door (1×08), then in the latter we cannot help but experience empty feeling because none of his shed blood remained.
But that means director Ron Underwood and writers Jacob Pignon and Justin Boyd they were successful on the challenge posed to them in “Sonny Boy”, challenging with viewers disappointed by the previous two episodes: which Fear the walking dead ski lift so that we stop complaining about the drastic drop in quality after such decent supplies and all the good work showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg from the fourth season.
Source: Hiper Textual
