‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Season 3 Finale Recap: Dam Explosion Separates The Clarks For Season 4

Fear the Walking Dead finished off its third season with a tense two-part finale.

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 3 FINALE

The first hour, an episode called “Things Bad Begun,” villain Proctor John fully develops into a truly evil force. The name hearkens back to Macbeth, when Lady Macbeth says, “Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.” The translation being that evil only continues to get more evil.

Troy discovers John’s plot with his Proctor biker game to attack the dam. Troy grabs Nick, who’s busy chopping off walker heads so that El Matadero can harvest what he needs for his signature drug cocktail. Together they rush back to warn everyone at the dam.

Meanwhile, Alycia finds herself in John’s way. On her way to the trading post to sell zombie teeth with a friend, an armored vehicle slams into hers. They try to rob her but Alycia grabs her gun and fires off warning shots and the men run off.  Her friend, however, is injured, and they have to stop for medical attention.

Victor delivers a speech similar to Lady Macbeth’s to Madison while they day drink atop the dam. He acknowledges to her that he must kill someone, something he surprisingly has yet to do. Nick and Troy arrive and share the info on the dam assault. Lola and Efrain are aware of the Proctors already – they were drug dealers before the outbreak, and seem to have very little regard for human life. After a bit of infighting at the dam, their plan becomes to rig the place with explosives.

Madison and Nick argue as she goes to visit Walker. Her son so badly wants her to leave the dam and avoid danger, but she is focused on the fact that he’s doing drugs again. Walker, Crazy Dog, and Victor only add to the stress as the first two say they are leaving the camp, and the last admits he made a deal with John to “open the back door” and let him into the dam.

Back at the trading post, Alycia has brought her friend in to be treated for her injuries. Eddie is impressed with her medical prowess and asks for her assistance on another patient, which turns out to be Proctor John. He’s in a wheelchair, paralyzed from a lump on his spine. She gets dragged into helping John, as he has given his men orders to kill everyone in the operating room if he’s to die. Alycia stands by his side, and of course he survives the surgery.

This is an interesting way to introduce a character who will become a villain. We see his humanity first. Alycia introduces us to a broken man who’s lost so much in the outbreak. Fans are already comparing him to Negan, but many believe he’s a more well-rounded character.

Before the scene ends, John is able to walk on his own, and commands his men to prepare the boats for the dam assault. He sees Alycia as his guardian angel, and insists she stay with him, which of course she can’t resist or she would probably be killed.

Meanwhile, as Troy and Madison are lining the dam with bombs, they reach a point of closure about the ranch being wiped out. Troy conveniently leaves out the part where he helped make it happen. It also becomes clear that Daniel wants revenge on Troy, as he’s convinced he caused Ofelia’s death. He locks Troy and Nick in a room together, until he can reach the truth. They trick him into putting the blame on Jake, and while Daniel doesn’t quite trust or believe them, he lets them go. But all of this leads to Madison discovering the truth about Troy, and she beats him to death with a hammer over her lost ideal of normalcy that could have been at the ranch.

The first hour comes to a close as John’s men approach the dam. Daniel and Lola discover that Victor rerouted the water in the pipes to allow John’s men entrance, and they spar. Victor shoots Daniel in the head, but in a more surprising turn of events, the shot doesn’t kill him – instead, Daniel must continue to fight with part of his face blown off. Victor is disgusted with himself, and lets Lola and Daniel go before he tries to hide Madison and Nick. He locks them in a room, takes their guns and the detonator, and promises he’d come back for them.

The second hour, called “Sleigh Ride,” Alycia is riding on a speedboat with John toward the dam.  They find Victor and John demands a full account of what has happened, and why there are dead bodies in the supposedly clean water.

Trapped in a locked room, Nick confronts his mother about killing Troy, and asks if she wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if she thought necessary. Madison is disgusted by the supposition, but Nick pushes her to admit that she might kill him one day. Meanwhile, Alycia hears her mother’s name in the scuffle, and makes a deal with John that if he spares Madison’s life, she will continue to serve him as he travels to Houston.

Victor retrieves Madison and Nick and reveals his plan to smuggle them out in dam worker uniforms. He breaks down over shooting Daniel. Lola finds Efrain’s dead body and attacks John, but he easily overpowers her and throws her body aside. John grabs Victor, Madison, and Nick, and takes them all back to the dam office. Alycia and Madison reunite briefly, but John quickly turns his attention to Nick. He recalls him lurking around the trading post warning others about the attack on the dam. John convinces himself he must kill them all, otherwise none will be loyal.

He marches them to the top of the dam and allows them last goodbyes. Nick, however, upon hugging Victor, feels the detonator and takes it. At this point, Victor stars harping about blowing up the dam and threatening the Proctors, only to be humiliated when Nick reveals he has it now and starts making demands. He gives a verbal suicide note, in which he tells John that Victor is to take Madison and Alycia upstream for a headstart against the Proctors. Nick says he isn’t afraid to die, and Madison looks strangely unemotional for being about to lose a child.

Everything comes to a head when Madison’s boat engine falters, John’s men go toward Nick, Daniel discovers Lola’s body, and Walker and Crazy Dog start sniping people off – Nick hits the detonator. John gets carted off and Nick watches as his mother and sister gets sucked into the current.

All three Clarks are alive at the end, but separated, which means season 4 will be an interesting look at who Madison, Nick, and Alycia are when they don’t have each other.