Why Some Fear The Walking Dead Fans Were Disappointed By The Season 6 Midseason Finale
Zombies are already terrifying enough on their own, but considering how many people watch Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead, and now The Walking Dead: World Beyond, regular zombies just don't have the same bite like they used to. You have to up the ante a little bit — and that's precisely what we received in the season 6 midseason finale of Fear, titled "Damage From the Inside." While we won't get any more new episodes until 2021, the final episode left some haunting images in the heads of viewers, with the introduction of taxidermy walkers.
Like something straight out of The Island of Dr. Moreau, Fear the Walking Dead has brought undead human-animal hybrids into the mix ... and the apocalypse has never been scarier. Those of you who've seen the most recent episode know what we're talking about: Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) stumble upon an isolated cabin with the monstrous creatures lurking about. Inside the cabin is a man by the name of Ed (Raphael Sbarge) who created the beasts as a way to protect his family, and in a twist of fate, the monsters ended up killing what family he had left.
Considering this will be the last episode of Fear the Walking Dead for a while, expectations were high. While your mileage out of the episode may differ, many fans took to Reddit to voice their displeasure, and much of the criticism stems from antagonist, Ed.
Spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead season 6, episode 7 ahead!
Fans didn't think Ed's motivations made sense
By and large, fans have enjoyed season 6, up to this point. It even sounds as though most felt that the most recent episode wasn't necessarily bad per se, just weaker than what we've seen so far, and a big component of that is Ed.
More specifically, it comes down to why exactly Ed felt the need to sew animal parts to walkers in the first place. As Redditor DrunkenDave commented, "Ed's motivations didn't seem convincing or reasonable. I also am not fond of the idea itself in that you have to make the walkers scary to keep people away. They're already scary!" While plenty of other users chimed in, basically saying how antlers on a zombie is a hat on a hat, others took issue with Ed's motivations, like danielpirvan, who wrote: "The whole taxidermist thing felt kinda dumb and the man's intentions and motivation made little sense. I couldn't care for him or his dead family like I cared for other episodic characters who died this season. Did they honestly try to make something as vile and demented as animal augmented walkers into an act of love and protection?"
One user, hoopnet offered a recommendation for a different direction the plot could have taken, suggesting, "When Ed revealed he was a taxidermist, I thought he was gonna try and turn the girls into taxidermies."
The general consensus seems to be that there was a lot of potential with Ed, but whether it was a murky backstory or odd motivations, fans just didn't think his characterization worked — though, writing aside, Sbarge's acting earned compliments. Anyway, by the end of the episode, Ed is impaled and subsequently devoured by walkers, so we won't be seeing him again..
New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead will air in 2021. Hopefully, future antagonists will be more to the liking of fans.