‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 4, Episode 9 ‘People Like Us’ Recap: Storm’s A-Comin’ for the Runaways

After all the exciting teasers that dropped for Fear the Walking Dead in July’s San Diego Comic-Con, one would expect that the show’s midseason premiere would finally redeem itself from a rather bleak first half. But despite all hopes for a better narrative, tonight’s episode failed even to make a little sense. Titled “People Like Us,” FearTWD‘s return after a couple of weeks proved to be a significant turning point for most fans who are starting to hate-watch the show. Frankly, I don’t even see how this episode turned out to be season 4B’s pilot.

The premise can be summarized like this—the “opposing sides” of Morgan’s (Lennie James) fresh blood crew and Alicia’s (Alycia Debnam-Carey), ragtag zombie apocalypse survivors have finally decided to kiss and make up after one meal by the campfire. They’ve set up different dwelling places for each—Morgan lives off on his own (again), Al (Maggie Grace) still jackin’ it to her SWAT van, John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt), June/Laura/Naomi (Jenna Elfman), and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) living in a school bus on a bridge, Strand (Colman Domingo) and Luci (Danay Garcia) sulking in a huge mansion, and Alicia holed up in a greenhouse trying to be the savior of the lost Infected. The partnership between each party is shuffled and ends with a severe storm that shits on the laws of physics.

And that’s basically it. Before I go on a ramble of what went down, here’s a brief recap of every annoying thing that happened tonight in AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead.

Morgan-Man: Homecoming

The zen master finally decides to go back to Virginia to rejoin Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) over at The Walking Dead. After a montage of killing zombies and collecting useless crap from them, Morgan suddenly realizes the need for him to return to Alexandria. Maybe the stuff he amassed gave him massive throwback feels, but we’ll never know ’cause “you know what it is.” He then calls up Al to drive him back to Virginia so Morgan can introduce her to Rick and the gang. Along the way, Morgan tries to talk everyone into coming with so they can have a better (arguably) future with him in Alexandria (like that’s ever going to happen).

Ryan Green/AMC

First, Morgan tries talking John into coming along, but the latter says that he’s all good living with June and their pretend-daughter-slash-ruthless-killer-slash-dumb-kid Charlie. John even plans on going back to his cabin to relive his “Laura” moment. Morgan then tries his luck with Strand and Luci, but they only want to live their pointless lives in the mansion—Strand drinking his ass off and Luci listening to old blues records (that King George & The Fabulous Souls track was awesome though). Running out of recruits, Morgan coaxes Alicia into joining him, but all she ever wanted was to save that trapped guy in a construction mill after receiving pinned notes on the Infected.

Alicia also drops the bomb to Morgan towards the end. Morgan goes on a TEDx talk about Alicia staying with Strand and Luci because they need her. But Alicia fires back by saying, “you could be there for us too, right?”

The group shuffles partners like some weird square dance

Now, this is where the writing goes haywire. “People Like Us” opens with a near-cryptic tease of a storm that’s blowing the Infected away (which, again, defies the laws of physics). What better way to brace for the storm than to split up, Fear the Walking Dead style?

After Morgan leaves, John and Laura notice that Infected are washing up to the river under their school bus home. Charlie, who weirdly became an unresponsive kid, sees one come up to her and refuses to call for help. Luckily, Al saves her ass from being eaten alive (though it wouldn’t have made any difference if she died earlier on). Curious, June and Al go on a reconnaissance mission to find out what’s causing the Infected to float by. John wanted to come, but his wounds are still fresh. Al leaves him a walkie-talkie so they could call him up for help if they need it. Later, Al sees a box of supplies left in the middle of the road, telling anyone to take what they need and leave some for the rest. This is a hint that these people are not alone. As June catches up with Al, she finally spills her story to her—off the record. June reveals that she wants to run away again like the scaredy cat that she is, but Al tells her that John needs her and that this is her life now. Then, for some unknown reason, June suddenly deduces that there’s a storm coming. That’s when the pair decides to go back to John.

Ryan Green/AMC

Back in the school bus, John tries to get Charlie to talk. Ever since the opposing sides made friends with each other, Charlie didn’t say a word. John makes a fake scrabble game and tries to make Charlie play, but she doesn’t want to. When another Infected washes up near them, John goes out to check and while Charlie runs away.

Strand and Luci continue their sulking at the mansion. As Luci turns up the volume of the record player, an Infected walk in to get her, but Strand luckily saves her ass too. But one thing that irked me so much in this scene was Luci being oblivious to what’s happening around her, unable to hear Strand beating the Infected with a wine bottle. Even if the volume was turned up high, you could still hear the things going on around you. So what the hell, Luci? They then fix up the fence where the Walker got in, but Luci still sulks about her purpose and future. Her world revolved around survival and Nick, but with the latter gone, she doesn’t see the point of survival anymore. Strand, on the other hand, would rather drink it up and enjoy the wine supply while it lasts.

Ryan Green/AMC

Morgan and Alicia, on the other hand, go on a mission to save this mysterious person who’s been pinning SOS notes on the Infected. As they reach the area, Alicia finds that the man looking for help turned before they could get to him. This frustrated Alicia that it seemed like an echo of Morgan’s solo episode in The Walking Dead.

When John finds that Charlie is gone, he goes to Strand in the mansion to ask for his help in finding her. Drunk Strand reluctantly agrees. After all, he owes John for putting him in the middle of the spat between his group and the short-lived Vultures. They drive around a school and library but finds no Charlie. Meanwhile, with Luci left alone in the mansion, Charlie barges in to return “The Little Prince” book that Nick and Luci found for her back in the Stadium. Luci sees her and runs after her, at first wanting to kill the kid. But when Luci sees the book, she changes her mind and takes off to find Charlie—who’s long gone by now.

Ryan Green/AMC

The Storm Trap

The episode ends with each of them stuck because of the storm. John and Strand are waiting in the car outside the library. June radios in, but their comms got cut off when the winds pick up. Al and June, on the other hand, are also stuck in the vehicle, with no way out. Infected hordes bang on the walls of the SWAT van, with the wind blowing them away (again, for exaggerated emphasis, VERY physically impossible in a storm). Morgan and Alicia are also stuck with each other, but the latter runs off before Morgan could convince her to stay with him and wait for the storm to pass.

‘Fear the Walking Dead: People Like Us’ Overall Verdict

This is some fresh bull of a Walking Dead episode. I have never witnessed anything so absurd and pointless in the entire run of the show until “People Like Us.” It’s the perfect example of sloppy writing, lazy editing, and lack of research for the physical elements of the entire episode. Who talks like Strand when they’re drunk? It’s beginning to irritate many fans how Fear’s fourth season is shaping itself into a whole chapter of coping and depression and some sort of mental aggression towards each other. This doesn’t work anymore. For what it’s worth, the only good thing about this episode is the music. That’s it. I’m still hopeful about the second half, though. But if things continue in being like this, I’d rather see the show canceled than go through another season of The Boring Dead.

Fear the Walking Dead continues Sunday, August 19th, with “Close Your Eyes” at 9/8c on AMC. Watch the preview below: