Warning: Review may contain spoilers!
Fear the Walking Dead 607 – Damage from the Inside
Virginia is having a bad week, a really bad week. Losing Tank Town, Dorie and not to mention her hand, it would seem like things couldn’t get worse for her. Well she’s now batting four for four after her sister Dakota vanishes into the ether in Damage from the Inside.
To try and minimize the fallout from losing Dakota, Strand enlists Alicia and Charlie to track her down. Alicia is an unwilling participant, still stinging from Strand’s decision to cut himself off from her and the fact it has been six weeks since she’s had any real contact with him. Trusting Strand is a difficult option at this point but Alicia decides to help for her own reasons.
An encounter with a mutilated walker piques Alicia’s interest and draws her closer to Dakota’s whereabouts. Sneaking into a house in the middle of the woods, Alicia finds herself in a taxidermist’s dream. The dream turns into a nightmare though when she’s captured by a man named Ed, who is responsible for going all Dr. Frankenstein on walkers.
The search for Dakota is short lived. She was taken in by Ed and has no intention of going back to her sister. Alicia realizes that letting Dakota stay isn’t an option, especially since Ed was working on a walker that used to be one of Virginia’s rangers. Unsure of where the man’s loyalties lay Alicia contacts Virginia, informs her of what happened and negotiates a deal for her and Charlie’s freedom.
Damage from the Inside plays like a mini horror movie, think Isle of Dr. Moreau meets Fear the Walking Dead. Ed is a deeply troubled man burdened by guilt. In trying to save his family he caused their demise and it’s not too difficult to see the parallels with what may await Virginia.
Morgan’s arrival ends the walker menace but the real danger lies in the truth behind his appearance on the scene. The fight over Dakota’s fate and what Morgan’s been doing to build his vision of the future reveals that the road to ruin begins when the damage from the inside corrupts an individual to a point where their soul is lost.
Battle lines are drawn and loyalties are severely tested in Damage from the Inside. The standoff in the closing moments achieves only a momentary victory for Morgan and Alicia. Like a chess match, there are many moves in play and sometimes it’s the ones yet to be made that hold the most power. Virginia’s gambit, and Grace – her hidden chess piece, raises the stakes of the game. There are more pieces yet to be sacrificed and whom they turn out to be will have to wait until Fear the Walking Dead returns from its mid-season hiatus.
