The Hurt That Will Happen

"The Hurt That Will Happen" is the second episode of the fifth season of AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. It is the fifty-fifth episode of the series overall. It premiered on June 9, 2019. It was written by Alex Delyle and directed by Jessica Lowrey.

Plot
Morgan and Alicia meet a survivor and learn of a grave new walker threat. Meanwhile, the mission is put to the test when one of their own goes missing. Elsewhere, Strand makes contact.

Synopsis
Inside Althea's truck, Strand makes a tape where he tells the others that if they're watching it then he didn't make it. He grabs a few supplies and a beer before heading down a road onto El Paso.

Sometime later, he arrives at the entrance of some compound with rebar sticking out of the road. An orange cat greets him before a walker impales itself on the rebar. Suddenly, a gun cocks and Victor puts his hands up, asking Daniel to act calm and reasonably. Daniel orders him to turn around slowly. He tells him that his cat, Skidmark, likes him. Daniel then shoots a walker behind Strand before inviting him inside.

Meanwhile, Alicia, Morgan, and John return to the crash site to discover all their weapons and supplies are missing. Morgan finds a sign that someone took Althea and their equipment. The three of them split up and search for her, with Morgan cautioning Alicia not to blame herself.

At the truck stop, June patches up Luciana, who is eager to heal so she can learn to play the accordion due to the pain killer drugs. John returns to tell them Morgan and Alicia headed north and they should head south, while Luciana should stay at the station.

Back in Daniel's compound, he guides Strand through a warehouse full of cars and trucks, demanding he not touch anything and saying he inherited this place. Strand asks if he could borrow his plane to find his friends. Daniel asks if it’s for Madison and Strand breaks the news about her and Nick. However, Daniel doesn't believe him and claims Strand just wants the plane for himself because he is always self-serving.

In the woods, Alicia is blaming herself for Althea being missing but Morgan is optimistic. They come across a truck that is stocked and had been running recently. They split up and Morgan comes across a couple of walkers clawing at a birdcage. Morgan takes one out but then get his ankles tied up. Grace, a woman with a hazmat suit, holds him at gunpoint and demands he take his clothes off. Suddenly, Alicia jumps her, takes off her mask, and asks where Al is. Grace explains a power plant melted down last year and that Morgan needs to be decontaminated after killing a walker that was affected by it.

Morgan takes a shower by her truck and Grace suggests he take his wedding ring off to scrub under it, which makes him uneasy. Grace tells Alicia she hasn't seen Al but agrees to help if they return to the crash site. Alicia accepts but insists on keeping her gun. John radios to them that his and June's truck broke down. Alicia warns him of the radioactive walkers that he can't kill without risking their own health. Later, June and John follow a sign to a nearby camp to find the kids. They arrive to find cabins full of walkers.

Back at the compound, Daniel reminds Strand that he once shot him in the face and left him for dead on a dam which he rigged with explosives. Strand desperately explains people can change.

In the woods, Morgan, Alicia, and Grace search for radiation at the crash site when a group of walkers approaches. Alicia insists she will kill them despite it being dangerous. Morgan and Grace suit up as Alicia takes out the walkers one by one, looking to see if they're tagged with radiation markers. Alicia struggles with a walker as Grace checks each remaining walker for radiation. She doesn't find any as Alicia kills the walker.

That night, Grace criticizes Alicia's actions. She claims she had previously worked at a power plant designed to keep terrorists out. She stayed put to work the plant despite cities not needing their power and says the workers didn't make it, so she has to make up for that. Suddenly, John radios again and Alicia, Morgan, and Grace meet up with them in the campsite, where Grace inspects the walkers in the cabins and confirms they were exposed to the radiation.

At the truck stop, Luciana makes contact with Strand and informs him that she was injured and Althea is missing. Strand informs her that the man with the plane is going to help them. She then hears a noise nearby as the radio feed cuts out. Back in the compound, Daniel believes that the others need help and tells Strand to follow him.

Meanwhile, June offers up a ride to the truck stop. They get a radio call from Luciana who tells them they are getting a plane from Strand and that the long-range antenna was taken out by the wind. June orders her to go back inside just as walkers start to surround the truck stop. Luciana tries to take aim but her injured shoulder prevents her from shooting them. She hobbles away to the barn and locks herself in.

Later, Alicia laments to Morgan that she hasn't helped or found anyone and Morgan tells her about a time he was also stuck. He promises there's a way out of her hopelessness, she just needs to find it. Alicia asks what the way out leads to. "''The way out is opening the door to people, to possibility, to the hurt that will happen. That's what I did. I found the way and then I opened the door and then my life started all over again. Yours will, too." ''Alicia listens thoughtfully.

Afterward, Morgan tells Grace they'll help her find the rest of her friends but she declines, claiming that she has been exposed to the radiation and has limited time to live and does not want to risk anyone else's lives. Morgan reminds her they'll always be on the other side of the walkie if she needs them.

At the truck stop, the group arrives and awakens Luciana, who is still drugged and scared that the dead are waiting. Outside, they find the heads hanging from a billboard.

Meanwhile, Strand is escorted off of Daniel's property. He is confident the group will survive just fine and fires a couple of shots into the air, insisting Strand to leave now. "If you come back, the next one will be in your face," he tells him. Strand leaves furiously and smashes the head of some walker with a rock before heading off into the moonlight.

Deaths

 * At least 31-32 power plant workers (Alive, Confirmed Fate)
 * 31-32 power plant workers (Zombified)
 * Many unnamed Camp Cackleberry survivors (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified, Off-Screen)

Trivia

 * First appearance of Skidmark.
 * First appearance of Grace.
 * First (and last) appearance of Camp Cackleberry.
 * Starting with this episode, Karen David (Grace) has been added to the opening credits.
 * This episode marks Danay Garcia's 25th appearance on the show.
 * It's revealed that a reactor meltdown the previous year has contaminated the area where Morgan's group crashed with radiation. As a result, a lot of walkers are contaminated as well and are dangerous to get close to.
 * Grace was the one to put up all of the radiation warning signs but she was not responsible for the walker blockade encountered in "Here to Help."
 * Due to his encounter with a contaminated walker, Morgan is forced to ditch both his fighting stick and wedding ring. Grace warns Morgan that he can't ever get the stick clean as the wood is porous and will have soaked up the radiation it was exposed to.
 * It's confirmed that the herd faced in "Here to Help" was not radioactive, meaning that Morgan's group was not contaminated during their fight with it.
 * Due to the plant meltdown, there are over 60 walkers that became radioactive. Grace states that there are currently 63 left after all of the ones she has put down, but it is not stated how many there were to begin with. Around half of the walkers were discovered taken out at the campground Max's family came from as well.