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"In Dreams" is the twelfth episode of the sixth season of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead. It is the eighty-first episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 9, 2021. It was written by Andrew Chambliss, Ian Goldberg & Nazrin Choudhury and directed by Michael Satrazemis.

Plot

Grace wakes up with a case of amnesia seeing what's become of her friends after she has been gone for years. She struggles to put the puzzle pieces together on what has transpired.

Synopsis

A walker attacks Grace as she lays on the ground. A girl named Athena kills the walker with a fighting stick and offers to bring Grace to her community.

Athena takes Grace to Valley Town. Morgan greets them outside, but he is much older and does not recognize Grace.

Inside Valley Town, Grace marvels at the thriving community. She tells Morgan that she is Grace and says the last thing she remembers is heading to June's hospital after going into labor. Morgan finally recognizes her but is incredulous that she's alive.

Morgan takes Grace to her grave and says that she died in labor, due to her radiation exposure. He says that Athena is her child.

Morgan walks Grace through the village. Grace sees Daniel giving Strand a haircut and Dwight and Sherry with a son and daughter. Morgan says that everyone reunited after Athena was born.

Morgan, Grace and Athena go out on a run. Athena listens to music on a cassette player and says it's the only thing she has left from her mother. They see a rusty car painted with the words, "The End." The car explodes, throwing Grace to the ground where she experiences several flashbacks, including of her lover Matthew.

Grace wakes up and screams Morgan's name. Athena helps her as walkers show up.

Grace and Athena flee from the walkers. Grace hears Morgan's voice. "Come back to me," he says. The moment plays on a loop. Grace remembers that she and Morgan had been driving to the hospital when the rusty car exploded on the side of the road. She realizes the explosion knocked her unconscious and that she is now having a dream.

In reality, Morgan leans over Grace's body inside an abandoned vet's office. He begs her to wake up.

In her dream, Grace realizes that Morgan is trying to wake her up. She calls Morgan's name. She remembers packing the cassette player for the hospital. She puts on the headphones and listens to music.

Morgan radios June and says they were attacked. June says she's on her way but that it will take her a while to reach them. Riley and his gang show up outside and shoot at the building.

Grace tells Athena that they're in trouble.

Riley calls out for Morgan and says that Morgan has something they want. Morgan removes the headphones from Grace's head.

In Grace's dream, the cassette player stops playing music. Grace asks Athena to take her to the vet's office in the hopes that it will help her wake up.

Riley calls out Morgan's name. Morgan starts to move Grace.

Riley's gang finds Grace and Athena on the road. Grace and Athena both double over in pain.

Morgan transports Grace in a wheelbarrow and reassures her that the pain was just a contraction.

Riley tells Grace that she has something they want. He gets out a knife. Grace slashes him in the throat, killing him.

Grace holds her belly in the wheelbarrow.

Grace reveals to Athena that she is her mother, and that she needs to wake up so that Athena can be born.

Grace laments that it's taking too long to reach the vet's office. A white horse shows up out of nowhere.

Grace describes Athena's father as they ride the horse toward the vet's office. They hear Morgan's voice as they get closer.

Inside a barn, Morgan urges Grace to wake up. He hears Riley's gang outside and barricades the stables.

Grace and Athena arrive at the barn. Grace tells Athena that she will die soon due to radiation poisoning but predicts that Athena will unite everyone and inspire hope at Valley Town. Riley's gang arrives at the barn.

Morgan hears the gang enter the barn and urges Grace to wake up.

Grace tells Athena to hide, but Athena insists on fighting. Riley's gang approaches.

Riley demands the key that Morgan is wearing around his neck. He says the key will change everything and that he will leave Morgan alone once he has the key.

Grace and Athena fight Riley's gang.

Morgan kills Riley's gang until only Riley is left. He stabs Riley in the shoulder. Riley flees.

Grace sees the key on Athena's necklace. Athena says that Morgan gave it to her as a reminder of the cost of peace. Grace drops to the ground.

In reality, Grace makes a choking sound and stops breathing. Morgan gives her chest compressions.

Riley grabs Athena and slams her against a wall. He grabs the key from her neck.

Morgan begs Grace to breathe.

In Grace's dream, Morgan stabs Riley and helps Grace up. Grace hugs Morgan.

In reality, Morgan listens to Grace for signs of life.

Grace hugs Athena and says that she will always be with her. She steps toward the barn doors.

Grace regains consciousness and tells Morgan that she saw the future in a dream. She says that she is going to die in labor but that Athena will make everything okay.

Grace records songs for Athena to listen to. Riley crashes a truck through the barn wall and holds them at gunpoint. He demands the key. Grace urges Morgan to hand over the key and says that the future lies in Athena, not the key. Morgan hands the key over. Riley leaves. Grace assures Morgan that Athena will unite everyone.

Grace goes into labor. Morgan delivers the baby, but she is stillborn. Grace cradles Athena and cries. She realizes that her dream was about Athena's final moments, not her own. She says that her hopes for the future were just a dream.

Other Cast

Co-Stars

Uncredited

Deaths

Trivia

  • First (and last) appearance of Athena Mukherjee. (Alive)
  • First (and last) appearance of Matthew. (Flashback)
  • First (and last) appearance of John. (Dream)
  • First (and last) appearance of Tina. (Dream)
  • First (and last) appearance of Paperno Equine Veterinary Clinic.
  • Last appearance of Michael Sherman. (Flashback/Dream)
  • Last appearance of Bridgeview Mall. (Flashback)
  • Last appearance of Camp Cackleberry. (Flashback)
  • Last appearance of Lonestar Power & Light. (Flashback)
  • The title of the episode, "In Dreams", is the same as the Roy Orbison song.
  • This episode was made available for streaming to subscribers of AMC Premiere on May 6, 2021.
  • This is the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead to be released in the U.S. on Mother's Day, which is rather coincidental considering the premise and themes of the episode.
    • This episode, along with "Sonny Boy", were coincidentally named after songs in which Grace is featured as the central mother figure to the child and sings the latter songs to.
  • One of the cultists who appear in the episode is played by a stuntman, Ari Loeb, who was a Savior in the episode "Mercy" in Season 8 of The Walking Dead.
  • This is the second time across the entire The Walking Dead franchise to feature talking zombies, albeit in a dream state.
    • The first was in "The Tower" when a zombie "spoke" to Beta while he was hallucinating.
  • This episode features two non-canon deaths for Riley where he is killed in Grace's dream state while alive by Grace and then zombified by Morgan. In reality, however, he is still alive.
  • Grace's dream reveals her last name to be Mukherjee which is on her tombstone outside of Valley Town.
    • The first two letters of her last name were revealed in Season 5 until the full name was revealed in this episode.
  • In Grace's dream, an adult Max is a guard at Valley Town, June is a doctor with an adult Charlie as her assistant, Al has left, presumably in search of Isabelle, Strand, and Daniel appear to be friends, Dwight and Sherry are married with two children and Alicia, Luciana, and Wes have rebuilt the Dell Diamond Baseball Stadium with a new community.
    • An aged Sarah was set to appear in the imagined Valley Town, but the scenes involving dream Sarah were deleted.
  • This is the first episode to show the inside of the Lonestar Power & Light power plant rather than just the outside of it.
  • Grace's dream state features several references to the events of Season 5:
    • Matthew is wearing a dosimeter when Grace finds him alive and then when she puts him down as a walker. All of the radioactive walkers wore dosimeters which made them distinctive which would include Matthew since he suffered the same fate as the other power plant workers.
    • The walker that Athena puts down several times is wearing an Don't Mess With Texas T-shirt which is identical to the one that Grace gave to Morgan in "The Hurt That Will Happen" after his decontamination shower.
    • Athena and Grace pass Grace's truck parked sideways in the road as they ride a horse. A zombified Grace appears to be in the driver's seat wearing her radiation suit. In addition, the truck is parked at an angle, similar to how Grace's truck was left parked at the Radiation Zone Border. The only difference is that in the dream, the truck is parked on an angle to the right, while in reality it was angled to the left.
    • Grace and Athena find a zombified Michael Sherman under a bird cage trap. This is how Grace first met Morgan and Alicia in "The Hurt That Will Happen".
  • This episode features several flashbacks to the events of Season 5:
    • Grace is shown looking at Robert Deeley's dosimeter, the skeletons of burned walkers and the zombified residents of Camp Cackleberry from "The Hurt That Will Happen".
    • Grace is leaning against the Big Barn Truck Stop generator in despair in "Still Standing" outside of the power plant. In addition, three zombified power plant workers are shown making their way across a field from when a herd, including at least five zombified workers, went after Strand and Charlie in the same episode.
    • Grace and Morgan ride a carousel at the Bridgeview Mall in "210 Words Per Minute" an event that Grace also refers to in her dream while trying to convince Morgan of her identity.
  • The only flashbacks featured in this episode that are actually new scenes are the flashbacks regarding Grace's injuries in the car explosion and the flashbacks regarding Matthew.
  • Despite the threat of the Doomsday Cult, Morgan does not appear to have removed his axe from the ground as he swore to do in "Things Left to Do" if a new threat arose. Instead, Morgan appears to have crafted a new, darker colored staff to serve as his weapon as his original staff did before the death of Emile LaRoux.
    • This is the first time since "The End Is the Beginning" that Morgan is seen solely using his staff as a weapon without it being combined with his axe.

Episode Highlights

TBA

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