"More Time Than You Know" is the fifth episode of the eighth season of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead. It is the one-hundred and sixth episode of the series overall. It premiered on June 11, 2023. It was written by David Johnson & Calaya Michelle Stallworth and directed by Heather Cappiello.
Plot
The heroes fight the clock and PADRE's forces.
Synopsis
Morgan, Mo, Dwight, Sherry and Finch attempt to rush Grace to June. Grace is burning up while Morgan attempts to raise June on the radio. Grace wakes up on the boat, confused, and Morgan explains that Grace had gotten bit and Grace remembers what happened in the rubble of the house. Morgan tries to reassure Grace that everything is going to be alright because June has a way of treating bites, but Grace doesn't believe it. Mo and Sherry use Finch as an example of how the cure works and Morgan explains that the treatment helps to stop the infection and it stops the fever. Morgan promises Grace that they're going to get to do the things that they said and spend time together as a family.
Suddenly, shots ring out as two PADRE guards in another boat catch up to them. Dwight pushes the engine as much as he can while Morgan finally manages to raise June on the radio. Morgan tells June that Grace has been bitten on the side and they can't amputate, asking if June thinks that what she did for Finch will work on Grace. June admits that it might work, which Morgan is willing to take, but they will need equipment that PADRE has to do it. Morgan asks where she treated Finch and June reveals that it was on a train car. The boat's engine begins to overheat, and June asks for Grace's temperature, but Morgan can only tell her that Grace is really hot.
June tells Morgan that they must treat Grace fast, and Morgan asks for the last place that she saw the train car, but Shrike cuts in to tell Morgan that the train is no longer there. "Why do you think I put it on wheels in the first place? To keep people like you from messing with it." Morgan asks what Shrike wants and she claims that she wants to help save Grace's life. Morgan tells her to call off her men then, but Shrike wants Morgan to hear her out first. Shrike offers to tell Morgan where the train car is, have her people escort them there and even allow June to administer the treatment, explaining that she had paid a visit to King County and saw how many walkers that Morgan had killed single-handedly aside from the one who bit Grace. Morgan demands to know what Shrike wants and she tells him that there's a shipyard that is very important to their future. Standing next to a large machine gun looking at the shipyard, Shrike reveals that it has thousands of walkers inside that she needs cleared out. Shrike doesn't care if Morgan gets help from Dwight, Sherry, Madison or even Daniel's Resistance, she just wants the walkers dead. While Shrike was going to have the Prefects do it, she can risk Morgan instead of them. "That's how Grace gets a shot at living," she finishes.
After having passed out, Grace awakens again in the back of a PADRE truck. Morgan explains that they're on their way to the shipyard and Grace is then going to be taken to the train to meet June. Grace is shocked that Morgan surrendered to PADRE, asking how he knows that they will keep their word. Morgan reveals that they won't clear the shipyard until they're sure that Grace is safe with June, but Grace thinks that it's too dangerous despite Morgan's assurances that they've got it handled. Morgan radios Daniel who's people are armed and ready, but they need reassurances from Shrike that they're not walking into a trap. Shrike assures Daniel that the walkers are real and that she wants them dead, revealing that the contents of the shipping containers are valuable to her. Grace asks what they're going to help her do and Morgan tells her that they're going to help Shrike clear the shipyard, and they have the people and the weapons to do it with.
Morgan asks where the train is, but Shrike tells him that the job has to be done by hand, not with guns. The containers hold supplies that are needed to rebuild the world such as fertilizers and munitions. "One stray bullet and PADRE's entire legacy goes up in smoke," warns Shrike. Shrike didn't tell them before because she knew that Morgan had an army, but she didn't know that he had an armory too. Daniel backs out of the plan, telling Morgan that he's already told Shrike too much and it's too dangerous for Daniel to ask his soldiers to do this. Morgan begs Daniel not to back out on this now, but Daniel tells Morgan that he's not the one that Morgan should be angry with. Agreeing with Daniel, Grace takes the radio and reassures him that it's okay as Grace doesn't want anyone to die for her. Visibly saddened by the choice that he has to make, Daniel apologizes to his old friend as he genuinely wishes that they could help her.
Taking back the radio, Morgan is willing to do it without Daniel's help, but Grace tells Morgan that he doesn't know that he can do and he needs to be there for Mo while Dwight and Sherry need to be there for Finch. Morgan had to watch Jenny die from a bite and he isn't willing to do it again, but Grace tells Morgan that it's not up to them and it's not like she has much time left anyways. As her daughter begins to cry, Grace reveals that "before the bite, I was sick. It's cancer, Mo. I've been running away from it for a long time. It's finally catching up to me." Grace only has months left to live, maybe a year at most, which Mo points out is a lot more than a day.
The truck suddenly pulls over and Shrike tells Morgan that if he's not going to take the deal, then they need to make sure that Grace doesn't hurt Mo or Finch when she turns. Grace is dragged out of the truck and Shrike tells Mo that this is to protect her while Morgan begs Shrike that he will do whatever she wants. Grace begs the guards not to let her daughter watch while Mo begs them to stop. Morgan and Dwight share a look before attacking as Mo suddenly rushes in and shoves the guard's gun away as he shoots at Grace. Morgan strangles one man unconscious from behind while Dwight gets the other's gun and pistol-whips him unconscious as well. Dwight praises Mo's instincts and Mo credits Dwight's teaching of her. Mo promises that she's going to fight for every moment that she can have with Grace while Shrike calls in, ordering Kingfisher and Magpie to kill Morgan, Dwight and Sherry next. Grabbing a radio, Dwight informs Shrike that her men won't be able to comply with her orders, and Shrike warns him that while others have tried, no one has ever managed to steal a child from PADRE before. Before turning off the radio, Dwight tells Shrike that he thinks that Finch and Mo are going to be the first of many.
Morgan has Dwight get the map out of the truck cab in the hopes that it contains the location of the train car. However, Grace weakly warns him that even if they find its location, they won't make it there and neither will June. However, Morgan insists that it doesn't mean that they shouldn't try. Grace hands Morgan a set of coordinates that she wants to spend whatever time she has left with her family at, but she refuses to explain what they lead to, begging to just be taken there before Grace passes out again. Morgan knows that, with Grace's fever getting worse, they don't have much time. Dwight and Mo examine the map and find the tracks that train was on and guess that Shrike must've moved it further down the tracks. At Morgan's request, Dwight identifies Grace's coordinates as being a repeater station like the one that she serviced for PADRE, confusing Morgan as to why Grace would want to go there. Mo thinks that it's just because Grace is sick and confused, but Morgan doesn't think so as Grace had seemed pretty clear to him. However, Mo just got her parents back and she's not going to lose them again. Mo tells Morgan that this is no different than him and Grace sending Mo back to PADRE when they first met because it was what was best for her. Morgan finally concedes and agrees to take Grace to the train car, ordering Sherry to raise June and do everything that she can to meet them there. Shrike isn't going to make this easy, but Mo tells her father that they're fighting for someone they love and that's why they're going to win this. Having retrieved their weapons from the truck's cab, Mo returns Morgan's latest staff to him.
Grace awakens on a canoe as various status reports come in over the radio, including about Kingfisher and Magpie being found as well as a trail. Mo and Morgan explain that Dwight and Sherry are acting as a decoy for them and Grace manages to sit up and asks where they are. Morgan explains that he thought that they'd be hard to track in the swamp that they're passing through even if PADRE did figure out what they're doing. Grace realizes that they're not heading for her coordinates which are located inland, and she asks where they're taking her. Morgan points out that the coordinates were for one of PADRE's repeater stations which Grace knows and is distressed to learn that they're taking her to the train car instead. Morgan tells Grace that June is gonna try and meet them there and he insists that they can stop this and give them more time. Grace points out that there's no way that PADRE will be leaving the train unguarded, but Morgan is still intent on trying. Grace is worried that they will both only get killed trying and Morgan questions why Grace wants to go to the repeater station instead. However, Grace refuses to answer, stating that it no longer matters as the station is too far away now.
Hearing gunshots in the distance, Morgan realizes that Dwight and the others must be in trouble, and he has Mo raise Dwight for him. Dwight, Sherry and Finch flee from PADRE guards that are shooting at them into an abandoned house. Dwight reports that they're pinned down while Sherry tells her husband that they can't stay here for long as they're going to be flanked. Dwight warns Morgan that PADRE's forces know that they're following the wrong people and Morgan's group may have company soon. Addressing Shrike if she's listening, Morgan tells her that it's him that she wants, and Morgan asks that Shrike let Dwight and Sherry take their kid and go. Dwight doesn't believe that Shrike will call off her people after what they've done, and he sees that Shrike has sent Prefects rather than adults after them as Shrike knows that they won't kill them. Dwight decides to lay down suppressive fire, believing that if the Prefects do what he taught them to do, they'll fall back and regroup while Sherry takes Finch and runs. Dwight opens fire as Sherry reluctantly runs with Finch, Dwight's shots causing the Prefects to retreat as he had predicted.
A steadily weakening Grace protests that this isn't what she had wanted, and this is why Morgan should've listened to her. Morgan presses Grace for why she wanted to go to the repeater station so badly and Grace reveals to her family that "it's our future. Over the years, I've been scavenging for supplies to fix things for PADRE and... I collected other things too. Things to make a home. A place where we could live. A place where you'd feel safe." Morgan didn't know that, and he'd thought that they had both agreed that PADRE was the best place for Mo. While Grace did agree, it doesn't mean that it was what she wanted. Grace regrets not saying something sooner as that might've changed her and Morgan's minds, "but I waited until it was too late 'cause that's what I always do. If I'm not gonna make it, I at least wanted to give her a moment there. A moment for how it could've been for us." Morgan insists that they can still take Mo there after June has stopped the infection, but flares are suddenly shot into the air and Mo realizes that PADRE knows that they're in the swamp.
In an underground area, Dwight joins his family and finds Finch out of breath. While Dwight at first thinks that it's because they've been running, Sherry tells her husband that Finch is running a fever. Sherry contacts June about Finch's condition and, when they check Finch's bite, they find it to be red and inflamed with the skin around it being hot. A worried June admits that the bite infection could be back, but she'd have to see it in order to be sure. Dwight demands to know what June means, but June needs to see Finch in person before she can make any kind of an assessment. Sherry points out that Grace's repeater station is close by, and Dwight agrees to send June the coordinates. Morgan orders June to go to Finch who needs her, and June promises to get to the train car as soon as she can and to talk Morgan through the procedure over the radio if she has to.
While Mo insists that June has to get to the train car, Morgan recognizes that the situation may well be hopeless after all since Finch's infection seems to have returned. Morgan and Grace explain to Mo that if Finch's infection really is back, "then whatever June's doing, it doesn't work." Mo refuses to give up and while Grace doesn't want her to, she also doesn't want her family to risk their lives for a treatment that doesn't work. Grace wants to spend whatever time she has left with Morgan and Mo and Morgan suggests heading to the carnival that he and Mo had walked through with Madison and blocking off the entrances so that they can stay there for as much time as they have. Mo won't give up, but Grace tells her that it's accepting how things are, not giving up. More flares shoot into the air and Morgan realizes that Dwight was right that PADRE's forces are getting closer. Morgan decides to lead PADRE's forces away and take the long way to the carnival, promising to meet Mo and Grace there against Mo's objections. Morgan gets off the boat and Grace tells him "thank you for understanding my love. It's what I want." Morgan promises to see Grace soon and, with a kiss to her hand, sends Mo and Grace off without him, instructing Mo to look after her mom.
Having reached the carnival, Morgan calls Mo asking where she is, before realizing what Mo is doing. On a small hand cranked railway car, Mo moves herself and Grace down the tracks, figuring that the train can't be far away now and promising that Grace will understand when she's better. Grace begs Mo to stop, but she refuses as every minute counts, even if Morgan and Grace can't see it like Mo can. Grace protests that even if they do make it to the train car, the cure won't work, but Mo is determined to prove her mother wrong. As Grace worries that the Prefects are going to take Mo back to PADRE, she suddenly stops because the Prefects, standing between them and the train car, have found them. Grace orders Mo to call her father for help, but Mo refuses as Morgan will make them go back.
Dwight and Sherry carry Finch to Grace's repeater station, confused as to why Grace wanted to go there, but deciding that it doesn't matter as June's on her way. Dwight promises Finch, who calls Dwight "Dad" for the first time, that he'll feel better soon as he lays Finch down on the bed. Looking around at the well-decorated room, Sherry realizes that Grace must've been preparing for a life after PADRE, and Dwight promises that both Grace and Finch are going to get it. Sherry tends to their son as June knocks at the door and enters with Daniel, telling the couple that Madison and some of Daniel's people are standing guard outside.
On the tracks, Dove orders Mo to stop while Grace instructs her daughter to do as the Prefects say. However, Mo believes that the Prefects won't hurt her, although Dove tells her not to be so sure. Seeing Hawk amongst the group, Mo asks if they know the truth about Padre. "There is no Padre. He's been dead for a long time. And that Shrike and Crane are full of shit. That they're doing all of this because they lost their dad." Removing her mask, Dove tells her former friend that Padre is an idea, not a person, the right idea. Mo refuses to relent, telling Dove that she'll have to kill Mo to stop her as Grace protests and Dove asks Mo not to make her do this. Mo knows how upset Dove was when she found out that her mom was dead and Mo doesn't think that Dove wants her to feel that too. Dove hesitates before finally moving out of the way. Mo doesn't think that any of the Prefects want that or that they will hurt her as Mo is trying to save her mother. Mo promises a smiling Grace that it's going to be okay, and that they are going to save her.
Mo helps Grace into train car, laying her mother down on the operating table. Outside, the Prefects move Mo's car away and Hawk shoots flares into the air to draw in walkers. Mo blocks the door and Grace asks her daughter how she knew that the Prefects wouldn't hurt her, and Mo admits that while she didn't know, she had to take the chance. Mo contacts June for help and she confirms that Finch's infection is back. June didn't give Finch a high enough dose of radiation to kill it as she didn't want the radiation to kill him. However, June did come close to getting it and if Grace already has cancer, they don't have to worry about how much radiation she gets. As a result, the cure might work on Grace and buy her the time that she wants. June promises that they're working on a solution for Finch, but Mo can't let PADRE destroy her equipment.
Under June's directions, Mo performs the radiation treatment on her mother while June observes Sherry tending to a very ill Finch. June tells Mo that it could take awhile for the treatment to work, but they have to watch Grace's temperature. If it starts to fall, that's a good sign, but if it keeps going up, they'll deal with it. Dwight asks what that means for Finch and June explains that Grace had the infection for longer than Finch did when June treated him. If this dose of radiation works on Grace, then it might work on Finch too. Dwight is concerned by the might in June's statement while June has Mo power down the equipment and the generator so that Mo isn't exposed to anything that she doesn't have to be. Mo notices a herd gathering outside and realizes that they won't be able to get out themselves, but Grace reassures her that Morgan is on his way. Grace asks about the Prefects and Mo is sure that they're hanging around somewhere, Dwight having taught them not to leave themselves exposed unless they had to. Mo knows that the Prefects are likely going to try to stop Morgan from getting to them.
Grace proudly commends her daughter's bravery when the Prefects tried to stop her and Mo admits that losing her mother had seemed scarier. Grace recalls that when she was Mo's age, she couldn't even pick up the courage to pick up the telephone when Grace's parents left her at home with her sister. Mo is confused by what a telephone is, getting a chuckle out of her mother who forgets how different things are for her daughter. "That's what I was trying to do at the repeater station. Show you how things were. How they still could be." Grace grows increasingly weaker, and Mo discovers that her temperature is only going up. Mo discovers that Grace has a temperature of 106 degrees which June sadly reports means that Grace didn't get the radiotherapy in time. Even though Mo got her mother to the train car as fast as she could, it's not her fault: even if Grace had gotten the treatment right after the bite, it might not have been enough as it hasn't worked on anyone else. Mo desperately suggests giving Grace more, but both Grace and June tell her not to, knowing that Grace won't survive either way and more radiation would just kill her outright. June admits that she can't help Mo anymore and she instructs the young girl to enjoy the time that she has left while Grace reassures Mo that it's alright and that she did everything that she could.
As walkers continue to bang on the windows, Grace calls her daughter over. Morgan calls for his daughter over the radio as he races to the train car and Mo tells her father that she tried which Morgan already knows, having heard it all. As Mo starts to cry, realizing that Grace is going to die, Morgan promises her that she has nothing to be sorry about and Mo instructs him to be careful as there are Prefects in the woods. Morgan begins yelling at the Prefects not to try and stop him as he continues to run towards the train. Morgan asks to talk to Grace who tells Morgan that it wasn't meant to be while Morgan regrets not listening to Grace before, but Grace, near death, reassures Morgan that it's okay and she understands why he didn't. Morgan tearfully realizes that he's probably not going to get to her before Grace dies. Morgan promises to do everything that he can to get there in time, but if he can't make it then Mo's gotta leave. However, Grace tells him that Mo can't because of the walkers outside. Both Morgan and Grace know what Grace has to do as a result and express their love for each other, although they both aren't ready to let each other go. Morgan resumes running through the woods, desperately trying to get to his family in time.
Not wanting to hurt Mo if she dies and inevitably turns before Morgan comes, Grace directs her daughter to a nearby scalpel to put her down with before she can turn. Grace asks Mo to promise her to do it if Grace can't hold out until Morgan arrives and Mo promises Grace that she will. Mo regrets that, instead of following Grace's wishes to spend whatever time she has left with her family, Mo took that from her parents. Mo believes that she wasted all of the time that they had left, but Grace insists that Mo gave them more time. In flashbacks, Morgan and Grace are shown sitting together at Humbug's Gulch and preparing to commit suicide on the USS Pennsylvania before the arrival of baby Mo stops them and the family embracing just before Grace got bit. Grace weakly explains that "I'm not talking about today. There was a time... when things were really bleak... when your father and I... were thinking of ending things. We came so close to doing it. Do you know why we didn't? Because we heard you cry. You gave us a reason to live. You gave us more time... than you know." Holding her daughter's hand, Grace dies of her walker bite infection.
Mo desperately calls for her mother before realizing that she's gone. Mo readies the scalpel, but she can't bring herself to use it on Grace. Grace reanimates and attacks her daughter who drops the scalpel in the struggle. Mo eventually manages to shove Grace off of her and attempts to escape, but the cart that she put to block the door gets stuck, keeping her from getting out. Grace catches Mo who falls to the floor in the struggle and attempts to hold her mother back from biting her, but she can't reach the scalpel. Finally, Morgan enters and stabs the zombified Grace in the back of the head with his staff, putting her down. Tossing his weapon aside, Morgan gently lays Grace's body on the train floor before father and daughter embrace each other in their grief. Morgan gently closes Grace's eyes before Shrike calls out to him from outside of the train, telling Morgan that they need to talk. Morgan promises Mo, who continues to stare silently at Grace's body, that he's going to be right back.
Outside, Shrike, surrounded by armed Prefects, admits that Morgan is a brave man as she thought that they'd have to come inside to get him. Morgan knows that any one of Shrike's people could've killed him before, but they didn't, and Shrike explains that they knew what Heron would've done to Mo if Morgan hadn't been allowed to intervene. Morgan angrily corrects Shrike on Grace's name and Shrike holds up Morgan's old battle axe, telling Morgan that they had dug it out of storage, and they remember what Morgan did with it seven years ago when he had tried to run. Shrike comments that it's a shame that Morgan couldn't have used those same skills today. Morgan asks Shrike to leave them alone to bury Grace properly, but she refuses to allow him to do it. Shrike tells Morgan that he can still make things right, but Morgan makes it clear that he wasn't asking for permission. Shrike knows that Morgan isn't going to harm her Prefects, but they don't have that same hangup about him. Holding his staff to Shrike's throat, Morgan warns her that the Prefects aren't the ones that she needs to be worried about. Shrike orders Morgan to listen closely, telling Morgan that she could kill him right now, but she doesn't want to. "I know the pain Wren's in. The whole reason I am doing what I'm doing is to prevent anyone else from feeling that kind of pain." Pushing down Morgan's staff, Shrike tells him that Mo has already lost a parent today and she asks that Morgan not make her lose a second one.
Mo emerges from the train, telling Morgan to stop and ignoring Morgan's orders to go back inside. Mo declares that Shirke is right and that she doesn't want to feel like this anymore. Morgan insists that there's nothing that Shrike can do to make that go away, but Mo asks Shrike why she needs to get to the containers in the shipyard. Shrike explains that it's so that they can build new settlements all over the country, so that they can make sure that no one else feels what Mo is feeling right now. Morgan tells his daughter that she can't run away from her feelings, but Shrike tells him that Mo won't be running away from anything but rather that Mo will be heading towards a bright future. Morgan questions this, pointing out that Shrike can't even get to the containers in the shipyard. However, Mo tells Dove and the other Prefects that she can clear it if they help her, that it's what PADRE has been training them to do for years. Mo ignores Morgan's protests that the walkers are going to kill her, stating that they won't if they do it smart and use their training. After a moment, Dove agrees and Mo leaves with Dove, Hawk and the other Prefects, completely ignoring her father's calls.
Held back by two Prefects, Morgan protests that it's not going to work, and he can't lose her too. Shrike accuses Morgan of only caring about what he wants rather than what Mo wants, but Morgan continues to insist that Shrike is going to get his daughter killed. Shrike reiterates that she doesn't want to kill him, and Morgan seemingly relents. As Shrike starts walking away, Morgan suddenly attacks and disarms the Prefects using his staff and superior aikido skills despite the fact that one of the Prefects is also armed with a staff. Morgan races after Mo, but as he runs past Shrike, she uses Morgan's battle axe to knock him to the ground. With all of Morgan's recent losses, he begins to slip back into his old insanity telling Shrike that "you're not gonna kill me... because you can't. Because I don't die! Everybody else does, but I don't." Shrike suggests that Morgan might be right and that he needs to think about why that keeps happening.
The Prefects grab Morgan and throw him into the train car with Shrike ordering them to make sure that Morgan can't get out. The two chain the doors shut and shoot more flares into the air. As another herd emerges from the woods and surrounds the train car, Shrike tosses Morgan's battle axe onto the tracks next to his staff and departs with her Prefects, leaving Morgan trapped and weaponless.
Other Cast
Co-Stars
- Triston Dye as Hawk
Uncredited
- Mickey Coursen as PADRE Prefect
- Wesley Barnes as PADRE Prefect
- Cassandra Johnson as PADRE Prefect
- Unknown as Kingfisher
- Unknown as Magpie
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Deaths
- Grace Mukherjee (Alive and Zombified)
Trivia
- Only appearance of Kingfisher.
- Only appearance of Magpie.
- Last appearance of Grace Mukherjee. (Alive)
- With Grace's death, there are no surviving members of the power plant community left alive.
- The title of the episode, "More Time Than You Know", refers to Grace's last words that Mo being in their lives gave her parents more time than she knows.
- This episode was made available for streaming to subscribers of AMC Premiere on June 8, 2023.
Episode Highlights
- Grace reveals as part of her last wish that she'd been building a house for her and Morgan's family, near a PADRE repeater station she'd repaired.
- Finch's infection from his walker bite returns due to June not giving him a high enough dose of radiation out of fear of killing him.
- Mo takes Grace to June's train car to give her radiotherapy for her walker bite infection, but it doesn't work and Grace dies and reanimates, forcing Morgan to put her down after she attacks a traumatized Mo.
- Mo and the Prefects head to the shipyard Shrike says is important with the intention of clearing it of the walkers that are there.
- Morgan starts to slip into his old insanity after Grace's death and ends up imprisoned by Shrike in June's train car, which is surrounded by walkers.