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"Mother" is the fourteenth episode of the sixth season of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead. It is the eighty-third episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 23, 2021. It was written by Alex Delyle & Channing Powell and directed by Janice Cooke.
Plot
Alicia is held prisoner by Teddy. There, she reunites with old friends and must confront her past if she hopes to move on and escape.
Synopsis
In a flashback, Teddy sits in his cell on death row. Newspaper clippings on the wall reveal that he is on death row for murder.
A guard drags a prisoner to his execution. Teddy assures the prisoner that he will soon be starting a new life.
Teddy hears a commotion. His cell door opens as walkers invade death row and start killing inmates caused by the prisoner turning after his execution. An elated Teddy puts down a zombified guard with his pen, grabs a photo of his mother off of the wall and escapes.
In the present, Alicia lays in a room in an old school as Teddy's voice repeats a message on the P.A. Riley enters the room and asks if she's ready to accept Teddy's word. She doesn't answer. Riley leaves and locks the door.
Teddy's message plays repeatedly on the P.A., declaring that humans must break the pattern or they are doomed to repeat it. Teddy and Riley enter Alicia's room. Teddy tells Alicia they are leaving soon for their new home. He seeks Alicia's dedication to his cause. Riley aims his gun at Alicia and says she will never see the truth. Teddy declares that Alicia is coming with them.
Outside, a school bus pulls up with new recruits. Dakota comes out of the bus. Alicia scowls and tells Teddy that Dakota killed one of her friends. Teddy informs Riley that he's tending to a personal matter and that if he doesn't rejoin the group by tomorrow, Riley knows what to do. He gives Riley the key that they obtained from Morgan. Dakota privately tells Alicia that she's trying to rescue her and proposes that they kill Teddy. Alicia refuses Dakota's help.
Teddy, Alicia and Dakota drive down a road. Alicia realizes they are near the stadium where she lived with Madison.
Teddy takes Alicia and Dakota to a cemetery and pulls a casket from a tomb. "Hello, mother," he says. He declares that his mother will be a part of their new beginning.
Back on the road, Teddy explains that the fall is his chance to turn the world into what it could be. Alicia asks what the key unlocks. Teddy evades the question. The truck blows a tire on a road trap and skids to a stop, causing Teddy's mother's corpse to fly off the truck bed. Walkers emerge from the woods. Alicia and Dakota start killing walkers. They are found by a gang, led by Cole from the stadium community.
Alicia and Cole debrief each other on what they've been doing after the stadium burned. Teddy asks if Cole knows where they can find a new car. Cole says there's an auto shop nearby and offers to accompany them, due to the presence of local gangs.
Teddy tells Dakota he was in prison for 30 years for killing people who didn't see the world the way he did. Dakota says she has only killed people who she needed to kill – and that people seem scared when she tells them that killing is part of the new reality. They arrive at the auto shop. Cole pulls Alicia aside and suggests they kill Teddy, but Alicia insists on finding out his plan first. She explains that Teddy's group has set up a bunker with supplies to last for years.
Inside the auto shop, a gang surrounds Alicia's group at gunpoint. Alicia recognizes Doug and Viv from the stadium community and realizes that Cole is with the gang.
Cole's gang walks Alicia, Dakota and Teddy back to their truck. Cole explains that they've been killing people who crossed their path ever since escaping the fire at the stadium.
Cole's gang repairs Teddy's truck. Alicia tells Cole he can take the truck if he leaves them alone. Cole demands to know where Teddy's bunker is, but Teddy doesn't tell him. Cole shoots the corpse of Teddy's mother, but Teddy reveals it's not his mother. Cole invites Alicia to join his gang but Alicia refuses. Cole forces Alicia to her knees to kill her.
Cole orders Doug and Viv to kill Alicia's group. They see walkers approaching the road. Alicia tackles Cole while the walkers kill Doug, Viv and the other members of the gang. Alicia tells Cole that Madison died to give everyone a chance, and that Cole threw that chance away. She shoots him dead after Cole raises his shotgun at her and then puts down the reanimated Doug and Viv.
Teddy praises Alicia for letting go of her past, but Alicia still refuses to follow him. Teddy remarks that Alicia reminds him of his mother. Alicia asks if his mother thought he was crazy, too. Teddy's smile fades. He explains that he killed his mother after she threatened to have him committed for his crazy ideas. Alicia asks how he plans to destroy the world. Teddy says that the key will launch a missile from a beached submarine in Galveston. Alicia levels her gun at Teddy's head. Dakota turns her shotgun on Alicia in response, siding with Teddy, but Teddy tells Dakota that he wants Alicia alive. Alicia radios Strand and tells him that the keys are for a submarine near Galveston. Teddy's group shows up.
Teddy's group arrives at a resort. Teddy explains that the government built a bunker under the resort in the 1950s and that Riley recently discovered it as a replacement for the Holding.
Teddy and Alicia descend underground. Teddy locks Alicia in a cell and says she will rebuild the world from inside the cell. Alicia refuses to make the world the way he wants it to look. "I know, that's what I'm counting on," Teddy says.
Other Cast
Co-Stars
- Kenneth Wayne Bradley as Douglas
- Thom Hallum as Hayes
- Michael Papajohn as Prisoner George
- Jackie Dallas as News Reporter
- Crespatrick de los Reyes as Mike
Uncredited
- Kirk Riley as Young John Dorie Sr. (Photograph)
- Tommy Goodwin as Prison Guard
- Craig Cole as Prison Guard
- Roman Mitichyan as Burly Prisoner
- Unknown as Ms. Maddox (Photograph)
- Adah Hagen as Cultist
- Adrian Cudrop as Cultist
- Alizée Osborn as Cultist
- Daveon James as Cultist
- Eric Sandell as Cultist
- Erin Ryan as Cultist
- Ian Philo as Cultist
- Jake Ryan as Cultist
- Jared Wayne as Cultist
- Mattison Gotcher as Cultist
- Raquel Lanise as Cultist
- Reginald Hudlin as Cultist
- Teri Graham as Cultist
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Deaths
- Ms. Maddox (Confirmed Fate, Pre-Apocalypse)
- George (Alive, Flashback)
- Hayes (Alive and Zombified, Flashback)
- Cole
- Douglas (Alive and Zombified)
- Vivian (Alive and Zombified)
- At least 2 unnamed prison inmates (Alive, Flashback)
- At least 2 unnamed prison guards (Alive, Flashback)
- 9 unnamed members of Cole's Group
- 33 unnamed Dell Diamond residents (Confirmed Fate)
- At least 30 unnamed victims of Cole's Group (Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
Trivia
- Only appearance of Ms. Maddox. (Photograph)
- Only appearance of George. (Flashback)
- Only appearance of Hayes. (Flashback)
- Only appearance of Cole. (Present Day)
- Only appearance of Vivian. (Present Day)
- Only appearance of Douglas. (Present Day)
- Only appearance of Mike.
- The title of the episode, "Mother", refers to Teddy's mother, whom he talks about throughout the episode. It also refers to Alicia's mother, Madison Clark.
- This episode was made available for streaming to subscribers of AMC Premiere on May 20, 2021.
- This episode marks the return of Cole, Vivian, and Douglas who have been absent since "No One's Gone".
- Journalists who wrote the newspaper articles seen in Teddy's jail cell include A. Radkinn, Cameron Moosebrooke, Desirrae Wallace.
- According to the newspaper articles in Teddy's cell, he was charged with his mother's murder despite Teddy's claims to Alicia that no one ever found out and that his mother remains buried on their farm. The articles also state that John Dorie Sr. "found" the evidence implicating Teddy in Teddy's vehicle during a traffic stop.
- Teddy's writing that he's working on as he sits on death row appears to be the same message that was being broadcast throughout the Holding during the episode of the same name.
- It's revealed that Teddy's prison escape, briefly mentioned in "J.D.", happened because the Galveston County Jail fell after a prisoner was executed at the beginning of the outbreak and turned. During the chaos, the cell doors were opened and Teddy managed to escape as the prison fell after putting down a zombified guard.
- The news reports on TV just before Teddy's escape puts the time of the escape as the early days of the outbreak before anyone understood what was going on.
- A female extra who portrays one of the cult's new recruits exiting the school bus also portrays a second character, a resident in Valley Town.
- It's revealed that many of the Dell Diamond Baseball Stadium residents, including Cole, Douglas, and Vivian, survived the stadium's destruction due to Madison Clark's sacrifice. However, most of them died in an ambush a week later and the 14 remaining survivors turned into a hostile group of bandits.
- It's not revealed if everyone escaped or if some of the stadium's residents died when it fell.
- With the deaths of all of Cole's group, the only remaining survivors of the stadium are Alicia Clark, Victor Strand, Luciana Galvez, and June Dorie.
- Teddy reveals to Alicia that his plan is to use the two keys to launch at least one nuclear missile from the beached submarine in order to cause the destruction of everything. Alicia manages to radio a warning to Strand, but Dakota calls into question whether or not Strand will pass it on or simply run away.
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Episode Highlights
TBA
Goofs/Errors
- Teddy tells Dakota that he was on death row for nearly thirty years. However, in "J.D.", John Dorie Sr. states that the events surrounding Teddy's arrest took place 40 years ago.
- The blood patterns on George's clothes changes between shots.