There’s little more annoying than a plot that can disintegrate with a single cell phone call. There are countless horror movies and romantic comedies like this. In fact, all of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code movies could have been solved if someone just picked up the phone and had a conversation about what was going on before proceeding.
In this week’s two-part third midseason premiere of Fear the Walking Dead, there was a moment that felt like the equivalent of the missing phone-call. There was one piece of information that was inexplicably withheld that perhaps could have changed the entire trajectory of the back half of the season.
First, some context: Showrunner Dave Erickson has suggested that much of season 3B will revolve around the lack of water on the Broke Jaw Ranch. There’s only enough to get the inhabitants on the ranch through another six weeks or so, and the lack of resources has hastened the war between the two sides on the ranch. “All roads are going to lead to water. Ultimately the damn is going to become that much more important as we move towards the end of the season,” Erickson told SyFy Wire.
.Meanwhile, Madison and Walker set out to Mexico in an attempt to solve the water crisis expected to dominate much of the season. En route, they ran into Victor Strand, who was being held captive by someone with whom he fell into debt. Madison helped Victor escape, temporarily, and Victor found a safe place for the three of them to hide out.
It’s there where Victor admitted that he’d run into some trouble.
“Was this your big plan when you refused to leave the hotel?” Madison asked Victor.
“No, I reconnected with an old friend,” Victor said. “He controls a damn near Tijuana, and he wasn’t as fond of me as I was fond of him.”
There’s one crucial piece of information Victor left out of that statement, and it is this: That Daniel saved Victor from that “old friend” and took control of the damn. Why he left that information out is a mystery to me. If he’d just said, “Oh yeah, by the way Madison, our old friend Daniel — who we left for dead back in season two — is alive and well, and he controls a huge water supply.”
Madison, in turn, would have said, “No way! Daniel’s alive! That’s perfect. He’s the answer to all of our problems! He has an endless supply of water, and we know where his daughter is.”
That’s it right there. Walker doesn’t attempt to buy the 5000 gallons of water, Madison springs Victor long before his life is endangered by walkers, and they jump in the water truck, head to Tijuana, and fill it up with 10,000 gallons of water.
Season over.
Instead, we’ve got to wait before that information to be disclosed for no other reason than it extends the storyline, all in service of what? An in-person reunion between Daniel and Madison? It makes no sense.
