The best thing to happen to Fear the Walking Dead in its fifth season has been the introduction of its mysterious new villains, Virginia and the Settlers. On the other hand, the best thing that has happened for the upcoming Rick Grimes’ movies during the fifth season of Fear the Walking Dead is the revelation that Virginia and the Settlers will not be involved with the movies.
That is neither a knock against the Rick Grimes movies nor the new villains on Fear the Walking Dead, who are legitimately compelling (even if their motivations remains stubbornly vague). It’s more a sigh of a relief because, as good as The Settlers may be, they do not rise to the level of legitimate theatrical film villains. However, they are good enough that Fear should want to keep them to themselves.
The front half of this week’s episode, “Today and Tomorrow,”strongly suggested that The Settlers could be connected to Rick Grimes. In this week’s episode, Althea and Morgan met Virginia and the Settlers via a man named Tom who was trying to run away from them. Tom, however, left his sister behind in The Settlers’ compound, so Morgan and Althea made it their mission to recover the sister, Janice. Morgan had his own reasons — he wants to help people, but also, he was putting off having to see Grace. Althea, however, had a more pressing reason to try and save Janice. The mission of The Settlers — according to Tom — sounded awfully similar to the mission of CRM, the helicopter group with whom Isabel belonged. Recall that Isabel and Althea shared a kiss earlier this season, and after Isabel flew off in her helicopter, Althea was left with the impression that she’d never see Isabel again.
However, Tom suggested that the Settlers were working toward building a better future using ruthless means. “They were trying to grow something bigger, something better,” Tom told Althea about The Settlers. “They said it wasn’t about today, it was about tomorrow.” Interestingly, that mirrored what Isabel from the helicopter group, which is connected to Rick Grimes, told Althea: “It’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than you. It’s the future.”
Fortunately, once Althea finally met Ginny, she appeared to foreclose that possibility after Althea asked if she had helicopters. “Helicopter?” Ginny said. “We just got a gas supply yesterday. What made you have that crazy idea?” In other words, the overall missions of both CRM and The Settlers are coincidentally very similar, but they are not the same group. Either that, or Ginny is lying about helicopters, although if the Settlers did have enough gas for helicopters, they probably wouldn’t be riding around on horses.
Basically, it means that if we ever see Isabel, CRM, and the helicopters again, it will probably be in the Rick Grimes movies. Ginny and the Settlers, however, most likely will not be part of that.
