Per Matt
I’m not gonna lie: I got very emotional after watching Fear the Walking Dead‘s mid season premiere, “The Door.”
Tank Town is gone, fuel is running low, Virginia has separated Morgan’s Crew, whose life is hanging by a thread, while holding Ginny’s younger sister hostage (willingly). Separated from June, John’s been drinking and considering suicide. Morgan admitted Dorrie was his best friend and that he wouldn’t allow John to kill himself. Well, he kept his end of the bargain, as Virginia’s little sister, Dakota, did the deed. Earlier in the episode, he contemplated a loss of life had to have meaning, especially during the Zombie Apocalypse. While responding to Dorrie’s thought process, young Dakota claimed, “It doesn’t always have to mean something, John,” revealing her guilt for killing a ranger, while fatally wounding another.
John did need a reason to live. It used to be the love of June. But she seemingly abandoned him in order to work as a nurse for Virginia in order to help others. So, he was contemplating suicide until a turn of events led him to change his mind. But all of that happened split seconds before he was blind sighted by the kid, who seems to be just as evil as her older sister, pulling the trigger on his own gun.
It was a good callback to some earlier dialogue in the episode, but honestly, the action was a cop out. Killing Dorrie was mainly done for shock value, somehow revealing the true nature of Dakota. But John didn’t have to die. It could have been anyone else. It SHOULD have been anyone else.
Unfortunately, I’ve gone down this road several times before, as a fan of TWD franchise.
Every time a character is propped up as the soul or the conscience of the good guys, that person ALWAYS gets killed off prematurely. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
First, there was Glenn Rhee. Remember gentle Big Tiny? And what about Tyrese? While he’s currently off the show (and scheduled to return in upcoming TWD movies), the world’s STILL gonna need Rick Grimes! There have been others on The Walking Dead mothership, but those were my favorites. On Fear‘s pilot, there was the too-smart-for-his-own-good teenager, Tobias and at times, Nick Clark. But ever since the sister series was rebooted in Season 4, John Dorrie has been my favorite character, supplanting Old Man Salazar (who was considered dead for a while). While the source material might have had something to do with those chain of events, it also points to a whole lot of bad writing.
When characters become stereotypes and their actions predictable, that’s not a good thing. It also becomes a waste of time for this fanboy to keep watching a series, when each of his favorite characters keep getting killed off. Why even watch any of TWD shows if the protagonists’ deaths are common knowledge, the only question remaining is when they will bite the big one…
So, what really happened to The Walking Dead? Other than the joyful violence that was toned down, the AMC Chief knows why ratings have declined…
Killing off Fear‘s best character does mean something. It makes me question my previous life choices. And it makes me question how much I really want to continue on with this franchise.
As co-showrunner Ian Goldberg said of John’s death to EW: John Dorie has always been this incredible point of light, this optimistic, hopeful beacon in the apocalypse.
It seems that’s not always a good character description in TWD Universe.
Apparently, Garret Dillahunt has been rooting for his character to be killed off for two seasons now, and that is just a shame. It breaks my heart, as the actor never seemed to be trying very hard to steal every scene in which he’s featured. And he did just that each and every time for the series.
While eight more episodes remain in Season 6 for the post-apocalyptic Western, I yearn for Rubén Blades’ character to finally step out of the shadows and gain the upper hand, as his terrific character has pretty much been wasted this year. It’s all I can hope for, after my favorite character has (yet again) been killed off the show.
There’s still time to turn this season around. I don’t want to quit watching the best entry of The Walking Dead Universe on television. But I’m already wondering how long the willpower will hold up after everything I’ve endured throughout the years…