Fear the Walking Dead Al Finds Love in a Hopeless Place
Fear the Walking Dead finally returns its attention to Al in "The End of Everything," the most romantic episode in recent memory.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 episode "The End of Everything," which premiered Sunday on AMC.
Althea was a war journalist before the apocalypse, and essentially found a way to keep doing the same job afterward. During the past two seasons of Fear the Walking Dead, she's made a habit of maintaining a gruff exterior at all costs, only forging relationships when absolutely necessary. Until this week, that is. "The End of Everything" introduces Al to a love interest, and the character opens up for us in an unprecedented way.
Al's assailant from the Season 5 premiere is the partner of the walker she was investigating. The two women begin at odds, with Al refusing to give Isabelle the tape she made of the walker's maps, and attempting to steal Isabelle's helicopter. Isabelle, in turn, points a gun at Al -- a lot. Eventually the two strike a deal: Al will assist Isabelle in retrieving more fuel so Isabelle can leave, and in exchange, she'll give Al information about her organization and refrain from shooting her. But as the two start to work together, it becomes impossible to ignore that they share similar values.
After making a harrowing climb up a rock face to get to the supplies they need, Al and Isabelle sit on the edge of a cliff, and the soldier begins talking. She explains she killed her partner because he tried to abandon her and their jobs, and she couldn't allow him to go and risk their secret being discovered. She explains that to Al because she wants to drive home how dedicated she is to her people's mission. We still don't know what they're up to, but given that Isabelle was on a water-purification assignment, and all of her talk about ensuring there's a future after she's dead, tell us these people are trying to reboot civilization. Al explains that her tapes are her way of making sure something lives on. She shares that she began believing that after her brother died while she was gone trying to get footage of their crumbling society.
Early on in the episode, Isabelle tells Al they're "the same kind of bird," both more dedicated to their different missions than to their own lives. That's why Al can tell that, even if she leads Isabelle to the tape, the woman is under orders to kill her, and Isabelle might actually do it. Luckily, the two women realize they've discovered something special in each other, however briefly, and Isabelle sets Al free, but not before kissing her and demanding she never come looking for her or her people. And with that, Fear the Walking Dead has another couple to rival apocalypse sweethearts, June and John, although it seems likely it will be a long time before Al and Isabelle get their own happy ending. For now, hope for the future will have to sustain them both.
Alexandra is a Los Angeles-based writer/comedian. Her pop culture obsessions include, but are not limited to, Game of Thrones, Kate Mulgrew, Preacher, Star Trek, Tyler Perry movies, Bryan Fuller, and the Oxford Comma.
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