Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 3 Review: Cindy Hawkins

Fear the Walking Dead is going all-in on the nuclear apocalypse, and I’m here for every single minute of it.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 3 was another episode that delved deeper into the characters, and it gave Keith Carradine and Jenna Elfman a lot to work with.

John is newer to the show, but it’s clear there are many storytelling possibilities with him. I appreciated that he had to confront his emotions about all of the women murdered by Teddy.

Teddy could have been a distant memory on Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, but he’s the reason these nuclear bombs went off in the first place. There was no way John was just going to forget everything and be able to move on.

He had to confront the past to give himself a future, and Carradine was such a delight throughout these harrowing scenes. He’s such a great actor, and he made it easy for viewers to feel the weight of John’s guilt.

He was haunted by the past, and I’m thankful we got this hour to really understand how he felt. Going out into the unknown was a ballsy move, but who would have thought it would have saved both John and June’s lives?

June was clearly struggling being cooped up in the bunker, but she knew the day would come when they could go back into the great outdoors. In essence, they were both very safe in the bunker during the opening months of the nuclear apocalypse.

It was obvious it was going to cave in at some point. John was staring at the same part of it every day, as though he was just waiting for the walls to close in.

The shifting foundations below the ground were scary, but they also helped play into both John and June’s fears. The shelves giving way to reveal where Teddy had killed all of these people was harrowing.

But it also helped advance the arcs for both John and June and set us up for the battle ahead. I did believe either John or June would die during this installment because they were in such a confined space, and it was imploding, but I did not expect them to wind up at the Tower.

It came out of the left field and made me question Strand’s long-term goal here. The shade he was throwing at Morgan on the walkie-talkie was comical because you could tell Colman Domingo loved this new layer of his character.

A part of Strand wants to take down the people he’s worked with before, but June will be an asset to what he is trying to build at the Tower. Any medical professional is needed to get a community off the ground, and I suspect June is going to be conflicted.

On the one hand, helping Strand probably means she will be able to keep John safe. John only came into her life but they’re family, and if working with Strand is what keeps them both safe, well, I expect them to do it.

John was adamant about not trusting Strand, but I believe June will be easier manipulated. She was building a hospital before, and now if Strand gives her what she needs to save lives, she will want to carry on with that.

Morgan showing up at the bunker to save them both was a twist too far in my book, but hey, it gave us the Strand vs. Morgan verbal beatdown we needed to solidify this war between the two sides.

Strand doesn’t want to make connections with people because he knows those connections could be the difference between whether his community thrives or dies, but now that we have two people he knew before becoming this villain in the Tower, it could make him understand he’s going too far.

When all people know is death and destruction, they will be pushed into very different situations. Whether this will result in Strand’s death, I don’t know, but the series has wasted Domingo’s talent over the last few years by giving him poor plots.

It’s refreshing to see him set up as the villain in this narrative, but even at that, he might not be a true villain. He sees his actions as necessary to build this community, but it will all come down to whether he is successful.

I’m counting down the days until Alicia crosses paths with him again. Alicia will be his weakness, and possibly even Madison. Yes, she’s supposedly dead, but the amount of teasing the showrunners do about her fate has to mean something.

From a technical aspect alone, “Cindy Hawkins” was a beautiful episode. The people behind the scenes making this apocalypse look as real as possible have completely changed the look of the show, and it’s welcome.

I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it is to pull off the aftermath of a nuclear blast, but the show is taking risks that the main show does not, something that is keeping this fresh and exciting.

We are nearly halfway through the first batch of episodes, and although we’re still mostly in the dark about some of the characters, the series is making me want to watch more. It’s in a good place, and I hope they can keep it up.

What did you think of John being haunted by Cindy?

Do you think he made a mistake by going out or do you think it was necessary to his arc?

What are your thoughts on the shade Strand was hurling at Morgan?

Hit the comments.

Remember you can watch Fear the Walking Dead online right here via TV Fanatic.

Catch new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC. New episodes drop a week earlier on AMC+.

Edit Delete

Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.