Sunday night’s episode brought back Dwight and his reunion with Morgan — another crossover from the main show — spoke volumes.
Fear the Walking Dead intelligently deployed Dwight’s introduction via June and John’s mission. Dwight’s searching for his wife Sherry, but is in a dark place since he was banished by Daryl from Virginia and has some past actions to atone for. He’s also at a breaking point in his so-far-fruitless search for Sherry, who just doesn’t seem to want to be found. Perhaps, deep down, Dwight knows this. At any rate, John and June arrived just in time, finding the despondent Dwight at the Wild West enclave, Hambug Gulch, a nice segue into John Dorie’s past since he used to work at one of them.
The link between Dwight and John is a deft one for the show. Although John’s been pretty all-around-likable from the start — a true rarity in The Walking Dead universe where pretty much everyone’s had to do something dastardly in order to survive — he’s able to recognize the signs of hopelessness that are the result of a lost love. John spent a long time searching for June, and even though most assumed that she had died, his need to believe she was alive carried his story arc forward. Garret Dillahunt’s character is so beloved that any chance that Dwight has at redemption is smartly tied to Dorie.
“What I think led us to the Gulch was the fact that it really seems like Dorie and June being the first people to encounter Dwight just felt right because of all those similarities… the fact that Dwight is looking for someone who he loved and Dorie had been through that same exact experience,” explained showrunner Andrew Chambliss in an Entertainment Weekly interview. “It really seemed like those two parallel story tracks were telling us that Dorie and June should be the first people to encounter him. And we really saw it as Dwight being a mirror image of Dorie and almost a sign of what could have happened to Dorie if he had not had the luck to find June.”
Even Dwight’s reunion with Morgan — another successful crossover from the first series — was truly a highlight of the episode. They didn’t say much, they didn’t have to. Instead, the two discussed directions getting to Texas. Their emotional connection brimmed under the surface, no more complicated words were necessary.
The last time the two of them saw each other on TWD, Dwight was still working for the villain Negan, and Morgan was out for vengeance after Benjamin’s death. The two have been through a lot since then — who hasn’t in this zombie apocalypse? And they’re both on a path of redemption, although Morgan’s been following that path for quite some time now.
“And this episode, it’s quite the opposite where we know that when he left The Walking Dead at the end of season 8, Daryl spared his life and told him to find Sherry and make it right,” described co-showrunner Ian Goldberg in the same interview. “We see that that hasn’t been going very well for him. And he’s in a desperate, low place where he doesn’t believe he’s ever going to find her or ever make things right, which puts him in a position where he’s at the end of his rope.”
Will Dwight find Sherry? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Although if he does, the Dwight she left after escaping Negan’s compound will be a more hopeful person, and maybe there’s a chance for them in this turbulent universe.
The show creators have hinted that more crossovers can be expected. So far, Morgan’s and Dwight’s have fit right into the FTWD sphere. The series is in a much different place than when it first premiered, and has only grown so much better since that lackluster first season. The retooled cast has injected new life into the series, making it one of the best ensembles around.
Fear the Walking Dead season 5 episode 4 airs on AMC, Sunday, June 23, at 9 p.m. ET.