‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 4, Episode 4 ‘Buried’ Recap: Guilt & Revelations [SPOILERS]

“Fear the Walking Dead” slowly mirrors its parent show, “The Walking Dead.” Last week, we saw Nick’s (Frank Dillane) unexpected death at the hands of Charlie (Alexa Nisenson), who he believed to be a conflicted girl who only aligns herself with the Vultures because she’s not aware enough. But in a surprising twist of fate, Nick’s death reverberates through Strand (Colman Domingo), Luci (Danay Garcia), and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). As Al (Maggie Grace) conducts her video interview, we see vague glimpses of the days before the Stadium fell at the hands of Mel (Kevin Zegers), the leader of the Vultures.

The Interview

As John (Garrett Dillahunt) drives Al’s van to a burial place for Nick, we see Luci, Strand, and Alicia with shell-shocked expressions. It then cuts back the moment right after Nick’s death, where Al films the entire thing. Alicia kills Ennis (Evan Gamble), now a Walker. Strand, on the other hand, covers Nick’s body with a blanket.

Strand has Al do the interview, despite her hesitation. A deal’s a deal, after all. And so as Al starts asking questions, Strand, Alicia, and Luci all deal with the horrible flashbacks that led them to where they are now.

Luci speaks up first and tells Al about the day when “they could have stopped everything from happening.”

Luci and Nick’s “Library”

In the Stadium, Luci looks out to the group of Vultures camped outside. She sees Charlie laughing with Ennis as more Vultures bring in supplies. Because of the shortage of food, Madison (Kim Dickens) and her group are forced to eat cow’s foot. “An acquired taste,” according to Strand.

That morning, Luci has breakfast with her people. Strand and Alicia encourage them that it’s all going to get better from here. Even Nick, who’s usually all end-of-the-world with these types of situations, believes it entirely. Naomi (Jenna Elfman), the newcomer, appears to be doubtful but retracts her visible expression when Alicia encourages her too. Madison then gives each of them a new map for a supply run, everyone’s hopeful—or so they thought.

Nick and Luci arrive at a library. Luci sees no point in looking for food here, but Nick tells her that there’s got to be something that can help build their library in the Stadium. However, Luci knows that Nick is doing this for Charlie, hoping she would come to her senses and join them again. So Luci reminds Nick of how Luci was just like Charlie back in the days of the Colonia. She believed in the miracle doctor’s “immunity,” but she was wrong—thanks to Nick. Luci knows they can help Charlie, but not like this. Back in the van, Al asks about whether or not they were able to bring Charlie back. “She killed Nick,” Luci says. “What do you think?”

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As John drives them through the night, he tells Morgan (Lennie James) that he used to be a police officer, just like Rick in “The Walking Dead.” It’s funny how Morgan seems always caught up with an ex-police force member. John then figures out that after they bury Nick, Morgan will be on his way. John then tells Morgan that he’s going to look for his wife, Laura. And when he does, John wants Morgan to be there and meet her. Morgan then confirms John’s presumption, saying that he’s better off on his own.

Alicia and Naomi’s Escape Plan

During Alicia’s turn, Al asks if she wants to stop. But Alicia has none of it and tells her about her supply run with Naomi.

They find themselves in an abandoned theme park resort. Naomi sees a good-enough car that’s okay for driving. But when she looks inside the car, Naomi finds no keys. They enter the resort and see a pool with a few Walkers in it. As they look around, Alicia sees a boarded up platform on top of the water slides. It’s well stocked, with barricades and obstacles set up to prevent Walkers from getting in. It’s no challenge for Naomi and Alicia. Two Walkers then come at them, which they kill instantly. As they move closer to the barricades, they find another pool. But this time, a larger group of Walkers surround the place.

Alicia and Naomi make a run for the slide leading up to the makeshift platform. Walkers try to get them, but they successfully climb up. When both women reach the platform, they see that there are more stocks in it than they previously thought. There’s even a machine gun with a full set of ammo. Suddenly, two walkers then emerge from nowhere, and one of them lunges towards Naomi, causing both of them to fall on the slide leading to a slippery pool (again with Walkers). Alicia also falls, but she uses the machine gun’s heat shield assembly to hit it’s head, ultimately saving them both.

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They climb back to the platform to ransack its remaining supplies. One chest contained medical supplies. As they take the items, Naomi tells Alicia to look out and check for more areas with supplies. As Alicia looks on, Naomi runs off. Back in the van, Alicia tells Al that Strand wasn’t the only one who wanted to leave.

Naomi gets to the car that she previously saw with Alicia and used the keys. It turns out that Naomi lied about not seeing them. The car starts but only moves a few inches as the fuel already ran out. Alicia catches up to her, and Naomi tells her that she can’t rebuild the Stadium with them. She knows it’s going to fall.

Strand and his secret Supply Car

Strand got stuck with Cole (Sebastian Sozzi) for their supply run. They’re in a greenhouse looking for something new to plant in the Stadium. Cole shares a little bit about himself, but Strand doesn’t, despite Cole’s prodding. Strand sees a plant and has them both look for a cart to gather it. Back in the van, Al asks about whether or not Strand was afraid of telling stuff about himself to people, sensing Strand’s hesitation with Cole. Strand tries to deflect it back to Nick, but Al sticks with Strand’s narrative.

As Strand looks for a cart, a small group of Walkers punctured with cactus thorns attack them. Strand can dispose of them, but Cole got stuck with one on top of him. Strand kills it and helps him up.

Strand and Cole drive away with the cactus plants from the greenhouse. Stran

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d then tells Cole that there’s a reason why they’ve never been on a supply run together. Strand likes Cole, that’s why he didn’t want him to get to know Strand. Strand has done things in the past that made him guilty of himself. They then arrive in a car graveyard. Strand pops open one of the cars’ trunk open to reveal a decent amount of supplies that can last for a month. Strand then asks Cole to run away with him, because he, too, believes that the Stadium is going to fall. Cole refuses because he doesn’t want to leave Madison and her people hanging. He leaves Strand and drives away.

Back in the van, Al asks Strand if he thinks all of this was his fault. But just as Alicia said, they all wanted to leave—even Luci.

A new direction

Luci and Nick, still in the Library come across a Walker tied to a chair. A stack of bloody books surround it, and Nick sees that the Walker committed suicide before it turned. As Nick kills it, Luci sees a book about the maps of the Southwestern United States. Luci shows it to Nick as they leave, telling him that they should find a new place and start over. They’ve done it before; surely they can do it again someplace else. Despite Nick’s optimism about the Stadium, Luci doesn’t think that they can make it work. She then proposes something—in whichever place they see when she opens the book, that’s where they will go.

Al then deduces that the reason why they were all here was due to the place that Luci pointed at in the book.

back in the Stadium, Madison looks out the camped Vultures and sees Mel signaling to her radio. Instead of continuing the conversation, Madison leaves her post to talk to Mel face-to-face. Mel taunts Madison with the weiners he’s cooking, but she has none of it. Mel then shares his backstory of how his family died when their community got ravaged by a fire. Madison knew the ending and said that Mel warned them and left because they wouldn’t listen to him. She then tells Mel that her offer of them joining the Stadium community still stands. Stubborn Mel counters by saying that his proposal of Madison’s people joining the Vultures stands. Seeing no point for discussion, Madison leaves Mel to it. Mel then says to Madison that she got the ending about his story wrong. Mel encouraged his family that they can beat the fire, but they weren’t. Mel and his brother were the only ones who got out of the burning community.

In the library, Luci points to a place further north. Nick sees it and thinks that there is something better than leaving that they can do. Back in Strand’s car, he reevaluates his desire to cop out and decides to go back to the Stadium. He arrives just as Cole did. Madison sees the supplies and is immediately elated. Strand says nothing about his earlier plan, even as Cole eyes him. Meanwhile, Alicia helps Naomi gas up the car so she can leave. That’s when Naomi tells her about her former life as a nurse in the ICU. Because of her experience there, it gave her that weird feeling of knowing who lives and who doesn’t. Alicia then asks Naomi if she thinks the Stadium will make it. Naomi stops to think about her answer before preparing to drive away.

The brilliant plan

As soon as everyone’s back in the Stadium (even Alicia), Nick shows Madison his plan from where Luci opened the book. He proposes going there and getting the crops and plant them in the Stadium. It’s going to be a long journey, but it can definitely help them. Madison agrees. Meanwhile, Alicia goes to Madison and tries to tell her something. At first, we think that she’s going to convince Madison that the Stadium will fall, but it turns out that Naomi returned with her after all and now wanted to set up an infirmary.

Back in the van, Al asks them why that day made everything a regret for them all. Alicia says that she should’ve talked her Madison into leaving. Strand says that he should’ve followed his gut and kept that car a secret. Luci says that she should have flipped to another page and looked for another place to go.

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All this pointing to Nick’s death.

Al wraps up the interview just as John stops the van to where they will be burying Nick. As they dig up the ground, it turns out that it contains a crate of weapons, and they’re going after the Vultures for taking over the Stadium and killing Nick. Disappointed, Al wondered if everything that they told her was a lie. It was the truth after all, and they only tricked Al into driving them to this place to get the weapons. Strand has a plan of when and where to strike, which he shows to Al. She considers taking them there, despite John’s protests. Eventually, Al agrees, after Alicia promised that they wouldn’t lie to her from here on.

Bothered, Morgan asks if Alicia and they still plan on burying Nick. They then lay Nick’s body near a tree. Not one of them even stayed to say anything. It was only Morgan, who left a blue flower on Nick’s grave. As they load up the van, John sees a bag that belonged to his wife, Laura. He opens it and discovers his gun inside. Apparently, Naomi is Laura. John then demands to know what happened to her. Alicia haphazardly says that she died (although based on her answer, it feels as if she escaped the Stadium with Madison). John breaks down and opts to stay. Al promises to come back for him, and Morgan decides to stay with John. Al drives off to the war with the Vultures.

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“Sorry, John,” Morgan says. “You were right,” John replies. “We were always on our own.”

‘Fear the Walking Dead: Buried’ Overall Verdict

This is one odd episode of “Fear the Walking Dead.” Although the narrative established in the first three episodes seemed compelling, “Buried” seems to mirror that of “The Walking Dead’s” filler flashback episodes. It helps the plot, but only adds a little to it. Ever since Gimple stepped in to guide the reigns of the companion show, one couldn’t help but notice the strange similarities it has to where “The Walking Dead” is currently at. So far, this is the weakest episode of the new season, and it lacks the original feel of “Fear the Walking Dead”—that which separates itself as a more grounded zombie show that its predecessor.

“Fear the Walking Dead” continues next Sunday, May 13th, with “Laura” at 8/9c on AMC.