‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 4, Episode 5 ‘Laura’ Recap: A Timely Love Story [SPOILERS]

John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt) is slowly becoming everyone’s new favorite character from “The Walking Dead’s” universe. On tonight’s heartfelt episode of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead,” longtime TWD director and cinematographer Michael E. Satramezis gives us one of the best and arguably the show’s most memorable episodes to date. You might want to put this next to Morgan Jones’ (Lennie James) solo entry, titled “Here’s Not Here” back in Season 6 of “The Walking Dead.” In a surprising turn of feelings, tonight’s episode, “Laura,” tells us the story of the noble John and how he met Laura (or Naomi back in Madison’s camp), the post-apocalyptic love of his life.

Love at First Sight

“Laura” opens with John in his front porch, cleaning up his twin revolvers. He lives by the riverside, and a Walker washes up near his front yard. John uses his ax to kill it. Later, he prepares his breakfast as he goes about his morning routine. John plays scrabble, with the letters Y, A, P, L, T, P, S, the only tiles he has. John thinks about his word for the rest of his morning, reciting possible words while cooking and completing his daily chores.

That night, John thinks of the word “Platypus,” which makes him so happy. He then watches an old movie before going to bed. Lying awake, John hears a boat wash up near the river. Thinking that it might be another Walker, he goes out to kill it, but find out that it’s an unconscious woman—Laura, in this case (though she doesn’t really mention her real name). John takes Laura in his Cabin to tend to her wound. It’s a gash on her sides, not a bite.

Laura warms up to John

The next day, John comes back from his chores and sees his cabin trashed and Laura missing. John sees her outside, trying to run away using his car. Although John happily gives her the keys (and even offers her supplies before she leaves), the car won’t start. Reluctantly, Laura returns inside and tries to change her bandage. Seeing how difficult it is, she asks for John to do it.

That night, John prepares a fish stew for her and awkwardly tries to make a conversation. He then tells Laura his name. And when Laura wouldn’t respond with her real name, John decides to call her Laura (since she looks like one). John offers Laura to stay as long as she wants, but Laura says otherwise. She will leave when her wound heals completely. After her meal, John shows her to his bed and even made a curtain for her privacy. As Laura waits for sleep to come, she hears John tinkering with something in his porch. She goes over and sees that John is cleaning his twin revolvers.

The following morning, John wakes up to another sound of two Walkers sloshing around in the river and goes outside to kill it. Laura also wakes up to the commotion. John tells her that there’s something that’s bringing the Walkers there from the end of the river and that he needs to check it out. And since it’s Tuesday, it’s also John’s grocery time. Laura insists on coming with him.

Richard Foreman Jr/AMC

The pair rides a boat going to the end of the river. There, John tells Laura about his past as a cop. When they reach the end, John sees a gap on the bridge near the river, causing the Walkers to fall and wash up on his front porch. They climb up to dry land and come across a store. It’s eerily quiet in the town, indicating that John’s been alone for quite some time now.

They then rummage through the store to get what they need. Laura sees John pick up a movie to rent and signs his name on the list. To Laura, it’s funny how John’s last name is “Dorie,” and he happens to like fishing and eating fish. As they leave, John notices that he can tear the gas stations roof apart to use as a barricade on the bridge gap. Laura helps him to it.

Richard Foreman Jr/AMC

That night, as John watches the movie he rented, Laura gets up to get some water and sits down to watch with him. John offers to give Laura brittle candy, to which she happily agrees. The movie ends, and John sleeps while Laura watches him. When John wakes up, Laura tearfully tells him that she lost her child and went to bed.

A blossoming love

The next day, John heads out to fish, and Laura asks him to teach her how to do it. If she’s going to leave soon, she might as well learn how to use the river as a resource. In a beautiful montage, John and Laura go at it, with the latter successfully reeling in a fish for their lunch. Laura thanks John for teaching her how to fish. But John subtly flinches when Laura told him about how fishing will come in handy out there. Apparently, John has gotten fond of her.

Richard Foreman Jr/AMC

Later, John removes Laura’s bandages and stitches up her wound. She then tells him that she’s ready to leave. An awkward beat follows, then the sound of a Walker washing up again. John kills it, and Laura tells him that they should block the opening with something stronger. John refuses her help at first, but Laura insists.

Back in the bridge, the pair uses a car on the area as part of the barricade. Laura hot wired it so it can start. As they prepare to cover the opening with the car, John notices that Laura brought the other revolver from John’s box. Laura reasons that they need it for protection. But John insists that the gun should stay in the box.

John and Laura then kill the surrounding Walkers and proceeds to position the car on the opening. A Walker approaches them, and Laura screams for John to shoot it. However, John still didn’t like to use the gun and ultimately kills the Walker. In an angry fit, he stabs it repeatedly.

Richard Foreman Jr/AMC

That night, Laura cleans him up. As they argue about using the gun, John tells Laura about the day he killed someone as a cop. It was a robber, and John shot him in the foot and let him bleed out. The robber turned, and it haunted John for a while, even when people celebrated him as a hero. Back in the bridge, the dead Walker in the car slides off and accidentally hits the handbrake, causing it to move away from the opening and allowing the horde of Walkers to fall.

Later, John wakes up to the sound of Walkers on his front yard again. He goes out and sees that it’s a horde and proceeds to kill as many as he can with his ax. Laura jumps in to help but is overpowered by a few Walkers. John sees them surround Laura, and he’s forced to use his twin revolvers to save her and shoot the Walkers. Laura thanks him, and says that even though John doesn’t think he’s a hero, Laura believes that he is. She also calls John an honorable person. “I’m very lucky to have washed up in your front yard,” Laura says. John then gives him his other revolver, so he knows she’ll be safe when Laura leaves.

As John watches another movie, Laura sits next to him, but John leaves, visibly bothered by something. Laura tries to get it out of him, and John finally breaks. He tells her that he loves her, and even offers the cabin to herself if Laura really wants to be alone. She can have the place while John leaves. “I need you alive,” John says. “If you’re alive, this whole world feels alive.” Touched, Laura leans in to kiss him.

The next day, John wakes up to see Laura gone. On the table, Laura left a message using the scrabble tiles that said: “I love you too, I’m sorry.”

It then cuts to the present day, where John is with Morgan. He just finished telling him his story and has the tiles that Laura left in a small metal box. John is evidently in pain, and Morgan is touched. John then expresses his regret that if only he waited to tell her, things would be okay. But Morgan has none of it and tells John that there’s no waiting in this world. “Waiting,” Morgan says, “that’s how you lose people.”

The episode ends with Morgan telling John that Alicia, Luci, and Strand will still heal after Nick’s death. “We’re alive; we are part of the world,” Morgan concludes. “Let’s not waste any second.”

‘Fear the Walking Dead: Laura’ Overall Verdict

“Laura” will definitely go on as one of “Fear the Walking Dead’s” best and most memorable episodes. This made us see that John is a key character moving forward in the series. And just like Morgan’s journey in “Here’s Not Here,” John’s life story is one that would surely add value to his character. The universe of the “The Walking Dead” is primarily made up of mostly dark characters, but Morgan and John is a distinction from them all. They are the light to an otherwise bleak reality of the post-apocalypse.

“Fear the Walking Dead” continues next Sunday, May 20th, with “Just in Case” at 9/8c on AMC.