‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 6, Episode 7 ‘Damage From the Inside’ Recap: A Frankenstein Nightmare

After much speculation about a major death this week, Fear the Walking Dead fans can rest assured that our main group is intact, albeit barely complete. And before you scroll all the way down to see if Kim Dicken’s Madison is back, let me pull the stops here—she’s not. There are clues scattered all over the internet, though (especially with Dickens’ recent interviews), about a possible return for her Fear character and how teasing her answers seem to be. For what it’s worth, tonight’s episode does make a case for her being alive after the Stadium fiasco, but who knows?

Fear the Walking Dead’s midseason finale packs a couple of punches and a startling reveal that levels the playing field between Morgan (Lennie James) and Virginia/Ginny (Colby Minifie). Tonight’s episode, titled “Damage From The Inside,” shows Dakota (Zoe Margaret Colletti) going missing, forcing Strand (Colman Domingo) to turn to Alicia (Alycia-Debnam Carey) aid. But there’s bad blood between the two after what our resident betrayer did in the final moments of episode 2. Alicia would reluctantly accept to help look for Ginny’s sister, but not without some of her own personal agenda in mind. Along the way, Alicia and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) stumble upon a survivor with questionable intentions and an odd fascination for transforming normal Walkers into something a little bit, er, theatrical.

Before you proceed, this is your spoiler warning. Fear the Walking Dead’s midseason finale is a lot to take in, so tread with caution.

FearTWD 6×07 Midseason Finale Recap

Wipe Out

“Damage From the Inside” starts off pretty ominous, with a convoy meant to transport Dakota to a safehouse attacked, leaving only Strand and Ranger Samuels (Bobbie Grace) alive and Dakota missing. My initial thoughts was that the weirdos from The End is the Beginning cult were behind this, but that’s one saved for later. Meanwhile, Alicia and Charlie are in a tower outpost far from Lawton, reduced to Walker watch duty for more than a month now. Desperate to find Dakota lest he suffer Ginny’s wrath, Strand radios to an uncaring Alicia to ask for her help in locating Dakota. Strand wanted to play on Dakota’s admiration for Alicia, so thinking that it might work, she agrees—not without something of her own plan in mind.

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As Alicia and Charlie set off to look for Dakota, they come across a Walker with weird skin patches on it, like some kind of a Leatherface experiment gone wrong. They trace the Walker’s origin to a cabin in the middle of the woods (how cliché, huh?) filled with taxidermist shit, and Alicia witnesses the Walker mutilation herself. It’s done by a man named Ed (Raphael Sbarge), who is a cross between crazy loner in the woods and Dr. Frankenstein. He discovers Alicia loitering in his cabin and tranquilizes her.

Nope, he’s a wannabe Leatherface!

Alicia awakens to being tied up in Ed’s operating table and Dakota herself, who assures her that Ed is keeping her safe and that she wants to stay here. Ed turns out to be a good guy—sort of, although Alicia still doesn’t buy it even with him playing chess with Dakota and being all father-y to them. We even get a small backstory from Ed and Dakota; when the world turned to shit, Ed and his family holed up in the cabin until Ginny’s crew rolled up to take it for themselves, eventually killing his wife and daughter. Dakota, on the other hand, reveals that Ginny was psycho enough to kill their parents (whether they were already Walkers or still alive isn’t clear). Meanwhile, Charlie sneaks into the house and eventually bumps into Alicia, telling her that all entrances to the cabin are sealed shut. There’s no way out for any of them. Uh-oh.

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Alicia confronts Ed about the locks, who admits that he wants to keep Dakota safe and away from Ginny as possible. Alicia has none of it and demands that they be set free. Ed reluctantly agrees, but only for a beat. Alicia also takes advantage of the situation to negotiate with Ginny via Ed’s radio console. She’ll return Dakota but Ginny would have to let her and Charlie go. Ginny agrees, and suddenly freedom tasted so sweet for Alicia. Later that night, Ed blasts Finlandia, Op. 26 through his outdoor PA system to attract his creations—masked Walkers fused with Deer horns and other forms of animal skin. It’s like Night of the Living Dead turned up to 100.

Ed is clearly not right in the head. He was the son of a Taxidermist, and for some reason he found it fun to do it to his “creations.” Ed forces Alicia and Dakota to hide upstairs while the FrankenWalkers surround the cabin. Luckily, Charlie was able to tranquilize Ed and steal his keys, giving them a way out. Charlie did a shit job of injecting Ed with it though, ’cause he shows up just as they were about to leave. A standoff between Alicia and Ed ensues, ending with a struggle and Ed impaled by some kind of Elephant tusk. Alicia tries to save him, but Ed tells them to go as he buys them time. But before he sees Alicia off, Ed warns her not to push through with what she’s planning with Ginny. “You think you need to do it in order to protect yourself… but you don’t,” Ed says.

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The Walkers breach the cabin and eats Ed—a weirdly satisfying form of inventors being killed by their own creations. Alicia tries to clear them out and gets help from Morgan in the flesh.

Another Reunion

Morgan fills Alicia in on how he managed to survive being shot, his altercation with Emile, and reveals that he was the one who killed Dakota’s convoy. He invites Alicia and the two to come with him to the dam, but Alicia mulls it over. She has a different plan in mind—go back to the stadium and hope to god that Madison’s alive. I can see why a lot of fans began speculating that Madison might be in the episode now. Alicia reveals her plan to Morgan, who also has a different one in mind—use Dakota as leverage to get their people back from Ginny, ethics be damned. Alicia disagrees, and proceeds to head to the Stadium with Charlie and Dakota. Morgan promptly retracts on his plan, in an effort to keep them together.

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As they leave for the dam, Strand arrives at the scene and demands to have Dakota back. When Alicia refuses, another standoff ensues between Strand, Alicia, and Morgan. Strand caves, unable to shoot Alicia in the face. “This will dismantle everything we’ve been working for,” Strand says. Oh well, I guess there are different ways to bring damage from the inside.

Switching Sides?

Strand returns to Ginny and rats on Alicia reuniting with Morgan and taking Dakota with them. Ginny fumes, and asks, “which side of this are you on?,” to which Strand wholeheartedly pledges allegiance to her. A war is brewing, so Ginny reveals a card that she’s willing to play—she had Grace (Karen David) with her all along, and, mind you, she’s pregnant too. With a brand new resolve to complete his turn to the dark side, Strand asks, “who do you want next?”

“All of ’em,” Ginny says.

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‘Fear the Walking Dead: Damage From the Inside’ Overall Verdict

Shit. This is shaping up to be a showdown of all showdowns in recent Fear the Walking Dead history. We’re finally seeing the chips falling into place, but it’s also exciting to see how the “End is the Beginning” guys are coming into the picture here. I really wanted them to be the ones behind the convoy wipe out to add fuel to the fire, but I guess having Morgan do it brings a bit of depth to his feud with Virginia.

“Damage From the Inside” might not be the fitting midseason finale that would’ve kept things consistent for Fear’s sixth season, but it still makes for a great episode that brings a little bit of a horror vibe to it and deepens the rift between Strand and Alicia. And with this whole Madison-might-be-back thing, it would be interesting to see her return and call the shots in the upcoming war with Ginny’s forces.

One thing’s for sure, we are in for am epic eighth episode.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 will continue sometime in early 2021.