"End of the Line" is the sixteenth and final episode of the
fifth season of the
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...
horror television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
''
Fear the Walking Dead'', which aired on
AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** AM ...
on September 29, 2019. It was written by showrunners
Andrew Chambliss
Andrew Chambliss is an American television writer and producer.
He is well known for working on series such as ''Dollhouse'', ''The Vampire Diaries'', and was an executive producer on ''Once Upon a Time''. He is currently the executive produce ...
and
Ian Goldberg
Ian Avrum Goldberg (born March 31, 1973) is a cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is best known for breaking Netscape's implementation of SSL (with David Wagner),
and for his role as chief scientist of Radialpoint (formerly Zero Knowledge Syste ...
, and directed by Michael E. Satrazemis.
Plot
After hallucinating Sherry's voice, Dwight finds a group of horses near the remains of the caravan and returns to help. The group clear Humbug's Gulch of walkers, revealed to be the previous survivors who used the location before Virginia massacred them for resisting her. They decide to use the walkers to ambush the Pioneers, but are forced to abandon the plan when they discover that Luciana is with them. Knowing that Virginia is on the way, the group enjoys the time they have left together, as John and June finally get married.
When Virginia arrives, she splits the group into her various communities and gets a doctor to examine Grace, who is revealed to be pregnant and malnourished. Once everyone is gone, Virginia attacks Morgan by shooting him in the shoulder and leaves him to die when the walkers approach her. Morgan relays a message to his friends, encouraging them to "just live" as the walkers approach him. It ends on a cliffhanger, making us wonder what happens to Morgan.
Reception
"End of the Line" received poor reviews. It currently holds a 23% rating with an average score of 4/10 out of 13 on the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. The critics' consensus reads: "Many Fear fans' patience will have reached 'The End of the Line' in this lackluster finale, mired in nonsensical decision-making and a cliffhanger that feels like a waste of another pivotal character."
Nick Romano, writing for ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'', denigrated the episode and wrote: "It mostly felt like a waste of an episode... It's not that the performances from the cast are bad. It's poor narrative planning that breeds less confidence in those manning FTWD, even with the promise of never having to hear another Morgan life lesson." Erik Kain of ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' was also negative about the episode and wrote: "It's a pathetic, anticlimactic, ridiculous conclusion to one of the worst seasons in Walking Dead history. Despite a few bright moments, this was the kind of finale that should make everyone involved with its creation ashamed."
Writing for Syfy Wire, Alyse Wax was one of the few people who was positive on the episode and wrote his praised saying: "This was a good episode, and a strong way to end a wobbly season. It had a little bit of everything: a wedding. A baby. A ton of zombies. A cliffhanger."
Rating
The episode was seen by 1.51 million viewers in the United States on its original air date, higher than the
previous episodes.
References
External links
"End of the Line"at AMC.com
*
{{Fear the Walking Dead
2019 American television episodes
Fear the Walking Dead episodes