Fear The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 12 recap: In Dreams

Fear The Walking Dead Season 6 (and The Walking Dead franchise in general) loves to delve into visions, alternate realities, and the like to further a character’s story. Something like this is the case for this week’s episode, “In Dreams,” which focuses solely on Grace (Karen David). Her pregnancy journey has been an integral part of the last couple of seasons, but there is finally some progress on that front this week.

In this week’s episode, we see older versions of the group, alluding to a future Grace is dreaming of, involving her future daughter, Athena (Sahana Srinivasan). Of course, in reality, Grace has no idea if she’s having a boy or a girl, nor does she have a name for the baby, but things are a bit different in this vision.

Her daughter is quite a bit older and an important part of the community Morgan (Lennie James) has built. But the fate of other characters is quite different than what we know it to be, and that’s what makes this episode particularly intriguing to watch.

By the end of the episode, there is a heartbreaking and gut-wrenching twist to Grace’s alternate reality dream. It’s a difficult one to get through, but one of the stronger episodes of this season.

There is a lot to get through from this week’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead Season 6, so let’s dive right into everything that went down!

Fear The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 12: New world, who dis?

Grace awakens to find herself in a new place, or rather a new world, just as some walkers are about to eat her for dinner. Athena shows up and saves her life, and takes Grace back to Morgan’s community. In this reality, the community is doing wonderfully and prospering, just as Morgan had hoped.

In the community, June (Jenna Elfman) is the doctor, and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) is her apprentice.  Dwight (Austin Amelio) and Sherry (Christine Evangelista) have a family together with two kids, and Strand (Colman Domingo) and Daniel (Ruben Blades) seem to be friendly with one another. Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Wes (Colby Hollman), and Luciana (Danay Garcia) have all gone back to Dell Diamond to start their own group.

Sixteen years have gone by, and things seem to be going splendidly.

In this reality, Morgan doesn’t seem to remember who Grace is and is hesitant to let her into their safe world. She tries to remind him of shared memories (like the carousel ride from Season 5), but he doesn’t seem to recall anything because, in this particular reality, she died while giving birth. Athena managed to survive and helped with the peace that now exists in their community.

At first, Grace is resistant to telling Athena that she is her mother. Morgan plans an outing to get to know each other better, but things take a very drastic turn for the worst. They find a car with “The End is the Beginning” painted across it that ends up exploding and results in a missing Morgan. With this accident, Grace starts to recall what actually happened to her, and in the far distance, she can hear the real Morgan trying to call her back to him.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 12: Back to life, back to reality

Things get quite muddled between the reality Grace is experiencing in her vision and the reality she’s actually a part of. Through her headphones, she is somehow connected to the real world and Morgan’s voice. And out of nowhere, a group of walkers shows up and begins talking (which is bizarre in and of itself). The walkers are the same ones that were outside the vet’s office that Morgan had taken Grace to get away from Riley (Nick Stahl).

To get back to the “real world,” Grace realizes that going to the vet’s office in the vision is likely her way to get back to reality. In reality, Morgan fights against Riley, who is eager to take the key Morgan took back. With this key, the End is the Beginning group can actually launch nuclear warheads and rid the world of the people they don’t want.

Morgan ends up killing everyone but Riley, who he only manages to wound. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Morgan get this vicious, and as gross as it is, I’m so here for the fierce Morgan we all know and love.

In the dream, Athena and Grace head to the vet’s office. On the way, they run into Riley just as Grace has a contraction which not only causes her pain but Athena as well. The pain is a bit too much to bear, so Grace decides to tell Athena she’s her mother. They eventually arrive at the vet’s office only to find Riley and his goons are already there (but as walkers). Just in the nick of time, the dream Morgan shows up to save the day.

Fear The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 12: An emotional goodbye

Grace comes to the realization, or so she believes, that she will die in real life during childbirth, and these moments are her final ones. But in all this sadness, she’s grateful that she got to spend time with Athena. With a tearful goodbye, Grace leaves Athena behind and walks through the doors back to the real world.

Morgan is there waiting for her, and she reveals that she isn’t going to make it. But it doesn’t matter because she’s seen the future, and Athena being a part of it will change everything for the better.

Sadly, the whole situation takes a turn after Riley crashes a truck into the barn and points a gun at Grace. He demands Morgan to hand over the key, or else. This is a bit different from Grace’s dream reality, where Athena had the key.

Morgan hands over the key to Riley just as Grace goes into labor. What is supposed to be a beautiful moment turns into a tragedy as Grace gives birth to a stillborn baby. Grace initially believed that the vision she had was related to her death, but really it was Athena’s final moments.

“It was only a dream.”

Sigh.

That was a devastating episode, wasn’t it?!

What did you think of this week’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead Season 6? Tell us in the comments below!