Fear the Walking Dead Season 8, Episode 1 recap “Remember What They Took From You”

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 episode 1 “Remember What They Took From You”, picks up where season 7 ended. The PADRE era is still very much intact.

It all begins with Madison and Morgan’s attempt to rescue Mo Morgan and Grace’s daughter. Keep in mind, Madison was a collector turned rogue when she found out PADRE had lied to her from the start about her own children being alive.

She carries a lot of guilt where Mo is concerned. She wanted to right her wrong by helping Morgan get her back and off the island, so she wouldn’t have to grow up in the same kind of hell that Madison lived.

Fear the Walking Dead season 8, episode 1 recap – Time jump

At the end of season 7 it looked like Morgan had rescued her or was on the verge to. But after a 7–8-year time jump, we quickly see that plan fell through.

Wren, the new name of Mo, is in what looks like fencing gear and training to fight walkers on the island. The first issue off the bat is the actress of Mo/Wren appears to be much older than 8, even though Zoey Merchant does a fabulous job with the character.

Madison is now imprisoned and still needing her oxygen. How they seem to bring an unlimited supply of oxygen to the island is a mystery.

It’s also a mystery why they are even keeping Madison around. It seems like a lot of resources they have to use just to punish her.

Madison is in a state of depression; refusing to eat and not wanting to go on living any longer. After some treatment she has to get weekly, she rips the gun from a character named Shrike and puts the barrel around her lips trying to off herself.

But the gun is not loaded, and she’s subdued. Mo/Wren is very inquisitive about who Madison is after doing some of her trainer’s chores, where she runs into Madison.

It’s not much of a reunion as she’s scared and runs away quickly. Mo’s training is pretty touch and go.

She freezes inside the circle she has to train in. You can see she has some past trauma she doesn’t quite know how to wrap her head around.

But she does have talent as a fighter much like her father. She soon pays Madison a visit and wants her to teach how to fight the way she does, after hearing the stories of how she has battled many men alone and won.

Madison wants to die; she has done all she has set out to do. I personally don’t think she can live with the guilt of taking all these children away from their families.

Even if both her kids were alive, I’m not sure she would feel worthy of it. Mo makes a deal with her that if she teaches her, she will turn off her oxygen and let her die the way she wants to.

Mo wants to learn how to kill Carrion. One thing to note is Mo keeps having these flashbacks of what happened to her when she was a baby, when she was separated from Morgan.

I’m not a doctor but I don’t know if infants possess that kind of memory 7-8 years later. Madison quickly realizes this is Mo and 7 years have passed.

Shocked at how much time has passed, she takes Mo away from PADRE. She wants to hold up her end of the bargain to Morgan and get her back to him.

However, Mo doesn’t want to be on the run with her, she wants to go back. It’s really the only life she knows.

Fear the Walking Dead season 8, episode 1 recap – Morgan and Mo reunite

We finally get the reunion between Morgan, Mo, and Madison and it’s very lackluster to say the least. There’s very little build up or emotion to the scene.

Mo is confused and angry, as she should be, but I expected a little more heart to come out in this scene. It really fell flat of all expectations.

Morgan now works for PADRE and goes by the name Nightingale. He wants Mo to go back, thinking she is better off with PADRE than she ever could be with him.

Which is a complete 180 from last season. A lot must have happened in 7 years because Morgan has no fight in him for his daughter.

All the fight seems to be with Madison. She spent all these years in prison for a girl who was never saved at all.

The three of them go through a swamp at night, which is a pretty cool scene. Mo is very curious about how Madison wound up as a collector and what led them to PADRE.

They end up on a small place on the water that Morgan has clearly been to before, and we get a callback of The Walking Dead. There is some sort of connection with Morgan and King County this season.

It’s written on the walls inside, along with Jenny and Duane, possibly showing Morgan battling his past. In a flashback it’s shown that Morgan gave Mo up after he had escaped with her, but the elements were too much.

It wasn’t safe for out there. He gave her up so she could survive and not struggle the way the rest of them had to.

He certainly didn’t want her to have the same fate as Duane.

After an argument that led to walkers surrounding them, Grace comes in to save the day. Again, we still see the lack of affection exuding from Grace.

She nonchalantly says, “I’m your mother”, almost like it’s a matter of fact. I can understand why they would hold back their emotions in front of PADRE but behind closed doors I felt like there should have been more emotion.

I could not connect to it.

Fear the Walking Dead season 8, episode 1 recap – “They can protect you in ways that we can’t.”

In the end Mo decides she doesn’t want to go back. She knows PADRE has been lying to her.

But it’s too late, they had already called PADRE to come and get her. Mo pleads with Madison to save herself so she can help the other kids she took, like the way she helped her.

Morgan and Grace are very firm on wanting her to go back to a point where Grace screams it. “Remember what I showed you. Remember what they took from you,” Madison tells Mo right before she’s taken away.

These are words to keep her hope alive, to keep her fighting. Due to the events, Morgan was retired as a collector.

Grace’s job with PADRE is still in question. And Mo was forgiven for her transgressions and back to training, promising she is there to help build their future and won’t make that mistake again.

You can see through her enough to know that she’s telling them what they want to hear. All in all, I would say Fear the Walking Dead has a long way to go.

Luckily there is a whole season of episodes to go. While it is great Madison is back, it begs the question why?

We have not gotten to see her reunite with really anybody and both her children are gone. I love the Morgan and Madison scenes, but you’ve got to give Madison and her fans something to look forward to.

Hopefully things will pick up next week as we see where the remaining survivors have landed and what they have been up to in these missing years.

What did you think of Fear the Walking Dead season 8 episode 1? Share your answers in the comments below!

Fear the Walking Dead season 8 episode 2 will air on May 21 on AMC.