BWW Recap: I Ain't Sayin' He a Grave Digger on FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

Welcome to the dark side, Christopher. Yes, Travis' last desperate hope to save Chris went out the window tonight as he went full Kylo Ren and chose his bros over his Dad. Thankfully, Travis was able to see the light, literally, that led to a (kind of) joyous reunion.

At the hotel, after Madison selfishly lit up the marquee in the middle of the night, they are swarmed with people at the gates desperate to get inside. But there is only one face she is concentrating on and that is Travis as she sees him in the crowd. He has found her. She manages to squeeze him in through the crowd and take him to her room. There he tells her what happened.

We flashback to the farm right after Chris has shot the farmer dead. Travis is able to patch up Baby James to the best of his ability knowing his only chance for survival is a lot of rest and recovery time. Too bad bro-herd (inexplicably) has no time to waste. Clearly terrified of his pals, Baby James insists that he is fine and is ready to travel with everybody to San Diego. As Travis buries the body of the farmer with his family, he is starting to finally realize he may not have any hope with Chris. As they all pile into the truck, Baby James in a lot of pain quickly blacks out. When they stop, Brandon and Derek agree that they should kill James and put him out of his misery. Travis draws a line and protects him. When James regains consciousness, he tells Travis that it's okay. He knew they would want to kill him as he had already seen what Brandon and Derek do to people who slow them down. The next morning Travis is fooled by a somewhat sympathetic Chris who plays the oldest trick in the book and goes in for a hug. Using this opportunity, he overpowers him as the bros storm in and take Travis gun to execute poor, Baby James. Chris tells Travis he is going with them. He is not evil or lost, he has just adapted to this new world faster than Travis has and he finally feels like himself. Travis buries Baby James alongside the farmer and his family and heads out.

At the hotel, Travis mourns to Madison that he let Chris and Eliza down by never being a good parent. Guilt-ridden, Madison tracks down Alicia and informs her of the actual cause of her father's death and his suicide note. She also apologizes for leaving Alicia on her own while she dealt with problem child, Nick. As we close out the episode, we see Brandon and Derek show up at the gate searching for shelter. But no Chris...

Couple things come to mind in watching this episode:

• I don't necessarily disagree with Chris' point of view, however, I do not agree with his decisions. I don't think I'm on the same page with him in thinking Brandon and Derek are his bros for life as he seems to think or that James needed to die. But he's not necessarily wrong. He's just different than Travis.

• Watching Travis and Madison just punched in the gut by how they've done their children wrong was really heartbreaking. Especially when they're doing the best they can under the most extreme of circumstances.

• But I will NOT defend Chris when he took advantage of Travis' vulnerability to prove a point.

• And now that Chris isn't a factor, what does this do to Travis? Does he toughen up? Shut down? Crawl into a hole?

Other musings:

• No update on Strand's condition? Gathering from the preview for next week's episode, he's going to be okay?

• Madison finally owning up to metaphorically abandoning Alicia. Does that change their dynamic or will it drive the wedge even further between them?

• Did they set up a triage unit in the basement of the hotel?

• I know Travis was distraught by everything but was his answer really "No" to the question, "Do you want to take a shower?" That's always a big, yes, Travis. Especially in the apocalypse when you have access to hot water!

• Next week is the finale? How did that happen already?

• Big shoutout to Hardwick on TALKING DEAD tonight asking guest, Drew Scott of PROPERTY BROTHERS what having all the dead bodies on site would do to the property value of the farm.

Where are we for the finale? Is the Cartel going to take over the Colonia? Will Madison reunite with Nick? Where the heck is Chris? Is everyone going to survive the finale? Will we FINALLY find out what did or didn't happen to Salazar?

Here's a preview for next week's all new episode:

Photo Credit: AMC

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