Fear the Walking Dead forgot about Charlie throughout season 5 so far, along with many other characters, and in order to bump up her screen-time, the series dedicated a huge chunk of the latest episode, “Ner Tamid”, to her - except it wasn’t a great episode. The first half of Fear the Walking Dead was about getting back home - to the denim factory - and the second half has been all about helping people and finding a new home. But it clearly hasn’t been easy.
Traveling by convoy, Fear the Walking Dead’s core group has had their ups and downs and faced their fair share of obstacles - successfully helping people who’ve wanted to be helped and being tricked by people who didn’t want their help, as well as a mixture of both - but beyond simply being good people, they’ve been trying to find a place they can call home, permanently. Sure, they’ve come across a number of promising locations, such as a local mall stocked with food and supplies, but for whatever reason, they kept moving on.
Because she was tired of the convoy, Charlie left in the middle of the night to find a place for them in this week’s episode, “Ner Tamid”. She ended up discovering a synagogue with a rabbi living there all by himself. Everything seemed hopeful at first, but it didn’t work out, which should be expected since this is still a zombie series. It was ultimately a poor ripoff of The Walking Dead’s episode in which Rick Grimes found Gabriel, a priest. What’s more, “Ner Tamid” was filled to the brim with standard cliches that they could’ve done without.
In order to instill purpose in Charlie and give her a story this season, she believed she was led to the synagogue by God and that it was the perfect location for everyone to hold up in. It’s yet another instance on Fear the Walking Dead in which someone believes they have a seemingly divine purpose for doing what they’re doing. It’s okay in bite sizes, but the problem is that it’s become a cornerstone in Fear the Walking Dead season 5.
Although it had its issues, “Ner Tamid” was still able to introduce yet another member of the Fear the Walking Dead family, a rabbi played by Peter Jacobson (House, Colony). And while the big similarity between Fear the Walking Dead’s Jacob and The Walking Dead’s Gabriel are that they’re both religious figures for the shows - both of whom have tried to atone for what they did with to congregation - the big difference is that Jacob isn’t averse to killing walkers; his only reservation was that he wouldn’t use bullets on his people.
Another thing that “Ner Tamid” did was give Charlie much-needed screen-time after being side-lined throughout most of Fear the Walking Dead season 5. Next up on the list must be Luciana, who also hasn’t been seen in quite some time.
Next: Fear The Walking Dead’s Debunks Madison’s Return Theory
