For critics viewing screeners, they are very much two contained episodes.
The most compelling, however, was our new villain: Proctor John.
But now, hes far more present.
Credit: Richard Foreman, Jr/AMC
Things Bad Begun, the title of the episode, is a phrase from the third act of ShakespearesMacbeth.
In other words, evil begets more evil.
Theyre interrupted by the arrival of Nick and Troy, who brief everyone of the situation.
Lola and Efrain know of the Proctors already.
Madison quarrels with her son as she goes to see Walker.
Nick wants her to leave the dam, but shes preoccupied with the fact that hes doing drugs again.
Adding to her stress are Walker, Crazy Dog, and Victor.
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Alicia has taken her friend to the trading post, where shes been bandaged up and treated.
(By the way, what the heck is her name?!)
Some fans might compare him to Negan, but John is, in some ways, more nuanced.
Hes in a wheelchair, paralyzed from a cancerous lump pressing against his spine.
All the tried treatments have failed, so theyre left with one option, which is to operate.
Its not completely different from what Negan has been doing, but its on a much larger scale.
Someone kindly tell me I was hallucinating that.
However, he lets him go.
(Guess thats the end of Tradison.
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As the Proctors converge on the dam, Victor is trying to take his first life.
In a more surprising turn, it doesnt kill him.
Instead, Daniel is forced to fight through the pain of having the side of his face blown off.
They dont have many options.
Sleigh Ride
These characters are being forced to face their fears, and Madisons fear is losing her family.
No trees, no rocks, just flat land and the graves of the Ottos in her front lawn.
Both rebuff her welcome as their gaze returns to the third grave, which bears Alicias name.
Madison watches her fear become a reality.
He notices Alicia when John motions for her to prepare his replacement bandages.
With few weapons and nothing but time on their hands, Nick faces his mother over killing Troy.
Madison is disgusted when he asks if shed ever kill her own son if she deemed it necessary.
But Nick, ever the rebellious child (annoyingly so at times), is rejecting this outlook.
Alicia promises to keep serving John if he spares Madison and agrees to go to Houston with him.
Victor returns to Madison and Nick, who arent exactly thrilled that their replacement sanctuary is now under siege.
Madison gleans from his stress that, as he put it earlier, his time has come.
Once again, Victors plan is falling apart even before he has a chance to execute it.
This time, Lola stumbles upon the body of Efrain and goes to take vengeance.
John takes them all back to the dams office to sort out the matter.
If he kills Alicia, then Madison will likely want blood.
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John allows them to make their final goodbyes when he marches them out to the bridge.
When Nick goes to hug Victor, he feels the detonator in his jacket and pockets it for himself.
Victor, however, starts threatening to blow up the dam without realizing he doesnt have the gadget anymore.
Familiar faces return as Madison has another X-mas dream.
The tablecloth becomes soaked in the pooling blood, and Victor quietly walks out of the house.
Just as her vision of a family united falls apart, so too does the situation on the bridge.
At least, theyll have a head start.
Nick says hes not afraid to die, which John teases are the words of a junkie Christ.
Daniel, meanwhile, is making his way toward the bridge.
He makes quick work of a few Proctors by pretending to still be injured.
Civilizations born of violence, he says, which is something that Jeremiah once said.
But thats not how John sees the world.
Realizing why Nick isnt pressing the detonator, John and his men start moving in.
Madison is able to start the engine again as the Proctors go to grab the detonator.
Daniel emerges on the scene as violence erupts.
He pushes the button and lays waste to the dam.
Did he do it to kill his family, specifically his mother?
Did he do it to give the water back to the people?
Did he do it to venture to kill the Proctors and himself?
All these questions are left hanging in the air as the water plunges forward through the crumbling walls.
As water washes over everything in the dam, including Troys body, Madison emerges in another dream sequence.
Madison wakes under water and forces herself back to the surface.
She crawls onto solid ground, where citizens are scrambling to fill their buckets with water.
Alicia and Victor are nowhere to be found.
The family is displaced, and theyll have to figure out who they are without each other.
Who is Madison without her kids?
Who is Alicia without the domineering eye of her mother?
And, of course, theyre all now enemies of Proctor John.
