As important as this episode might have been from a plot perspective, it wasn’t a particularly engaging or exciting installment.  There were a few moments that rose beyond the trudge of debating over the need for water for the ranch, but this was an episode that could have used a couple other plot threads to give the audience more to absorb.

 

 

I like the idea that Strand would conspire to trick Lola into thinking the dam was under attack, thus leading the way to the agreement between her and Maddy.  But it might have worked better for me, as a follow-up to the previous two episodes, if Maddy had been just a bit more active in helping to make that decision.  She’s oddly passive throughout the scenario, which is perhaps why this episode felt like a step backwards into the trudge that was the first half of the season.

 

But Strand also seems a bit less well-defined now.  Early in the series, he seemed to have the best sense of how to negotiate the dangers of the decaying civilization, but that was when he had a mission to get back to Thomas.  Without that, he seems like a man without a purpose, other than to blandly survive.  Getting back with Maddy’s group is the best way for him to find his mojo again, but in the meantime, it’s going to be a bit tiresome if he continues to falter so much.

 

 

Daniel seems to have a bit of a relationship to Lola, perhaps due to his unresolved issues with Ofelia, since he didn’t know she was still alive.  He takes a lot of issue with how Walker has changed Ofelia into someone who could take lives or make hard decisions, but that’s what this apocalyptic world requires.  Daniel, of all people, has to understand that on some level.  And he also has to recognize that Lola is nowhere close to being the leader that Maddy has become.

 

And then there’s Walker.  Considering that he became somewhat sympathetic in the mid-season premiere episodes, it’s disheartening to see him become antagonistic and annoying so soon again.  Yes, Maddy is taking some gambles that he may not be comfortable with, but one of those gambles was working with him in the first place.  His “us vs. them” mentality is going to become a recurring issue, I fear, and that could undermine the sense of forward momentum that the previous two episodes provided.