Fear the Walking Dead recap: 'Brother's Keeper' 

Ruben Blades, Mercedes Mason, Cliff Curtis

Troy, like an apocalyptic Cain standing before God with his brother’s blood crying out from the earth, has brought about a Biblical reckoning — one that he hopes, in his delirious state, will act as a Darwinian cleansing to wipe out those unwilling or unable to fight for themselves and leave only those most physically fit for this world. As this plague ripped across the ranch, bodies fell, prophesies came to pass, and we’re reminded of this show’s potential for riveting storytelling.

It begins with Troy. Jilted, now forced to wander the wastelands, he’s consumed by delusions brought on by hunger, dehydration, sleepless nights, and maybe whatever venom was lingering in that rattlesnake he cooked up over a fireplace. (Who knows. I’m not a survivalist.) He continues his important work of scribbling in his journal, but director Alrick Riley (who helmed three episodes of

, including the season 7 episode “The Cell”) walks us deeper into his isolation. His only company is the body of the scalped founding father who was made into a feast for crows, and the heavy artillery he stumbles upon in a compartment behind wall-hanging needlework that reads, “God, help those who help themselves.”

As Troy sits in the chair on the rock, contemplating whether to put that single bullet into his brain, he sees something. The sounds of whirling wind and snarling dead crescendo when he fires the gun in the air, luring whatever is encroaching closer — and he smiles.

These moments of dialogue-free exposition grow more foreboding as we cut to the literal thinning of the herd at the ranch. Jake mourns the days when the ranch was actually a ranch, unlike now, when they’re forced to slaughter the cattle because there’s not enough water to go around. Without Troy, the ranch is the last of his family’s legacy, and it’s already changed so much. He proposes to Alicia that they start over by heading to his family cabin, isolated in a remote location by the border, where they can hunt for game and be together. He also mentions there are “closer places” just like the ranch, planting seeds of where these folks might trek next should their sanctuary fall. She’s not quite ready to leave, but he’s realizing he has nothing left at the ranch.

Ofelia and Crazy Dog acknowledge Jake’s weakness as they ponder who would become the new leader should Walker never return. Nick’s name comes up, as he’s already been able to meet both sides on middle ground, but he’s still disturbed by his killing of Jeremiah. Alicia meets her brother on the porch of his house, which once belonged to the Otto patriarch, and she listens to his fear that he’s just as sick as Troy.

Nick wakes later that night to find Troy — the real one, not the hallucination that visited him in his heated cell. Ofelia once warned Alicia before she infected the ranch with anthrax, and now Troy has come shambling to Nick’s doorstep to return a similar favor for saving his life. Sleep deprived, he mutters about some “mission” that he’s on involving “a reckoning at hand” and “a beast from the desert” that’s “bigger than you can imagine.” Before vanishing again into the night, he tells Nick to bring Jake to meet him so they can see.

Nick finds Jake the next morning as he’s fighting with Alicia over his suspicion of a Clark family master plan. Was it Alicia’s goal to seduce Jake, while Nick bonded with Troy and Madison warmed up to Jeremiah? He’s not wrong, but Nick’s knock at the door comes before she can answer. Before they leave, Alicia leaves Jake with the knowledge that she does care for him and she’s done all this for him — not knowing it will be their last moment together.

Riding toward where they believe Troy headed, Jake tells Nick he’s planning to put down his brother because he’s sick and never going to get better. But their attention is instantly drawn to the massive dust storm creeping between the hills, masking a horde of dead. And in the middle of it all is Troy, firing off explosions to draw the walkers closer and closer to the ranch. Nick walkies to Alicia to warn her, and she, Ofelia, and Crazy Dog put their bickering aside to prepare for the impending onslaught.

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