The Fear TWD Season 7 Episode 2 Scene Fans Thought Went Too Far
The scope and variety of threats in the new season of "Fear the Walking Dead" are vast. Be it a horde of walkers now a part of daily life, the deadly fallout from a deadly nuclear strike, or new, would-be dictators emerging from the ashes of the second apocalypse, the characters of this AMC series are living in tense times.
On the second episode of Season 7 of "Fear the Walking Dead," titled "Six Hours" (via IMDb), viewers are told that just being outside in the radioactive landscape for more than six hours is enough to cause lasting damage (for this episode, at least). The nuclear blast alters the walkers in several ways, while the few survivors are in an even more precarious position. Morgan (Lennie James) and Grace (Karen David) learn just how dangerous their surroundings are as they venture outside the beached submarine where they call home.
The reason the pair leave is because of Mo, Rachel's (Brigitte Kali Canales) baby who has been in Morgan and Grace's care since the Season 6 finale. Their supplies are running low on the submarine, so they must go out to find infant formula that isn't affected by radiation. The hungry child spends much of the episode making her displeasure known. Her cries echo around the submarine, and that sound threatens to alert the walkers to her presence. It's those constant cries that were, for some audience members, the most horrifying part of the episode.
Fear TWD fans thought the baby Mo scene was too much
Following the release of Season 7, Episode 2, Redditor u/Connected-VG posted a thread on the r/FearTheWalkingDead page which opened up the floor for fans of the AMC show to discuss what they just watched. Very quickly, it became clear that Mo's constant crying throughout the episode grated on many viewers. "That baby crying non-stop was THE most annoying thing ever, and after five minutes, I had to mute it," wrote u/imlookingforawife on Reddit. "They did not need to drag it on that long."
Plenty of fans agreed with the sentiment. "I had to plug my ears for like 30 out of 45 minutes of the episode. It sucked, but it lead [sic] to an okay ending," commented user kyoswife. One commenter responded that the constant crying made the episode hard to follow, and not just because it jangled their nerves. "On top of that, Grace speaks so softly. It felt like the mixing was terrible this week," said Redditor u/HardcoreCamper.
To other viewers, Mo's constant cries were less of an irritation and more of a direct line to some of their most deep-seated fears. "It's not annoying if you had children. It's absolutely frightening," remarked Reddit user SaltyEarth7905, which earned more than a dozen up-votes.
It's unlikely that the show's creative team included so much of Mo crying because they thought it would be pleasant for the viewing audience. Instead, it's one way "Fear the Walking Dead" can ratchet up the tension by putting the audience in the same position as Grace. At one point, she is ready to walk away from Morgan and the baby but lets them escape while she waits for death at the hands of one of the undead. We at home may never encounter an irradiated zombie, but we do know just how piercing a baby's cries can be. In the world of "Fear the Walking Dead," both can drive you to take action.