The following contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 14, "Divine Providence," which aired Sunday, May 22 on AMC.
Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 14, "Divine Providence," was hyped up to be the ultimate showdown between Victor Strand and Alicia Clarke to take control over the Tower. But yet again, the hype died down almost immediately when it was made abundantly clear that the plot armor would take control of the situation.
Despite the death of Wes (which was easily predictable), "Divine Providence" was a safety net for all the characters Fear the Walking Dead fans love and hate. Alicia brings her people to Strand's Tower to finally get this show on the road, even though they're clearly outnumbered and outgunned. What follows is the oddest culmination to this Tower situation: Alicia is invited inside the Tower to have a drink with Strand, and not long after, Wes turns against Strand. Being chased down by Wes and other soldiers, Strand, Alicia and Daniel join forces to protect the people on the outside.
It's becoming a habit on the show where characters are constantly found in near-death situations, yet by osmosis always find a way out that's beyond reasonable. Wes turns on Strand at a drop of a dime in this episode because Strand shows the tiniest bit of compassion for Alicia. From there, "Divine Providence" turns into a cat and mouse game where Alicia, Strand and Daniel are being chased by Wes and soldiers who should be the clear-cut winners of this game because of their heavy artillery -- but they actually turn out to be the losers.
The amount of times Wes confronts a defenseless Alicia and Strand to kill them, but gets distracted by their "wise speeches" is far too many. Wes' turn to the dark side meant he's now ruthless and determined to not let anybody stand in his way, but somehow always allowed Alicia and Strand to slip under his fingers. There's also an incredibly frustrating scene in this episode where Strand brings Alicia to the infirmary -- without being interrupted by Wes or any other soldiers. Why are these characters even afraid of their lives anymore if they can just do whatever they want without risk?
There's also the matter of the people outside who are easy targets for the Tower's soldiers. Dwight, Sherry and Luciana should be worm food right now, but the Tower's soldiers choose to take them out by luring in the walkers that are miles away. It just so happens to give Alicia, Strand and Daniel enough time to sort out all their problems during the slowest goose chase of all time.
There's no easy way to say this: almost every character in Fear the Walking Dead should be dead by now. Not because of the zombies or the constant enemies these people make, but because of the nuclear bombs that went off in Season 6. Science would probably dictate that a couple of warheads would vaporize the entire cast, but science has no place in Fear the Walking Dead. The only victims were Teddy and Dakota, who were also coincidentally the villains of the show at the time.
Strand found protection in an office building, which can apparently withstand nukes but not a fire that burns the building in "Divine Providence." Everyone's favorite couple, Dwight and Sherry, hid in a storm cellar that should really only protect against tornadoes. Morgan and Grace hid under a semi-truck out in the open, which made the nuke explosion look like a little sandstorm at that point.
So everyone makes it out alive and now the rules of radiation dispersion are thrown out the window. Some places are more radiated than others for no reason whatsoever; in one place characters can take their mask off, but a few feet away they can't. It's a giant insult that showrunners Andrew Chambless and Ian Goldberg think viewers are too enthralled by this brilliant storytelling that they can't figure out that this is just not logical.
While Fear the Walking Dead is making the valiant effort of killing off unimportant characters one by one in each episode, it's so obvious the ways they choose to protect their main characters. This isn't to say the days of Season 4 are missed, where main characters were dropping like flies, but the lazy writing in Season 7 makes it impossible to believe that any of these characters are as lucky as they're made out to be.
New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead air Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and are available to stream a week early on AMC+.