Fear the Walking Dead: Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg review S6 E6

Ridiculous title aside, Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg was a surprisingly pretty great episode of Fear the Walking Dead. This is a series that can be incredibly frustrating when it’s off, but when they’re on a roll — like this season — it can make for some very entertaining and unpredictable zombie TV.

Virginia and her crew catch up with refinery worker Paige, who’s apparently gotten the secret handshake and code of The End is The Beginning crew. And rather than give up any useful intel, she decides to kill herself. Well that’s one way to avoid torture and dragging out eventually spilling the beans. 

Ginny’s crew asks what they should do with Paige and she gives out some detailed vain hopes of finding some leads and ends with the call to bury her next to jasper’s leg. Jasper lost his leg in an accident although burying a leg seems like an odd move. So yeah, not exactly the smoothest way to work in the episode title at all but that was by far the worst aspect of this one.

June and Sarah are running the medical frigate — a tractor trailer stuffed with supplies — but it’s hardly the most effective way to provide aid to folks along the Frontier who need medical assistance. June would love to set up a hospital, but Ginny isn’t down for that plan.

Having a hospital would potentially reduce the chance of a guy having an infected appendix and June and Sarah trying to perform an emergency appendicitis on the road. Naturally this doesn’t end well and Sarah has to kill him once he turns. 

John picked up an extra shift so he could escort June home. In actuality, he’s all set to roll and they’re already on a path that could take them away from the Frontier long before Virginia and crew realized it. June has pretty much existed on flight mode and she’s tired of not feeling like she’s saving anyone. John insists that leaving now would help save him. 

I liked that June considered the rest of the gang, but in the end, was down to go. Typically, characters behave in idealistic heroic fashion instead of doing the right thing for them and their family/spouse/significant other. The escape plan was a go until an incident at the refinery forces them to join the rescue effort. 

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Everything is up in smoke and flames as Luciana is desperately trying to organize an evacuation before it explodes. This is an impressive visual and the chaos of the situation underscores the fragile state of the Frontier. Virginia doesn’t make things easier and she’s here trying to find a culprit more so than saving anyone. 

Her instincts aren’t wrong though as she spots another The End is the Beginning tag, suggesting this was no accident. 

Wes took some shrapnel, but Ginny won’t let June take him until he answers her question. She tortured him to get some answers after finding his spray paint from his “paint date” with Alicia. While I wasn’t loving the optics of a white woman torturing a black dude, this ended up saving Wes.

June made the call to have a worker Virginia figured was dead brought into the truck. Again, Virginia was proven right as the worker turned and killed/turned all of the other injured refinery workers. Sometimes the random walker popups feel too forced, but this was actually a created situation that made sense for this sudden onslaught.

In the ensuing battle, Ginny and June scramble for shelter while Luciana and the others barely escape a bad explosion. And in perfectly logical fashion, a walker stumbles onto a groggy Ginny. I was shocked when she actually got bit as it’s nice to see some vulnerability even with the villain characters.

Ginny knows the deal and wants June to cut her hand off…but June isn’t so sure. She’s still deciding as she’s got Ginny by axe point as she talks Sarah through stitching Wes up. This was a very tense situation and it seemed 50/50 how it was going to play out. It seems Ginny pleading that June make sure her sister, Dakota, is alright sways June enough to spare her and lop off the hand. 

This can’t be a good decision, but given the context it makes sense. Besides, June didn’t do it pro bono. Ginny agrees to set up the hospital, which means June can help so many more people. Just not the person that needs her help the most.  

John is taken aback by the hospital news. He can’t stick around. He’s already hating the person he’s becoming. And even if he stays for June would she still want to be with him the more he’s trapped in The Frontier? 

This was a big question and the show took another unconventional turn by actually having John drive off instead of staying. Of course he’ll be back. He can’t quit June, but this was a bold move and one I’m excited to see how it plays out. 

This was quietly one of the better FTWD episodes in a long time. I was reluctant to get into this season after the glacial pacing last year but this one is already proving to be one of those seasons that will deliver throughout. 

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: AMC

Catch up on Season 6 of Fear the Walking Dead on Amazon.