‘Fear the Walking Dead:’ Naomi’s Painful Past Revealed

Jacob Bryant
TV The Walking Dead
TV The Walking Dead

SPOILER ALERT: Warning, this article contains spoilers from the Season 4, Episode 6 of Fear the Walking Dead entitled ‘Just In Case.’ Proceed at your own risk.

The last two weeks of Fear the Walking Dead have been heavily focused on Jenna Elfman’s Naomi. Last week we got her and John Dorie’s backstory, and this week she finally opened up to Madison and Strand while they searched for seeds to start replanting at the Diamond.

With the group in the present on the hunt for the Vultures to get revenge for Nick’s death, the majority of the episode took place in the past and Madison, Naomi, and Strand’s search. The three stop at a motel for the night, and Naomi finally starts opening up to them. She apparently wasn’t going to look for seeds alone — before Madison and Strand agreed to come with — but was trying to bail. Again. Strand recognizes the pattern and takes the car keys from her, calling her a coward and reminding the two that people don’t change.

Strand is still confused – even after all the years that passed – why Madison saved him after the dam incident. You think the two would have hashed this out long ago, but apparently not. Madison says everyone deserves another chance because they’ve all done stuff they regret.

Naomi returns to the FEMA camp alone.

The two wake up to find Naomi gone. She left for the FEMA camp herself to get the supplies. The place is overrun with the dead, but she gets in easily. She’s clearly been here before. That becomes obvious when she gets into a box of supplies by unlocking the padlock with the right combination. Before she can leave though, she has a breakdown seeing a few dead kids and their fingerpaintings on a fridge. Obviously, this attracts the walkers and she gets herself stuck on a scaffolding.

Luckily, Strand and Madison show up shortly after and MacGyver a way to get her to safety. With her getting saved again by the duo, Naomi finally tells them why she left. She says she’s the reason the FEMA camp fell.

Naomi had lived there with her daughter Rose. She’d learned a ton of her survival skills there thanks to a woman’s J.I.C. classes (Just In Case), and they even had a truck filled with supplies — which she got the keys too earlier in the episode — to use in case things went sideways. Eventually Rose got pneumonia and Naomi was afraid they’d get kicked out if people found out. She hid her daughter and went out to look for medicine. She was gone for three days and when she got back everyone was dead. The day after she left Rose died of pneumonia, and since Naomi hid her while she was gone nobody knew. Rose turned and started killing people in the camp until it snowballed into everyone dying. Naomi said she had to come and do this herself, which is why she left the two at the motel.

Naomi feels guilty over the deaths she caused.

Her and Strand have a moment where they both seem to accept the things that happened to them, and make a plan to move forward. The three return to the Diamond and with them able to grow crops again, the Vultures are forced to leave. But not before Mel can give Madison some ominous advice:

“You be careful Madison. The really bad stuff you never see coming.”

Back in the present, Morgan and John meet back up with Alicia, Luci, Strand, and Al. The four are none-to-happy that Morgan warned a Vulture about the other’s plan for revenge. Luckily — or unluckily — they didn’t listen and the entire group shows up. Mel and the rest get out with guns trained on our survivors. Before any shots are fired, Mel gets a call on his walkie from a woman. Another car drives up and Naomi gets out.

John is over the moon, and runs to her (still calling her Laura), but Alicia isn’t so happy to see her. Before anyone has a chance to move, Alicia shoots at Naomi. John moves in front of her and takes the bullet.

At this point, I’d love if Naomi turned out to be the season’s villain. I’m not sure how likely that is, but something clearly went down at the Diamond and Naomi had something to do with it. Probably something that explains why Madison isn’t with the rest of the OG survivors. It would also make for a fun dynamic with wholesome gunslinger John – assuming he isn’t actually dead. I really need John to not be dead.

Jacob Bryant
Jacob Bryant is a writer-for-hire with a penchant for the gory and caped shows. He thinks Jericho is the greatest television achievement of all-time.