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June Is Still an Emotional Badass on ‘Fear the Walking Dead’

Hey June!

Jenna Elfman as June, with fires burning behind her, in AMC's Fear the Walking Dead.

Despite the missteps in regards to story in AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, the characters help keep the series interesting. Sure, the Walkers are really cool and the gore is usually on point, but without compelling characters, the show would be tedious to watch during the lulls.

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June Dorie (Jenna Elfman) falls into the category of compelling characters. She’s a fighter who, when determined, is capable of almost anything. Her character has been part of Fear the Walking Dead since the fourth season. June went from being scared of getting close to someone to building a found family. In a way, she’s quite a bit like Carol (Melissa McBride) from The Walking Dead, also known as a post-apocalyptic badass.

Fear the Walking Dead’s eighth and final season’s primary focus is on PADRE and what’s been going on with our main group post-time jump. Without getting into spoilers, but I’ll say with confidence that June’s story could end in several ways. Last night’s episode, “Blue Jay” (season 8, episode 2), is a bit more exciting than the premiere, and that’s a good thing. There are dire circumstances linked to June and other people she’s connected to. Even after she tried to close herself off again, she’s having to face that she needs tethers to the world.

Characters like June, who start off fearing intimacy, are usually the most emotional people. Her journey hasn’t been unique in the grand scheme of things. However, she’s gone through so much since her first episode on the show. Losing her husband, John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt), who she met in the fourth season, helped propel her into badass territory. She even went on a quest for revenge because of John’s death. It’s unfortunate that in a post-apocalyptic world, that type of trauma is increasingly inevitable, and June isn’t avoiding trauma anytime soon as long as PADRE is a threat.

PADRE, as a community, isn’t remotely what Fear the Walking Dead has explored before. The idea of children being stripped of their connections is unsettling to say the least. Due to June’s past of being a mother, it would be fitting for her to contribute to the destruction of PADRE. In terms of her current standing with the community, June’s position by the end of “Blue Jay” (season 8, episode 2) isn’t all that grand, to say the least.

Final seasons of shows like Fear the Walking Dead are meant to wrap up loose ends. Some characters don’t make it out alive, certainly not when dangerous communities are concerned. The second episode of this final season further establishes a more ominous and dire tone. There’s a sense of loss of what could’ve been, especially for June, who doesn’t have her father-in-law around at the moment. Forceful disconnections from found family usually send characters over the edge.

Will June survive to the midseason finale? Will she find a way out of whatever circumstances she’s in? Everything is very much up in the air while her character arc for the final season unfolds. But make no mistake, she’s still a badass who is a balloon of emotions.

(featured image: AMC)

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Author
Vanessa Maki
Vanessa Maki (she/her) is a queer Blerd and contributing writer for The Mary Sue. She first started writing for digital magazines in 2018 and her articles have appeared in Pink Advocate (defunct), The Gay Gaze (defunct), Dread Central and more. She primarily writes about movies, TV, and anime. Efforts to make her stop loving complex/villainous characters or horror as a genre will be futile.

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