Fear the Walking Dead
Season 6 / Episode 12 - "In Dreams"
Grace: Grace finds herself laying in a field (and no longer pregnant) where most of the various tree leaves are a sort of cerise pink (suggesting that she is dreaming). As a walker attacks her, she's saved by a teenage girl named Athena, who credits her fighting skill to her father. Grace cannot remember her own name, so Athena takes her to the dam settlement, where she's greeted by Athena's father--a white haired, older Morgan, who does not recognize her.
Soon, Morgan accepts that Grace is the genuine article...but takes her to her own grave, learning she died not long after Athena's birth. Grace wonders what happened to her child,as she had been concerned (based on information she read) that a woman suffering from radiation exposure risked passing it on to the unborn child, who would not survive. Fortunately, the child--Athena--did survive.
The settlement has expanded and is flourishing, and she sees familiar, but aged faces, such as Strand and Daniel, which surprises Grace with how friendly they are with each other. Dwight and Sherry now have two kids, while Doctor June Dorie and her apprentice--a now adult Charlie examine Grace.
Walking through the forest with Old Morgan and Athena, Grace is informed that the teenager usually walks around with a cassette player, listening to songs and messages left by her mother--her only connection to the mother she never knew.
Grace comes across a wrecked car spray painted with "THE END"--the work of "The End is the Beginning" cult. Grace recognizes this car as one she discovered as Morgan was taking her to the hospital June was building. The car explodes (rigged by the cult), disorienting Grace, who recovers to see present-day Morgan dissolve before her eyes, and finding herself in a loop of Athena killing a walker. Eventually Grace wakes up--back in the present; she lost consciousness after being caught in the car's explosion. Morgan manages to get her to safety in the vet's office of a horse stable, but she still slips in and out of her dream world, and as she suffers from contractions, in the dream state, she and Athena collapse, but Grace understands what's happening in reality. She's convinced her daughter will be born---if she comes out of the dream world.
Riley and his men locate the stable, demanding the key--a mirror situation occurs in Grace's dream state, only Riley and his men are walkers. In both reality and the dream, Riley is defeated--his men killed. Morgan stabs Riley through the shoulder, and the psychopath runs off, promising that his group cannot be stopped.
Athena tells Grace that the key she's always worn represents the "cost of peace", Grace falls dead, but revives to say goodbye to Old Morgan and Athena; in reality, Grace nearly stops breathing, eventually resuscitated by a grateful Morgan. Riley returns, threatening to shoot Grace is Morgan does not give him the key; Grace insists Morgan give it to him, forecasting that her child will be a part of future where men like Riley will not survive.
Morgan delivers the baby, but the child is stillborn. Grace--in an inverse of what Old Morgan said about Athena's birth/Grace's death--understands that her child did absorb / suffer the effects of radiation poisoning. Both in tears, Grace reminds herself that the idea of her child surviving was just a dream.
Morgan: In a sense, he feels the child's death as symbolic of a potential future lost as Grace does; he's already lost his son, and whatever hope he placed in helping to raise Grace's child is just another reminder of how their lives are walking a tightrope, with someone or something cutting it at both ends.
Riley and The End is the Beginning group: Riley makes a good villain; he's one of those characters so dedicated to his BS, that he's easy to hate. How he survived such a deep wound is a miracle, but if he really makes it, we can safely predict he will want to run into Morgan again.
NOTES:
There were Christ symbolism/parallels to this episode--an expected birth of a child that will bring hope, and although the stable was not a manger, again, the symbolism was on the nose, only this time, there would be no successful birth, and in keeping with the almost universal message of the WD franchise, there's little to no hope.
Althea--according to Old Morgan--is off "chasing the story" but he believed she was chasing after someone.
Yet another stellar character piece with the flash-forward, and similar to TWD, where Carl had a dream of seeing an old Rick, Michonne, Negan, et al., which did not come true, Grace's own trauma-induced visions will never come to pass, capped off by tragedy.
In her dream state, Grace is informed that Alicia, Wes and Luciana have started their own home--back at the stadium where Madison sacrificed herself. The fact this detail was added, along with Alicia staying behind to set a fire / buy her friends time in a manner similar to Madison could be hint that Alicia might leave to settle some of her obvious demons regarding her mother's death.
GRADE: A.