‘Fear The Walking Dead’ recap (2.14): Wrath – Season Finale, Part 1

Ofelia opens the episode looking like Sarah Connor from Terminator 2, while Travis closes the episode acting like a terminator. Part one of the Fear The Walking Dead season 2 finale.

Last week, Travis lost Chris for good as he left with his new “friends” – super creeps, Derek and Brandon – and left his dad behind. Travis arrived at the hotel along with all the other people, who has seen Madison’s crazy attempt to get Nick’s attention. As the episode ended, we saw Derek and Brandon arrive at the hotel gate, but without Chris. You can read the full recap of last week’s episode here!

The title of this episode is Wrath, and that part is very much about Travis, who endures his first complete meltdown. Long overdue perhaps, but I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s start at the beginning.

Ofelia needs to be a huge part of season 3

The episode opens with Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) arriving at the US border in the truck she stole from the hotel. The truck manages to reach the border – not at any crossing though – just as the engine gives out. She goes to look at the engine, which is overheated from the drive. Of course it doesn’t take long before the first infected shows up, and she has nothing to defend herself with.

For Ofelia, this is no problem, since she has clearly decided that she’s going to survive whatever this new world throws at her. She looks and acts like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 and I cannot wait to see a lot more of her in season 3. That must be why we’re following her on her lone adventures now.

Anyway, she pushes the infected guy towards the engine and slams the trunk closed, so his arm is stuck in there. Then she goes to find something to defend herself with as more infected arrive. She fight off the ones she has to, then grabs her water and starts walking along the border fence. Since the “walking dead” really do just walk at a lazy pace, she can stay well ahead of them by walking briskly.

Quick note: The opening scenes of the past many episode of Fear The Walking Dead have been so awesome. They pull you in right away and make sure you’re hooked on the story from the first shot.

Ofelia reaches a hole in the fence and crosses the border. She’s only been on American soil for a short while before someone starts shooting at her. She seeks cover near some trees and the shooter finds her. He doesn’t shoot her however, and we see the guy clearly. The name of his characters isn’t revealed, but the actor playing him is Dayton Callie, who played [Chief] Wayne Unser on all seven seasons of Sons of Anarchy. In other words, he’ll probably be an important new character on season 3 of Fear The Walking Dead.

Nick tries to save the people of Colonia

Back in Colonia, Nick (Frank Dillane) is creeping around in the middle of the night along with an accomplice. They steal drugs from the make-shift pharmacy and head out towards the supermarket gangsters. Nick shows off some of his new Spanish skills and offers to deliver drugs steadily and on time, if they’ll just leave the Colonia alone.

While Marco, the boss, respects how Nick tries to handle this, there’s nothing to discus. The Narcos know they have the upper hand, and so Marco offers Nick a “heads-up” and tells him to get everyone out of town before the next day, and they can survive. If they try to put up a fight, they will all be killed.

Nick goes back with this information to Luciana (Danay Garcia) and Alejandro (Paul Calderon), but they insist on staying and fighting. In the middle of the debate, someone in the Infirmary turns and several people are bitten. A guy even gets his nose bitten off, before Nick kills the infected one. He does so in what is probably the most gruesome and graphic scene of Fear The Walking Dead so far. He sticks his tumbs into the eyeballs of the infected and keeps pushing until he reaches the brain and can kill the infected. I mean, damn, that’s a lot of determination.

Before Nick managed to stop the infected guy, Alejandro was bit and Nick saw how nervous the supposedly immune Alejandro was. He confronts Alejandro in front of Luciana, and this is when Alejandro admits that he was never bitten by an infected, but simply by a human being. The stories just began and it seemed to be what people needed; Something to believe in. Hope! Also, it made Alejandro a hero, which he definitely didn’t mind either.

But now, Nick points out, is when Alejandro actually gets a chance to do right by his people. And it’s not by making them all stay there, when they don’t have a chance. Alejandro continues talking about “having faith”, and Luciana makes it clear that she won’t leave Alejandro. She suggests that Nick should just do what he always does and take off.

Madison faces yet another difficult decision

Back at the hotel, more refugees have arrived at the hotel. As we know, Derek and Brandon are among them and they’re already making sure people hate them. They keep yelling for help, food, service, whatever they want. They’re Americans and they still believe that means they’re worth more. Also, they’re white and male… basically, they cannot believe that all their priviliges as American, white men don’t mean shit in this new world. Least of all in Mexico, surrounded by Mexicans, who by all accounts are more entitled to help first, if we should rank privileges.

Madison goes to talk to them, and preferably act better towards everyone. Being a High School councelor in the old world, she’s no stranger to this kind of arrogant kids. They react positively to the way she handles them, and when she hears their names, and explain what happens, she gets a bad feeling. As they explain that a 16 year old boy from Los Angeles, without a driver’s license, was driving when their truck crashes, she knows the boy they’re talking about is Chris.

How she chooses to handle this information is the big dilemma. She consults with Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), who says she needs to get them out of there and keep this news from Travis. In Travis’ mind, he’s responsible for Chris being out there without any family, so if he found out Chris was abandonded by these two idiots as well, it would destroy him.

Madison agrees and she plans to get Andrés help to fix them up, and then send them on their way. As they try to get Derek and Brandon away from the parking basement, where all new refuges are held, a riot breaks out. Naturally, the Mexican refugees, who have been waiting longer than these two Americans idiots, are angry that the Americans are apparantly getting preferential treatment.

Madison and Andrés start leading Derek and Brandon towards the gates, but Travis hears the commotion and looks out the window and recognizes the two men. Before Madison can throw them out, Travis reaches the gate and stops her.

Travis comes face to face with the truth… and he can’t handle it!

They go back to an office, where Derek and Brandon keeps promising to tell Travis what happened if they can just get some help. Andrés fixes a dislocated shoulder, and they tell Travis how Chris was driving, because they were too tired. While they slept on the bed of the truck, Chris drove and must’ve fallen asleep. They woke up as the truck was flipping through the air, and found Chris having been thrown out through the windshield. His neck was clearly broken, so they dragged him out and buried him by a tree.

Travis is heartbroken but accepts the story at first. As everyone leaves, Travis is the last one exiting the room and suddenly seems to wonder about something. It’s an obvious flaw in their story, so Travis questions whether Chris was thrown out of the car or they dragged him out? As we hear the version of the story, we see flashbacks of what happened as Travis is imagining it based on the story. This means we see several different versions and never exactly what happens.

Derek and Brandon start to panic and try to explain the story again, but Travis closes the door and locks himself in with the two young men. Then he starts beating them. Clearly, he has every intention of beating them to death, and Madison tries to call out from the other side of the door. She herself just made a rule, that anyone being violent at the hotel would be exiled. Someone runs for keys and they get the door unlocked, but Oscar only manages half-way through the door. Travis smashes the door, crushing Oscar’s head between the door and the door frame, then pulls him in and locks the door again.

He brutally kills the two young men and then sits down and just completely shuts down.

This is where we leave everyone after part one of the season 2 finale of Fear The Walking Dead

Travis has killed Derek and Brandon, after they told him Chris is dead. Nick is trying to convince everyone to leave the Colonia before the Narcos arrive, and Ofelia is back the USA, but caught by some unknown guy.

For the record, this is the official episode plot:

Travis is blindsided by new refugees at the hotel. Meanwhile, Nick must make the decision to leave the Colonia or stay with Luciana.

The season finale of Fear The Walking Dead season 2 was two episodes shown back-to-back. Read our recap for the second – and final – part of the season finale here.

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