This time around we’re a lot happier, so this Fear The Walking Dead recap is much more positive than last week
We’re back in the spirit of Fear The Walking Dead where personal drama and the fear of anything and everything foreign – or should I say anyone and everyone – is the driving force of the storyline. After all, we all know that people (alive and dead) are at the heart of all things good and bad.
Okay, so I do have one little issue with this episode, and that’s the fact that even though we left the first episode on a bit of a cliffhanger…
… but that seems to be a very minor issue in this episode, which is almost a filler in regards to the storyline that started in the first episode. I’m not complaining since I actually liked this episode. And, as anyone who watched The Walking Dead will know, this is very typical for any season, but that’s because TWD will use an entire episode for a flashback that ties into the current storyline, or to introduce a new character.
And yes, the latter did take place in this episode of Fear The Walking Dead, but right now it’s hard to see why or how since the episode ended with the same people on the yacht as in the beginning. But I’m getting ahead if myself.
First things first, we start the episode with finding out that a boat (which we all expect is carrying dangerous people) is still in hot pursuit, so they decide to hide for a while by dropping anchor near a small island, so the yacht won’t be visible on any radar. They decide on Catrina Island, where the light goes on and off, not once but twice. And we all know that can only mean one of two things in this world: Bad people’s trap or good people wanting to connect?
Fortunately, it’s the latter and we meet a family of survivalists. Mom and dad named Melissa (Catherine Dent) and George (David Warshofsky), an older teen son, Seth (Jake Austin Walker), and two smaller kids, a boy and a girl, called Harry (Jeremiah and Maverick Clayton) and Willa (Aria Lyric Leabu). Now, Harry and Willa are already so used to “The Dead” that they play on the beach just a few yards from a simple fence, keeping them safe. Though no one is ever really safe on these shows and it seems pretty weird that these two kids are playing alone in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, which the husband both expected and is ready for.
In any case, it turns out that the husband wasn’t too interested in getting visitors, but he does like Travis – mostly because he’s Maori and he likes the way Travis’ people view people’s relationship with Mother Nature. Madison talks to the wife and quickly senses that she’s being asked a lot of questions about her personal values. It doesn’t seem like anything negative, but does resemble a job interview as sorts and it turns out that the wife does in fact want Madison to help get her kids off the island. Apparently, the husband is not so much a survivalist, as he is a “we live here and we die here”. So his end-game involves ending his family if things get out of control.
Nick is the first to discover this, since he’s being the perfect big brother type for the two youngest kids, and when they tell him about how the family will stay together, if they just take their vitamins, then he knows somethings up. Especially since the son is playing with action figures named after family members, who have red dots drawn on their foreheads and are no longer among the living. In what looks like our favorite drug addict searching for his next fix, Nick starts searching medicin cabinets and then seeking out perfect hiding places. He finds a world globe, which has some serious “vitamins” inside and – of course – the cute little girl sees him looking at these pills and you can see the wheels start turning…
And that’s when you know she won’t survive this episode… and she doesn’t. Of course, the little girl returns to find these vitamins later and takes one, since she’s learned that’s how the family will be okay and remain together. The girl dies, mom holds her, girl becomes one of “The Dead” and the goes after mom and… well, it all goes to hell. The husband realizes all is lost and asks Madison and Travis to take his youngest son with them, but the older teen son – who earlier in the episode taught our very own annoying teen son how to end these things – runs after them and pulls his little brother off the yacht. Then he returns to the pier, where his mom is now coming to eat her two boys – as you do after you’ve turned, ya’ll know the drill – and he has to shoot their mom, but makes sure his little brother is watching and waving to the yacht people, so he doesn’t have to see it happen.
Annoying teenage son is STILL annoying, but okay, this episode was clearly part of his journey as he both learned how to kill “The Dead” and saw someone taking on the difficult task of killing their own mother – something he not only couldn’t do himself, but blames his father for doing. Like I said, annoying teenage son… but I think it’ll get better from here on out. Otherwise I really won’t care much, when he dies, and let’s be honest, the point of both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead is that we care about these people. So much so, that we’re able to forgive the terrible things they have to do in order to survive.
That’s pretty much all that happened… oh, and we also know that Strand is up to something, and Daniel Salazar found all the yacht papers that Strand had clearly been hiding. Whether Strand is good or bad, I’m not sure yet. He’s clearly trying to reconnect with someone (he called someone using a satellite phone), but I’m hoping it’s family or loved ones and not his very own group of bad guys.
I have to say, while Daniel’s daughter, Ofelia, might be having trouble with him right now [last season she discovered her father hadn’t been the victim of torture, but the one inflicting torture upon others to get the answers he needed in his previous job], but I absolutely think he’ll end up saving them. Unless he doesn’t make it much longer, of course.
For the record, this is the official episode plot:
The group seeks shelter with a survivalist family; and Madison tries to uncover the family’s true motives. Meanwhile, Salazar works to discover Strand’s intentions.
Read the recap for episode 1 right here, if you missed it. We’ll be back next time with a recap for episode 3.
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