‘Fear The Walking Dead’ recap (2.10): Alicia Clark rocks and Chris is still crazy!

Alicia Clark is being smart and fighting for her life in this episode of Fear The Walking Dead. Meanwhile, Chris is back and as crazy as ever. One of the best episodes ever of this show!

When we left them last week, Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) was alone and fighting off a bunch of infected. Madison (Kim Dickens) and Strand (Colman Domingo) were also fighting off an even bigger bunch of infected while Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) was missing. At the same time, Nick (Frank Dillane) is still with a new group, who have an almost cult-like relationship with the zombie apocalypse. Read the full recap of the previous episode here!

The title of this episode is Do Not Disturb and for the first time in season 2B, we’re getting caught up with Travis (Cliff Curtis) and his annoying teenage son, Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie).

However, before we get to them, we get the strongest opening of the show. This opening channeled both the intense action of The Walking Dead and the craziness of zombie movies like Dawn of the Dead. We get some backstory, which is something this show hasn’t done much as opposed to TWD [The Walking Dead]. As the episode opens, we’re in the middle of a wedding. Immediately, many viewers will remember that last week, when Madison and Alicia Clark, Victor Strand and Ofelia Salazar arrived at a hotel, there had clearly been a wedding.

As suspected, things go very wrong in the middle of the wedding. The mother of the bride knows that a dissease is spreading like wildfire and would like to get back to the good ol’ US of A before it gets worse. When the father of the bride dances with his daughter, the mother tells the hotel manager that she wants everyone at the party to leave afterwards and return home.

Sidenote: This is a theme for the episode. When shit hits the fan, everyone wants to go home to the safety of the place they know. Those who were actually home, knows there’s nothing left there. Least of all safety. 

However, this is when the father has a heart attack and soon after awakens as one of the infected. He bites his daughter and all Hell breaks loose. The hotel manager takes a quick decision to ensure the safety of everyone else at the hotel. She heads out the door and locks it with every wedding guest still inside. Clearly not an easy decision, but one she feels is necessary. And honestly, even though it’s too little and too late, she’s not wrong!

And then we’re back with Travis and Chris. When chasing Chris, Travis hurt his foot and it’s literally dragging them down now. But of course, Travis wants to keep moving, and while trying to support his son, is also clearly annoyed with him. When Travis spots an abandoned car, it finally looks like they might catch a break. While Travis checks the car, Chris heads over to a nearby gas station to look for water and supplies.

Chris manages to find both, but he also stumbles across a few infected and three young men that are still alive. Of course, by now we all know that humans tend to be the most dangerous. Chris himself is a perfect example of this, and maybe he recognizes himself in one of these young men. He certainly ends up killing one of the infected to save one of the men. He is, however, also stealing food that these men had just grabbed for themselves, so he runs back to his dad and says they have to leave quickly.

Of course, he doesn’t mention the three men, but merely says that the place was crawling with the Dead, which is also true.

Meanwhile, Alicia Clark is back at the hotel, where she’s hidding in a hotel room. Clearly she managed to get away from the infected where we left her last week, though we never see how exactly. When we catch up with her, she’s counting the infected passing her door. She manages to leave the room, but runs right into a new group of infected and has to escape into an elevator shaft.

There she’s hanging onto the cables, watching the infected fall down the shaft as they try to grab her. Suddenly, a woman appears on the next floor and calls out for her. Alicia crawls up the cables and the woman drags her onto the next floor. The woman turns out to be the hotel manager, we met at the very beginning of the episode. She immediately threatens Alicia Clark, as she believes she’s one of the original hotel guests and her nephew went missing just the day before.

Alicia is taken back to the woman’s hotel room, where she sees a healthy supply of food and water. Here she manages to convince the woman, that she hasn’t seen the lady’s nephew, but she needs to get to her mother, who she knows is being attacked by the infected. The two women make a  deal that Alicia will help her find the missing nephew, if she’ll help her get back to her mom and the rest of her group.

The hotel manager is the one who has been putting up the “Do Not Disturb” signs to mark which rooms have the infected inside. Clearly, this woman has learned exactly how to manage the infected as well as the hotel. They have a plan for the hotel manager to lure the infected down to one room, where Alicia will get them inside. Alicia Clark is turning out to be a wonderful badass and has no problem getting the infected close, but not too close.

Once they’re all inside the room, the hotel manager shuts the door behind the infected and goes into the adjacent room. Here the plan is to drag Alicia in via the balcony. And yes, this means our fearless killer will also do some light building scaling. Not a problem for Alicia Clark, who continues to amaze. She would do just fine on The Walking Dead along with her mom. Speaking of her mom, that’s where they’re heading next, but of course, the bar is filled with infected now and the door has been blocked from the outside.

This is when the remaining wedding guests show up with the hotel manager’s nephew in tow. Once again a deal is struck: The hotel masterkeys for the nephew. The trade is made, and then Alicia lets out the infected from the bar to force the wedding guests away from them. She has also learned to stay away from humans. They run off, and with the hotel staff with her, manage to find their way to a hidding place. The place they end up is already occupied, but – of course – it’s by Madison and Strand, so all is well for now.

Back with Travis and Chris, they’re cruising along in they’re new ride. Travis tries to suggest plans to hide in the mountains, while Chris is saying things will never get back to the way they were, so they need to find a new life. He questions his dad’s plans and suggests he’s just trying to buy time, so they can return to Madison. Chris knows this will never be a possibility because of the way they look at him. Basically, they see him for the psychopath he is.

For the record, I have never liked Chris – calling him “annoying teenage son” probably gave that away – but I do very much like Lorenzo James Henrie’s performance. I mean, he is playing this character right on the edge, which is clearly working since the audience has long been divided between having love and sympathy for him and finding him dangerous and annoying.

After this episode, I think most people will find him dangerous. Full stop!

After a sweet scene, where Travis teaches Chris to drive, they run out of gas and make a camp for the night. They build a fire and eat some of the food Chris managed to get earlier, when suddenly the three men from the gas station show up. Chris recognize them immediately, puts out the fire and tells his dad to hide. This is when he finally admits that he took the food from these three men, who had just gotten it themselves.

The three men have of course seen the fire and Chris and his dad, so they call out to them, and they come out of hidding. These three young men are clearly Chris’ type and they get along splendidly. They call Chris a killer – in a good way, of course – and he is loving it. The three men were just on a holiday partying when the disease broke out. They’re trying to get back and wants Chris and Travis to come with them. Travis tells them that their home town of San Diego was on fire when they passed it. Still, Chris wants to go with them and Travis reluctantly goes along with this.

The next day, they’re cruising along in the truck the men have. These men are loving this new world; No cops, no rules and no work. What’s not to love? They are saying everything Chris wants to hear and he looks so happy, while Travis knows these men are trouble. When they spot a farm and drive to it, Travis suggests that he and Chris should stay there, but Chris won’t hear it. They go looking for supplies, when Travis spots three graves. Two kids and one adult female, so where is the adult male – or whoever else burried them? Well, he shows up just as Travis tries to convince the four young men to leave. However, they’ve just found a barn full of chickens and want to eat.

The farm owner insists he will shoot them if they don’t leave. As a response to this threat, one of the young men breaks the neck of a chicken he had just caught. The farmer shoots the man in the leg and when he falls to the ground, Chris grabs his pistol and shoots the farmer. Everyone is surprised, but Travis is shocked and disappointed. He goes to the farmer, but he is a lost cause. When Chris offers his hand to help his dad up, Travis finally seems to understand what kind of man his son is, and refuses his hand.

This is where we leave everyone: Alicia Clark is back with her mom and Victor Strand in the basement of the hotel, while Ofelia is still missing, but probably also in the hotel. Travis has realized his son is crazy, and Chris has found a group that is almost as cold and narcissistic as himself.

For the record, this is the official episode plot:

Travis has a hard time connecting with Chris while looking for shelter; Alicia meets a woman with a bloody past.

We’ll be back next time with a recap for episode 11. Watch the promo for the episode right here:

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