Fear the Walking Dead: Caught in a Bad Bromance

First Aired September 4th, 2016.

The episode opens with a wedding reception in a hotel, during which the bride’s parents prepare to evacuate the guests because the outbreak is spreading. The bride’s father dies from a stroke and then bites his daughter, while the hotel manager Elena (played by Karen Bethzabe) locks the remaining guests in the ballroom.

Travis (played by Cliff Curtis) and Chris (played by Lorenzo James-Henrie) wander down a dirt road searching for shelter. Chris finds supplies in a nearby store, but runs into both walkers and the people hiding there, and he and Travis take off in a car. An injured Travis lets Chris practice his driving and expresses his belief that the world will recover from the outbreak. The car runs out of gas and they camp for the night and are discussing where to go next when the men from the store drive up. However, they don’t attack because Chris saved the leader Brandon (played by Kelly Blatz) from a walker. Back at the hotel, Alicia (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) is trapped in a room because the hall is full of walkers. When she gets a chance, she makes a run for it but is forced into the elevator shaft. She climbs up the rope to the next floor and is rescued by the manager Elena, who then demands Alicia tell her where her nephew Hector is. Hector was kidnapped by the remaining wedding guests in the hotel who want Elena’s master key, and so Alicia offers to help save Elena’s nephew if she helps save Madison (played by Kim Dickens) and Strand (played by Colman Domingo).

Drunk wedding guests, a bad DJ, and walkers: all the things that can ruin someone’s wedding reception. Travis deciding to find permanent shelter means he either realizes Chris is too unstable to be around the others, or that finding them now would be next to impossible. I think Brandon and the others spared Chris and Travis not out of gratitude, but because they see that Chris enjoyed killing the walkers and is a lot like them. Chris was already an unlikeable character, and he continues to become more antagonistic. At this point, aren’t we just waiting for him to be killed off? The action at the hotel really drove the episode and the cold open was a good introduction for new character Elena. Characters inevitably have to die in this kind of series and the best way to keep the plot fresh and moving forward is adding new characters and conflicts. Ofelia’s (played by Mercedes Mason) absence is meant to suggest something happened to her, but this is a constantly used red herring. Better to focus on the more engaging characters.

Brandon and his friends, impressed by Chris’s skills killing walkers, offer to let Travis and Chris join their group. Travis is wary of the group but Chris is more willing to stay with them and believes trying to find Madison and the others isn’t an option like his father thinks. Elena and Alicia lure walkers out of a stairway into a room, Alicia nearly falls while scaling the balconies to escape but they’re successful and move to rescue Madison and Strand. While moving through the reception hall, Elena becomes overcome with guilt for her actions and Alicia promises to protect her from the remaining guests. They find the walkers surrounding the bar when the other guests—including the mother of the bride—arrive with Hector (played by Ramses Jimenez). Elena hands over the keys and Alicia opens the doors to set the walkers loose on the guests. Elena and Alicia search for Madison and Strand at the bar, but don’t find them. They make a run for it down a tunnel with Hector, but get trapped by a locked door. As walkers close in, Madison and Strand open it from the other side and rescue them.

Chris (or to use his new nickname: “Killer Chris”) and these guys have all bonded together so fast you’d think they were fraternity brothers or something. Of course, Chris would prefer their company to Madison and the others—especially since they’re still upset he tried to kill them. The fact that they obviously murdered the owners of that store should have been a red flag, but Chris probably found that cool. You’d think there was an easier way of trapping walkers that didn’t involve scaling a building like Spiderman, but visually that was a great scene. Elena tried to justify quarantining the wedding party as concern for other guests, but that was mostly self-preservation. But either way, she made the right decision: sometimes you have to sacrifice a few to save the lives of many. There’s no way that Madison and Strand escaped that bar easily, and from the look of her Madison is hurt badly. The previews for the next episode tease their escape and I can’t wait to see that.

While driving, Chris spots a farm, and as the others search for food Travis suggests staying but Chris is adamant they need a group for survival. Travis worries that someone is still alive on the farm, and the owner shows up brandishing a shotgun and demands they leave. Brandon refuses, but before he can do anything, Chris steps in and shoots the farmer dead. Leaving Travis in stunned disbelief. Chris has a point that he and Travis need people to survive, however he just has a bad judge of character. Now that Chris has killed someone in cold blood, Travis seems to realize how lost his son really is. Travis can continue trying to reach Chris, but may have to make the painful choice of letting him go if he is too far gone.

Quotes/Thoughts

“I can protect myself, you know that. I’m good at this.” “That’s what worries me.”

You would have thought those people would have postponed the wedding knowing a deadly pandemic was spreading everywhere.

“We’ll come back, we always do.”

Way too much use of the word “bro”. It was like Chris was pledging a fraternity.

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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