Fear the Walking Dead: Fists of Fury

First Aired October 2nd, 2016.

Nick (played by Frank Dillane) breaks into the pharmacy late at night to steal OxyContin and sneaks out of the community. At the hotel, Travis (played by Cliff Curtis) continues to feel guilty about what happened with Chris (played by Lorenzo James Henrie).

Nick takes the pills to Marco (played by Alejandro Edda) and his gang in hopes of protecting the community from them. However, now that Marco knows where the community is he plans to take it by force. Marco tells him that unless everyone there leaves he will kill them to take it. Travis apologizes to Alicia (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) for not believing her about Chris being violent. Madison (played by Kim Dickens) tends to Brandon (played by Kelly Blatz)—who has a dislocated shoulder—and his friend Derek (played by Kenny Wormald) who are both being belligerent. She realizes they are the people Chris left to be with, and is distraught when they say Chris died in the car accident that injured them. Madison worries about what to tell Travis, but Strand (played by Colman Domingo) thinks she shouldn’t say anything. Nick and Luciana (played by Danay Garcia) tell Alejandro (played by Paul Calderon) about the impending attack. A man who died in the infirmary reanimates and bites Alejandro and several others before Nick kills it with his bare hands.

Chris was an insufferable character for a long time on the show and his death is something fans will likely celebrate. But learning about his death from a secondary character, rather than actually seeing it, diminished the impact. We have to see when a character dies, because we become so invested in our love/hatred of them that it is a form of closure. In general, when you don’t see the death there is always the chance they can turn up alive, but, in this case, it makes no sense why Brandon and Derek would lie. Chris was a budding sociopath who made horrible choices and his death was deserved—but he also deserved a better ending. Talk about a hands-on way of killing a walker; that was as gross as it was cool. Speaking of people getting what they deserve, being bitten was the best way for Alejandro to die. Running is the practical option for the people in the community, but a battle between them and Marco would be more entertaining.

Alejandro sends those who were bitten to be eaten by the walkers outside the fence, but he remains behind. Nick decides to leave because he thinks the community is no longer safe and calls out Alejandro for lying about surviving a bite. He confesses to Luciana that he lied and is infected and she’s hurt and furious that she’s been following a fraud, but refuses to abandon the community. Madison attempts to kick Brandon and Derek out of the hotel when the other refugee’s riot against them, but Travis spots them before she can and demands to know where Chris is. Ofelia (played by Mercedes Mason) is forced to walk through desert roads after her car breaks down. She crosses the border into America, but shortly after is shot at and taken hostage by a man. After Brandon’s arm is fixed, Travis demands to know what happened to Chris, and Brandon agrees to tell him if they supply them with a car. What happened was Chris fell asleep at the wheel and died in the crash. And after hearing this, in a fit of rage, Travis attacks the people who told him when he believes they are lying. Brandon then reveals that Chris survived the crash, but was injured and they shot him believing he was a liability.

Alejandro was probably hoping against hope he might have actually been immune. But tough luck. Luciana is brave, but considering about half the community is older people and children, staying to fight isn’t the best plan. Ofelia’s scene was pointless and just an excuse to include the character in some kind of story before the season closed. If she’s going to be sticking around for a while, the character needs to be reintegrated with the others because Ofelia’s solitary story is not interesting enough to hold up. The revelation that Chris was actually murdered was a nice twist that upped the emotional fallout of his death. Brandon and Derek already proved they could kill friends without hesitation, and Chris was warned he would end up the same way. But he couldn’t see past the freedom he got with his new bros and his mentality of how the world worked. Most importantly, we get to see a new side of Travis. The good-hearted guy who abhorred violence changed that tune quick when confronted with his son’s murderers.

The news that Brandon and Derek killed Chris is too much, and Travis continues to beat them. Oscar (played by Andres Londono) breaks in and tries to stop him but is knocked unconscious. Madison pleads with Travis to stop, but he beats Brandon and Derek to death while she watches through the door. That was an especially brutal beating, and, finally, the bros get what they deserved. Unfortunately, Travis let out some of that aggression on Oscar and that’s not going to play out too well with everyone in the hotel.

Quotes/Thoughts

“Can we kick them out? Seriously, they’re actually awful.”

Travis is the latest example that in a world where zombies eat the living everyone eventually loses the innocence they desperately try to cling to.

“She asked you to protect him. And in this world where the rules are always changing that’s exactly what you did. He’s safer with people who understand him.”

It’s a sad day for Travis, but a great day for everyone else. R.I.P Chris. You’ll be missed…by Travis.

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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