Fear the Walking Dead: Walker Housekeeping

First Aired September 11th, 2016.

Walkers begin crawling over the bar where Madison (played by Kim Dickens) and Strand (played by Colman Domingo) are trapped. Hearing Alicia’s (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) screams, they cover themselves in walker blood and escape. While recuperating, Madison and Strand find and rescue Alicia from the events of the last episode.

Madison wants to find Ofelia (played by Mercedes Mason) but Alicia thinks she ran off to die due to her depression. When Elena (played by Karen Bethsabe) tells them there are months of supplies in the hotel, Madison and Strand go to talk with the remaining guests to negotiate peace so they can stay. They come up with a plan to fortify the hotel with Oscar (played by Andres Londono) and Ilene (played by Brenda Strong) but are reluctant to let Elena stay because she killed their families in the wedding reception. Nick (played by Frank Dillane) uses his expertise from his junkie days to earn his place: diluting the supply of OxyContin for the warehouse gang to make it last longer. Alejandro (played by Paul Calderon) helps and Nick expresses his doubt that Alejandro survived being bitten. While Nick bonds with the local children playing soccer, a bloodied man appears and Luciana (played by Danay Garcia) learns that her brother was killed.

Almost seemed too easy how Madison and Strand escaped, but it was a great opening scene. It’s clear that Ofelia must have left the hotel, because to stretch her absence this long only to find her in an empty hotel room would be anticlimactic. But since she was such an unimportant character in most episodes, her absence really doesn’t affect the story. What Elena did to these people was unforgivable. While they need each other now, sooner or later that tension will boil over. Who would have thought Nick could use his junkie expertise as a valuable skill during the apocalypse? Alejandro continues to get shadier as the season progresses, and if you notice: he didn’t offer to show Nick the walker bite he supposedly survived. Paranoia and fear tend to make people irrational, but apparently stupidity is also a side effect.

While clearing the hotel of walkers, Alicia notes that it would take weeks to deal with all of them, and comes up with a plan to use the riptide by the sea. Madison, Alicia, Strand, Hector (played by Ramses Jimenez), and Elena lure the remaining walkers in the hotel to the pier. Madison then uses herself as bait to draw them even further out. Madison jumps into the water and the walkers follow while Alicia and Hector bring her to shore using a boat. Nick and Luciana deliver the diluted pills to the gang who don’t suspect anything, and he comforts Luciana as she grieves for her brother. For his contributions, Nick is given a nice room and begins learning Spanish to better communicate with the others. Everyone sits to enjoy a lavish meal in celebration except Oscar. Strand finds Oscar near the honeymoon suite where his bride is trapped inside as a walker. He’s unable to kill her, but Strand convinces him that she’s gone and the walker isn’t her.

Nick is moving on up in his community, everyone seems to love him and now he has a fancy new place to stay. And if/when he steps back from the drug game, he already lives in the perfect place for retirement. Whenever there’s a plan that involves moving large groups of walkers, you wait for the moment where something goes wrong. It’s what drives the scene. Here, the real danger appeared to be Oscar and the others locking them outside with the horde. Madison’s group were the only ones luring them and the shots of everyone else watching gave the feeling they were facing a double-cross. Though it didn’t happen, it was clear in that dinner scene there is still a lot of tension between the two groups. It’s like two rival gangs decided to call a truce, but everyone’s ready to strike at any moment.

Luciana visits Nick in his room and they start to bond as she helps him with his Spanish. Eventually things turn heated and they spend the night together. After some convincing, Strand is able to get Oscar to let him put down his bride. Nick is a lucky man, he managed to get a Spanish tutor and a new girlfriend at the same time. I think having his wife “killed” again may be the catalyst that sets Oscar and the other guests against Elena and everyone else.

Quotes/Thoughts

“While I was beaten by the living, I was bitten by the dead.”

Would anyone care if we just never heard from Ofelia again and her character was a victim of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome?

“You’re not losing me and I’m not losing you, not ever.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if Alejandro also claims to be some kind of “healer” in the next episode.

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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