PREVIOUSLY ON: Fear the Walking Dead – Season Two, Episode Three (“The Dog”)

First Aired September 13th, 2015.

As the riot rages on Travis (played by Cliff Curtis), his family and the Salazars are forced to flee the barber shop when a fire breaks out next door. They run through a chaotic mix of violence and walker attacks but manage get clear of the store

While running through the streets, Griselda (played by Patricia Reyes Spindola) is injured by a falling scaffolding before the group escapes in Travis’s truck. They take her to the hospital but find it in a state of siege so they head to Travis and Madison’s (played by Kim Dickens) house. Madison passes the time playing Monopoly with Nick (played by Frank Dillane) and Alicia (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) and soon the power goes out all over the city. When Nick spots walkers approaching their house they run into a neighbor’s home to steal their shotgun. They see a walker inside the house attacking their dog and when Travis pulls up to the house they rush out to warn him. The power comes back on and Travis is attacked by the walker, one of their neighbors who Travis tries to reason with. Daniel (played by Rueben Blades) shoots half the walker’s face off before putting it down with a shot to the head. Alicia runs back to the neighbor’s house to get the rest of the shotgun shells, her newly turned neighbor attacks her and she barely escapes.

The riot scenes continued to provide thrilling visuals and showed the two major reasons society collapsed so fast: the combination of walker attacks and civil unrest. Although I thought the group left the barber shop too quickly because that could have provided a few scenes to give background on the Salazars. Personally, if the world was ending, I would pass the time playing Life to forget for a little while that real life was crashing down around me. Fear the Walking Dead has stepped up with the walkers and given people a reason to fear the dead. This was a significant episode because now the all the main characters have directly faced a walker. Travis is clearly the weakest link in the group. His attempts to talk to his neighbor while he tried to eat him were laughable (almost as stupid as Alicia running off into the dark alone). While not much is known about Daniel, he showed to be one of the strongest people in the group and provided the first of hopefully many gory zombie kills. It’s a shame the dog didn’t survive but the reality is having a pet in the zombie apocalypse is never a good idea.

Liza (played by Elizabeth Rodriguez) treats Griselda’s injured leg as best she can as the group settles in for the night. Madison and Alicia want to leave immediately but Travis and Liza think traveling at night is too dangerous. Griselda’s injuries are severe and without proper medical care Liza expects she will succumb to blood poisoning. Ofelia (played by Mercedes Mason) tries to persuade Daniel and Griselda to stay with Travis and his group but Daniel doesn’t fully trust them. Travis in turn believes their neighbor was just sick and that Daniel murdered him. While observing her friend and neighbor as a walker, Madison asks Liza to kill her if she ever becomes infected so Travis won’t have to. The next day, Daniel shows Chris (played by Lorenzo James Henrie) how to use a gun, which doesn’t go well with Travis who is against guns. Before the group leaves, Madison goes to the backyard to put down her neighbor but Travis convinces her that she’s still alive and just sick so they leave her. The Salazars remain at the house despite Ofelia’s objections while the others head out to the desert.

Daniel is clearly a stubborn man who is used to doing things himself. That attitude will get his family killed. Griselda is already slated to die soon with her injury and the fundamental rule is safety in numbers. Madison is being set up to be the Alpha Dog of the group who makes the calls and touch decisions. Throughout the episode she showed signs of becoming a leader. She knew enough that, dead or alive, the infected are too far gone and made sure someone would take care of her if she was bitten. Madison was even practical about why they should kill their infected neighbor but, sadly, allowed Travis to talk her out of it. Hopefully that won’t be a recurring theme, like when he chastised her for allowing his son to learn how to use a gun (Travis believes in talking to walkers apparently). All the walkers in this episode used to be people Travis and Madison knew which I think was deliberate to make the gravity of this new world sink in.

Madison notices her neighbor’s husband has returned home and she turns the car around in order to save him from his turned wife. He finds his wife before Madison can stop him and just before he is bitten soldiers arrive and put her down. The army begins to lock down the neighborhood the families find themselves unable to leave. Travis believes the army will help turn things around. If that wasn’t a lesson for these people about the dangers of not putting down walkers I don’t know what else would work. The army’s arrival means the action will be centered on the neighborhood for a while but hopefully not past the next episode. There should be at least one episode of the families traveling through a devastated LA and showcasing how fast the city has fallen. Keeping it in that one location would get boring fast.

Quotes & Thoughts

“You can’t fix everything Travis.” “I’m relieved. I thought it was going to be awkward having two wives in the house.”

Alicia fought off Chris when he attempted to save her from her infected neighbor. The family discord among these kids must run deep if she risked death to avoid touching him.

“Good people are the first ones to die.”

That’s actually not true. The stupid people tend to die long before the good ones.

If you enjoyed Manny’s infection, 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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