‘No one is going to miss you’
As the episode starts, Nick wakes up in the infirmary of the colony where he ended up last time. Wait, when did this turn into the Nick show? Is it going to be all Nick all the time? At least he finally found some clean clothes that fit him. What will it take for him to get a haircut?
After last week’s episode, in which Nick wandered around for days in the desert, looking for a way to survive, he is back to his old tricks, saving the day and proving that he’s “bulletproof”, as Strand described him. Turns out his junkie skills don’t help that much when he’s scrounging for water but are excellent for things like stealing candy from a grocery store, recognizing when someone is addicted to painkillers, knowing what people will do to get those painkillers, and escaping having his hands chopped off by an angry Mexican gangster.
When at the supermarket, Nick not only talks his way out of losing his paws but gets the colony another shopping cart full of water. I bet Nick read The Art of the Deal when locked away in rehab. Luci told Nick before they left that the reason she brought him was because no one would miss him, but he’s making himself integral to the operation. Luci is still not a fan, however. While she takes the extra water, she scolds Nick for his cavalier tactics, which she says put the whole group at risk by inciting the ire of the gangsters.
‘The service is subpar’
It’s not entirely true that no one will miss Nick, because Madison is still looking out for him. She, Alicia, Ofelia and Strand go back to where the Abigail was moored and find that the government has taken the ship. Thank God we never have to see that stupid boat ever again. I’m sure the cast is happy to never have to film scenes in a giant tank, too.
Looking for shelter, they come upon a hotel that doesn’t seem to have any zombies in it. Madison and Strand do the only thing that reasonable adults facing the end of the world would do: they get ripping drunk in the bar. Inhibitions lowered, they realize they have nothing left to live for. Strand was all about his partner, Thomas, and climbing up in the world. Now Thomas is dead and the world is a shambles. Madison was always protecting her family but now her husband is dead, Travis has taken off, Nick is missing and Alicia is upstairs taking a shower. She doesn’t know what to make of her new life either.
Strand tells her “the past will make you sick” – but they’re both still living there, trying to apply old values to their current situation. It’s time to find some new priorities – hopefully something other than throwing glasses at the wall or trying to play an out-of-tune piano.
‘You don’t get tired of surviving. You push on. You have to’
While the grownups are downstairs getting drunk, Alicia and Ofelia investigate the hotel. They discover that someone put the dead in the rooms and marked each of them so they would know where walkers were hiding. They eventually find the man who did it – he hanged himself in the shower and now his body is straining against the noose, a reanimated corpse trying to break free.
Alicia, whose father killed himself, is all about soldiering on. After losing her family, Ofelia isn’t so sure she wants to keep trucking. She’s convinced they won’t make it. With a sour attitude like that, she surely won’t be around long.
When Alicia goes to take a shower, Ofelia goes missing. Alicia sees a body falling past her balcony window, which is one of the creepiest things ever seen on this show. Even worse, she goes outside and sees that the noise being created by Madison and Strand in the bar is causing the dead to head toward it, throwing their bodies over the balcony. Man, is this crew in a pickle, especially now Madison and Strand must defend themselves against a herd of walkers after polishing off a bottle of tequila.
‘We have been chosen. We will outlast death’
The most interesting thing about Fear the Walking Dead as compared to its sister series is that it’s really interested in the spiritual differences: what is life like after the zombies take over? Nick, described by his mother as lost since the day he was born, is trying to make sense of what happened. At the hacienda, Celia thought the zombies were the dead reborn, that their shambling bodies should be saved and treated well.
A new cult, started by pharmacist Alejandro, is along those lines. According to Luci, its members believe Death has come to cleanse the Earth and that those who survive are chosen and immortal. She believes Alejandro because she saw him get bitten by a zombie and not turn into a walker. He offers such platitudes as “life is a sigh between two deaths”, but it doesn’t explain his philosophy. But given his devoted following and their propensity for chanting, it seems Nick has found himself right in the middle of a death cult.
