Fear the Walking Dead (Season 1, Episode 2)

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1

Episode 2, So Close, Yet So Far

Summary:

So Close, Yet So Far starts with Alicia walking to school. She stops by her boyfriends house only to find someone moaning on the floor and the house vandalized.

Back in the car with With Nick, his mom Madison, and his stepfather Travis (or at least the guy boning his mom).2015_FTWD_Season1_E2_CarRide

Team Nick shows up at Matt’s house only to find Matt soaked with sweat. The kid doesn’t look good, and when Travis pulls Matt’s shirt over he can see that Matt has been bitten. Matt wakes up enough to tell Alicia she needs to go – his parents will be home soon.

Team Nick goes home. The house across the street is prepping for a party with a bouncy house while the guy down the street is packing up to flee (but he already has a cough).

Travis calls his ex-wife as he’s trying to rush to get his biologic child only to be shut down by traffic and his ex wife. When we cut to his biologic kid he’s on the street, and people have been bit nearby. The mob is complaining that the cops shot someone and Travis’s son is in the middle of it with a video recorder. Meanwhile Travis has made it to his ex wife’s house and she’s not happy to see him on his “off” weekend. Chris tells his father that he has to stay, to be part of the protest. Travis and his ex-wife make it to the protest just in time for another walker to stumble out and get shot by the police which kicks off a mini riot.

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Travis talks a shop owner into letting them in as things go crazy on the street. They hide inside as the city goes crazy outside. Travis’s ex knows he’s seen something. He tells her the people who die come back.

Back at home Nick is starting to go through withdrawal. Madison tries to call her doctor for some meds but no one is picking up the phone. With no other options she goes on a narcotics mission. Because the high-school is where you go to find the good stuff. I don’t recall my school nurse having narcotics in the medicine cabinet. She meets Tobias, the boy with the knife and he explains a bit about what he believes is happening while they are raiding the school pantry for food. Tobias tells Madison that everything is going to fail and fast – whatever is happening is burning through the people too fast. They hear one of the walkers on the intercom and make a run for it before seeing a walker for the first time.2015_FTWD_Season1_E2_HallywayRun

When they see it they discover the principle has turned and they only stop Tobias from being infected after several well aimed blows with a fire extinguisher from Madison. Madison drops Tobias off at his place and tries to tell him to come with them but he doesn’t want to go with her. He seems to be the only character who understands what is happening. When Madison makes it home again its dark an Travis is still in the city. Madison did bring home the drugs though and gives Nick some oxy to help him deal with withdrawal.

Travis calls Madison on his cell and tells her to go to the desert – to not wait for him. He tells her to leave while she can just before they lose cell reception.

Back at the house Alicia and Madison witness one of their neighbors getting attacked. Alicia wants to help but Madison stops her. Alicia doesn’t quite know what is happening yet.

The episode closes with a candle being blown out.

My final thought is that you don’t want to be dating Alicia or Nick. Their SO’s have a 100% mortality rate so far.

Things I loved about this episode…

  • Matt taking one for the team and telling Alicia she needs to go.
  • The subtle news casts and other precursors to the end of the world.
  • They are explaining how some people got sick via some other vector besides a bite – which explains how it fell apart so quickly.
  • Travis goes to save his kid. No matter what happens you safe your kids.
  • The infection masks on the little kids in the car as they drive by Madison.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

  • Madison going off on her own. I get that she wants to help Nick through withdrawal, but you never go anywhere by yourself during the end of the world.
  • Narcotics in the school medicine cabinet? Really?
  • Alicia leaving Nick to go check on Matt.
  • When Madison drops Tobias off at his place he takes his pack but didn’t seem to have all the canned goods he took from the school?




Bad Gun Handling – Slam Fire

First of all, what did this guy do? He did something called “Slam Fire” where he had the trigger depressed with his right hand when he pulled the slide back, which immediately discharges the weapon. In the real world it allows you to fire as fast as you can pull the slide – but of course you aim is likely to suck.

What did this guy do wrong?

  1. He failed to unload his weapon and confirm there wasn’t a round in the magazine tube.
  2. He failed to maintain proper trigger discipline. If he’d kept his finger off the trigger he likely would have seen the shell pop into the chamber.
  3. He failed to treat every weapon like its loaded. What if his little sister was sitting on the floor above him watching TV?

Guns aren’t toys. Don’t play with them. Treat them like what they are. Dangerous tools. I wouldn’t let an untrained person use my table saw, they could lose a finger, a hand, and possibly their life. I also wouldn’t let someone without training use a firearm.