Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1, Episode 1
Summary:
The pilot opens up with a young man waking up in a church which appears to be used by junkies now. He hears a distant scream as he calls for Gloria. The lights are flickering – he peaks around the corner to see a man with his throat torn out.
The young man finds Gloria, she’s got a piece of rebar through her and was chowing down on one of their other friends.
The young man starts to run, slipping out of the church and onto the street. (He does scared running very well.)
He then gets hit by a car and gets knocked out.
When we come back from commercial Nick’s family comes to the hospital. The police are there, Nick has drugs in his system and appears to be a known quantity to the cops.
The infection is starting. Nick’s mom goes to her job at the school – lots of other teachers have called out sick. Madison (Nick’s mom) catches a kid coming in with a pocket knife. The kids seems to know something is going down. The kid knows that something is spreading and that people are being killed. Madison is blind to the truth.
Back in the hospital Nick is having a nightmare. He remembers what he saw and doesn’t believe it was a drug induced memory. He tells his step father he doesn’t need to be restrained, he was running from something, not into traffic. (I guess they think he tried to hurt himself.) As he’s talking he begins to remember what happened. And in the process he tells his stepfather about the church – and his zombie girlfriend who was eating another dude.
Of course the stepfather being the good guy that he is decides to go check out the church. Creepy flashlight search slowly happens. The tension builds until the step father finds a junky hiding in a closet and sees blood on the walls as he goes deeper into the church. He then yells and starts searching. Because that is absolutely logical. He then slips and falls into a blood puddle – and likely just got infected.
When everyone wakes up it is time to go to work. Apparently Nick’s mom and stepfather both work at the same school. They go to work, leaving Nick strapped to his bed in the hospital while the old dude behind the curtain is making weird noises. Nick tricks his nurse into letting one of his arms out his restraints, which I thought was going to save his life – but then the old man next door codes and is taken out of the room.
Of course now Nick has both his hands free and as fast as he can get out of bed – he gets dressed and makes a run for it. When Nick’s parents come back they are pissed, but the hospital staff can’t do anything. Nick’s mom looks at stepdad and tell him to take her to “where it started”.
And off we go to the church using what I can only describe as “Carl Logic”. They pull up outside the creepy as church and go back in. There are no bodies – “They couldn’t just get up and walk away.” – but there is a lot of blood.
They go upstairs and find Nick’s crash pad – and one of his syringes. Mom is obviously upset. On the way out we hear sirens and dogs. I think the world is starting to crash.
After leaving the church they go to one of Nick’s friends places. Calvin offers to make some calls for them, to try and find Nick.
Nick apparently had enough money to buy a burner. He calls someone then finds an underpass to crash under.
The episode ends with Alicia (Nick’s sister) waiting at Venice Beach for her boyfriend – looking around as if she knows something is wrong.
As stepfather and Nick’s mom are driving the highway comes to a dead stop and we hear lots of cops and helicopters. The helicopter is telling people to stay in their vehicles – and then we hear lots of gunshots. Stepdad then pulls away, taking a ramp that no one else could apparently see.
The next day inside the teacher’s lounge the teachers and the principal are watching video from the night before on the highway. Medics are working on some dude, then he grabs the EMS worker and starts to attack him. The cops eventually unload on him but the guy keeps coming.
In class, Alicia is watching the same video. The zombie doesn’t stop coming for the cops until he gets hit in the had. “The kill shot.”
The last scene is of Nick – wobbly and apparently high – wondering into a diner to apologize to Calvin, the same dude Nick’s parents when to talk to. Apparently Calvin is Nick’s dealer. Nick is convinced that Calvin gave him contaminated drugs. Calvin thinks that Nick is going to out him as a dealer and takes him for a little drive. Calvin tries to get Nick out of the car with a gun at his side, but Nick sees it and they wrestle. Calvin gets a round in the stomach and Nick freaks out.
At least he calls his parents – or at least his stepfather. He didn’t want his mom there. Nick then rambles, telling his parents that he shot Calvin. Mom, stepdad, and Nick go down to the runoff drain to look for Calvin – but his body is gone. Almost like he got up and walked away.
As the family is backing up, trying to get out of the rain tunnel they see Calvin. He almost bites Nick’s mom before Nick uses his stepfathers truck to punt Calvin back down into the main runoff path. They think Calvin is dead until he start to move. They need to crush his skull!
I have to say I really liked the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead
Things I loved about this episode…
- Gloria’s Zombie butt. (Sorry, it was nice.)
- Nick does the junky very well.
- Stepfather – “There are no bodies. They couldn’t just get up and walk away.”
- Nick’s freak out when Calvin’s body is gone.
- The sense of the slowly building disaster. I can’t wait for the reality of it to break.
Things that I didn’t like about this episode…
- Travis only brings a knife to school? How about a bat or a gun? Come on, it’s California.
- Really step father dude? You go to check out the church your stepson said had dead people in it and a girl who was eating some dude? In the dark? By yourself?
- Stepdad finds a puddle of blood in the church where his son says a girl was eating a dude and he doesn’t call the police?
- At first I thought Nick made an awesome Junky, but then I thought he looks too clean – to put together. Most junkies I see have sores on their faces and look like crap. (Philadelphia yo!)
- Update – later on he does look like a junky and he has sores. Yay?
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