Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1
Summary:
Not Fade Away
The survivors think they are safe behind their fence with the national guard protecting them as the world on the other side burns. Chris is filming from a rooftop, watching the boy sin green when he sees someone flashing a signal mirror on a distant hill, outside the fence. He gets a mirror and tries to signal back – and they do. Which doesn’t make sense because the national guard told them there was nothing alive out there.
Inside the house the electric is being metered and the adults are starting to fight. Madison is feeling the stress of having a lot of strangers in her house, while at the same time trying to take care of Nick and his addiction.
After Nick refuses to take a pill (not sure if he has another source or is really trying to get clean – and we find out shortly he’s not) a national guard commander tells the civilians there are in one of twelve safe zones south of the San Gabriel. He then tells the crowd to be nice so he doesn’t have to shoot them – and he has a creepy smile on his face when he says it.
Travis is then called over by the commander, who wants him to get his neighbor to submit to the screening. The commander basically tells Travis he can help them get the guy to do the screening or the soldiers are going to take him down. Travis talks him down. The dude was just having a bit of a break down, struggling with what to tell his kids.
There are sick people in town. No one realizes what happens when they turn yet. They’ve cleared a safe zone – or at least think they have – but they don’t realize there are little time bombs everywhere, waiting to go off.
Chris is caught up on the flashing in the distance. His dad wouldn’t listen so he tries to tell Madison, but she just tell him that if someone were in trouble they would go to the soldiers.
When we come back from commercial Ofelia is making out with a soldier who is trying to get into her pants. He is being aggressive and she wants meds for her mom. So i guess they are both using each other.
It cuts to nightfall. Madison & Travis just had “make-up” sex because their house is full of people. Travis is worried about Madison which kicks of a discussion about parenting that eventually leads to Madison telling Travis she saw the reflected signal on the video too. She is also frustrated that the soldiers haven’t gotten the phones or other communications networks up. As they are talking the wife of the neighbor Travis talked into getting tested earlier comes over, very upset. Her husband Doug took his car and is missing. Travis goes to find him while Madison goes back to the roof with a flashlight to see if she can see the flashing in the distance.
Just as Travis finds his neighbors car against the outer fence Madison is flashing a signal which gets returned.
The next morning Travis is asking the commander to send out a patrol, but the commander tells him he doesn’t have to. They found the neighbor and “he’s getting the help he needs” at command. Which I am pretty sure means a bullet in the head. The next scene is of a government doctor telling one of the sick peoples wives (and Travis’s wife) that they took Hector to command.
As the seeds of badness are planted inside the camp Madison is sneaking out. She wants to know what is happening outside the fence. She slips out and finds herself in a dead neighborhood filled with the smell of rotting flesh. Some of people look like they were gunned down before they were walkers. Just as she is looking over a body lying next to a gun she hears a patrol coming. She hides under a car as the soldiers march by.
It looks like the soldiers are doing more than just killing the undead.
The same doctor who took Hector wants to take the Barber’s wife to the command center. I think she knows something is wrong. The doctor then finds Nick sitting on a bench and she asks him if he needs methadone. Nick tells he doesn’t need it – he’s already kicked his habit. As they are talking Travis walks up and the doctor mentions the patient whom Nick was stealing morphine from. He knows the doctor is lying about something.
Just before Madison comes back there is a brief scene where we see Alicia in the neighbors house, sticking a needle in her arm. I’m not sure if she is trying to tattoo herself or deal with stress via self harm.
The Barber is in the house when Madison comes back. He tells her a story about when he was young and the soldiers took people away from his village. The soldiers promised the people would come back – and they did. The Barber found all their bodies in the river a few days later. He warns her if “it happens” it will happen quickly. He is going to go with his wife, and he realizes he may not come back. He makes Madison promise to look after Ofelia and tells Madison to keep Nick close. He knows the soldiers aren’t totally on the up and up.
Which leads to Madison finding Nick scavenging through houses for drugs. She’s pissed. She knows he’s putting himself in danger in multiple different ways.
When we come back to commercial Alicia is trying to get Nick to tell her why his face is bruised. She wants to know who hit him. She gives him a big hug. He doesn’t tell her it was Madison. She is in the garage drinking when the soldiers come to get the Barber and his wife – only the soldiers are there for Nick and the wife, not the Barber. Nick tries to run but the soldiers nail him.
The soldiers zip tie Nick’s hands and load him into the truck. The doctor convinces Travis’s ex-wife to go with them. She tells Chris she loves him as he watches her climb into the truck from the window.
Madison storms back inside and tells Travis its his ex-wives fault Nick was taken before storming off. Travis goes up onto the roof to think and he sees gunfire flashing in the distance. The soldiers went to investigate the signals after all.
Things I loved about this episode…
- The way the survivors are trying to pretend everything is normal.
- Nick’s addictive behavior. They say one thing and do another. If you’ve ever had to deal with an addict his behavior rings very true.
- I feel like there is a secret building. Is the military gunning people down outside the fence?
- The way the soldiers are “taking people to command” who are sick or causing trouble.
Things that I didn’t like about this episode…
- The survivors look to clean. I know they have electric for part of the day and likely water – but everyone still looks too clean. Did they really have 9 days of TP on hand? How are they wiping their butts?
- How did the overweight neighbor Doug make it over the fence? (Never mind – he didn’t.)
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Main Characters:
- Nick Clark – Starts the season off by finding his girlfriend turned into a walker in a church. Has a addition problem.
- Alicia Clark – Nick’s sister. Has already lost her boyfriend to the virus.
- Madison Clark – Mother to Nick and Alicia. She worked at the high school where she met Travis Manawa, her boyfriend.
- Travis Manawa – School teacher and Madison’s love interest.
- Chris Manawa – Travis’s son.
- Daniel Salazar – The Barber who shelters Team Travis in Episode 2.
- Ofelia Salazar – The Barber’s cute daughter.
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