Bad Gun Handling – Bad Choices

Trigger DisciplineThere are just a lot of bad decisions going on in this picture. First, the lesser of the sins – that haircut.

Then there is the real issue with this picture, which is this gentleman’s lack of trigger discipline. Bad enough you are fondling your AK in the house, at least keep your finger off its trigger while you are doing it…
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Fear the Walking Dead (Season 2, Episode 9)

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2

Episode 9, Los Muertos

Summary:

Los Muertos  sticks with Nick’s storyline, opening to him waking up in what seems like an almost deserted town. He walks until he finds a young girl crying. He follows her gaze out to a field below them where a young man is taking some strange journey. The townspeople watch as he enters a bus which they use as a “gatehouse” to separate the safe area from the undead. He goes out with just a pen knife and is quickly brought down while the townspeople are chanting something about death.2016_FTWD_S2_E9_Eaten

When we come back from commercial we get a brief glimpse of the rest of the team as they decide to go back to the Abigail – they can’t keep searching for Nick, Travis and Chris. The truck is almost out of fuel. They return to the beach only to find someone has taken the Abigail, which leads them to seek shelter in a local resort. They aren’t exactly flush with options.

Back in town Nick bounces around until Luciana tells him they have work to do. She takes him to the bus and takes down one of the undead and use its blood to camouflage themselves- it is time to go back out into the undead world.2016_FTWD_S2_E9_Cammo

As Nick and his new friend walk he asks her why they sent the young man out with just a pen knife this morning. Luciana explains that the man was sick and he used the last of his strength to fight the undead before joining them. Nick & his friend walk into a town owned by ex drug dealers.2016_FTWD_S2_E9_NickBadTown

Luciana brought some weapons and meds in exchange for a shopping cart which the drug dealers let her fill. Whatever fits they get to take with them. There are tents set up inside the warehouse and one of the guys seems to recognize Nick as they fill up their cart – and he doesn’t look friendly. On the way out of the market they grab Nick and bring him to the ground because he stole some candy and stuck it down his pants. He noticed inside that the leaders sister is a drug addict and uses that to his advantage – somehow bargaining for another cart of water in exchange for oxy. They get their carts out of town before Luciana turns and calls him out for almost getting them both killed – and for making the bad guys interested in their little town.

Nick and Luciana make it back to town and Nick gives the candy he stole to the little girl from the beginning of the episode. Luciana sees it and realizes that maybe Nick is an okay guy? Or maybe it was amazement that Nick put them both in danger for a bit of candy for a little girl. Luciana grabs Nick and brings him to the doctor who drops a little of his own truth on Nick – which is that he’ll feed Nick to the undead if he ever puts his town in danger again.

At the resort Team Madison finds the front doors barricaded off. Maybe a hopeful sign that the place isn’t full of the undead? Things seem quiet inside. They find a wedding banquet – but I’m not sure if everyone missed the bloody decorations hanging in the background? Team Madison found the kitchen but it was already emptied. Alicia & Ophelia go to search rooms while Madison & Victor stay in the bar. 2016_FTWD_S2_E9_AliciaSearchHe makes her a martini before they begin to argue about how to bartend.

Upstairs Alicia & Ophelia are going to go room to room. They find a cleaning cart with a key but each of the first two rooms react violently when they knock on the doors. They find a few supplies before finding a completely empty room – which of course has running hot water. Queue vulnerable shower scene maybe?

Downstairs in the bar Madison and Victor have a heart to heart. Victor is trying to help her as she fights her demons, her guilt and fear that she can’t protect her kids. Drunk Madison starts throwing glasses at the wall while Victor plays the Piano. This drives the horde across the street into a frenzy until they break free and head for the bar.2016_FTWD_S2_E9_BarBreakIn

Alicia comes out of the shower and finds Ophelia gone, but sees a body go flying past the balcony. She goes out and realizes that the undead in the rooms are being drown over their railings by the sound of Victor’s piano and Madison’s glass throwing. Alicia goes running to the stairwell only to find it already crammed with the undead.

In the bar it is too late to escape by the time that Victor & Madison realize the biters are coming for them. They fight until they are backed up behind the bar, surrounded. 2016_FTWD_S2_E9_BarSurrounded

While Madison & Victor fight for their lives the doctor/priest is preaching to his townspeople. He believes they are the chosen to survive the ZA because he was bit and survived.

Things I loved about this episode…

  • Nick’s badass girlfriend.
  • The zombie in the shower and the way that Alicia changes the door hanger to “Do Not Disturb” when they leave.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

  • Madison letting Alicia out of her sight.
  • Ophelia finds the hot water still works at the hotel? Really? The hot water is still working?
  • Getting drunk (Madison) seems very ill advised during the ZA – especially if you don’t have water to drink, or at least not a lot of it.
  • Really? Who gets drunk and makes a ton of noise during the apocalypse?

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.
  • Strand – The Instigator who Nick met in the detention center in S1, Episode 5.
  • Thomas – Strand’s significant other.
  • Celia – Thomas & Louis’s mother.
  • Jack the Radio Dude – Alicia’s radio boyfriend.
  • Connor – Jack’s boss and the leader of the boat pirates.
  • Louis – Strand’s friend. The one who was going to get Strand into Mexico.
  • Alex – Female from flight 462 plane shorts.
  • Luciana – Female who ends up helping Nick in S2, Episode 8.




Fear the Walking Dead (Season 2, Episode 8)

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2

Episode 8, Grotesque

Summary:

The mid season finale is finally over with Grotesque picking up with Nick waking up next to a few corpses? He is with a young mother and her son as they are about to head out – trying to find the boys father.

Nick wants to go north, but the woman says it’s too dangerous for her to go with him. She heads off with her son while Nick begins to trek across rocky, open ground. He’s got a jug of water and a pack, but not much else. As he walks he passes a sign that says Tijuana 100 miles.2016_FTWD_S2_E8_Highway

When we come back from break we see a flashback to when Nick was in rehab and and old girlfriend is trying to coach him about how to deal with the family court judge. Nick continues to walk until he finds a little house, makes a fire, and relaxes for the night. At least until a woman and a little girl wake him up. The woman doesn’t appear to speak english and proceeds to swing her bat until Nick runs for it.

Come morning Nick is thirsty and there is very little water to be had. He risks getting bit for a sip left in a water bottle and a radio that still has some working batteries in it.2016_FTWD_S2_E8_WaterBottle

As he’s tuning the radio a group of men pull up in a Jeep and kill a walker before finding a survivor – an old man in a car. The leader of the three men spikes the old man just as the radio turns on, giving away Nick’s position.

The men open fire as Nick runs but he makes it into some tall brush and escapes only to find himself hot, thirsty, and lost in a desert of scrub brush.2016_FTWD_S2_E8_NickRunning

He keeps walking until he gets desperate enough to go after some prickly cactus for some liquid. It doesn’t work out quite like Nick hoped and he ends up having to drink his own pee. It is enough to keep him going until night falls. As he’s sleeping we see another flashback to his rehab and his mother telling him his father isn’t coming, he was in an accident – which was fatal. Nick is upset – which is when he wakes up to a dog munching on his leg.2016_FTWD_S2_E8_PreDogBite

Nick scrambles onto the top of an old vehicle and watches as the dogs are eaten by a horde. For a moment we think he’s going to be stuck on the roof of the vehicle after the horde eats the dogs but he uses his gore trick to join the horde and shamble along with them.

Things get super bad when the three men in the Jeep show up and start shooting into the horde. Nick continues to walk with the horde as it is getting blown away – and gets super lucky that the horde reaches two of the gunmen before they shoot everyone. Shortly after surviving the shootout Nick passes out on the road until it starts raining, waking him up.

Come morning he stumbles into town and is found by a small group of survivors. The female leader, Luciana decides to take Nick to see their doctor who treats the dog bite on his leg.

When the doctor lets Nick up they are in the middle of a bustling town. There are people everywhere and it looks like the town is surrounded by a wall – at least on one edge.

 

Things I loved about this episode…

  • Nick eating cactus in his desperation for fluid before going full Baer Grills and drinking his own pee.
  • Nick being forced to eat left over dog. It was a great way to show just how desperate he was.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

  • Dried blood makes clothing very stiff – and Nick put blood & guts all over himself to mask himself from the undead – but the woman her son don’t seem to care about the smell.
  • Isn’t Mexico on the metric system? Wouldn’t that sign have said kilometers not miles?
  • Nick starts a fire and just falls asleep on the ground? Really, at least sleep on the roof.
  • Come on Nick, your leaning against a car instead of sleeping on top of it. Remember? Its the ZA stupid.

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.
  • Strand – The Instigator who Nick met in the detention center in S1, Episode 5.
  • Thomas – Strand’s significant other.
  • Celia – Thomas & Louis’s mother.
  • Jack the Radio Dude – Alicia’s radio boyfriend.
  • Connor – Jack’s boss and the leader of the boat pirates.
  • Louis – Strand’s friend. The one who was going to get Strand into Mexico.
  • Alex – Female from flight 462 plane shorts.
  • Luciana – Female who ends up helping Nick in S2, Episode 8.