Month: September 2016

Fear the Walking Dead (Season 2, Episode 11)

TJ Provost Leave a comment

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2

Episode 11, Pablo & Jessica

Summary:

Pablo & Jessica kicks off just slightly behind where the last episode left off and tells us how Madison & Victor survived the bar full of the undead using Nick’s zombie gore trick. After reuniting with Alicia Madison wants to go find Ophelia (who apparently stole their truck) but instead she decides to try and make a truce with the guests who control the upper floors. She convinces the surviving guests that they can turn the hotel into a home – that they have it good. They have supplies and water – and if they start soon they can be ready if others try and come – who might not be quite as friendly. The “guests” leader agrees and gives Madison back the hotel keys.

This kicks off a purge of the hotel, or at least a floor. They clear one hallway and drag the bodies down to the beach to be burned. It seems like a good start but Madison isn’t happy. They have 16 more floors to go and there are 2 more hotel towers in the complex. While Alicia and Madison are coming to terms with their past and leveling out their relationship Alicia sees a sign warning that the beach has dangerous riptides. Team Madison doesn’t have to clear the hotel a room at a time – they just need to let the undead follow them down to the beach and let the ocean do their killing for them.

Team Madison has a plan. Everyone is working together and it is time to try and lure biters down to the beach in one big group. Alicia uses her phone to lure the walkers outside while Strand and Elena open hotel doors and prop them open. Everyone is heading for the central hall that leads out to the water.

Once the horde leaves the lobby one of the guests locks the doors while Alicia & the others get off the pier while locking Madison above with the horde. They run down and get on a zodiac while Madison draws the undead further down the pier.

When Madison gets to the end of the line she waits until the last second before diving in. She swims for the zodiac as the undead follow her over, falling into the water from above.

After the successful “mission” the new “Team Hotel” sits down for a group meal. There are a few members not there. The newlywed husband is waiting outside the door to where his wife is locked inside. Strand goes up to talk to him – to walk him through the pain of loss. Strand asks the newlywed husband to let him help him – to let him take care of his turned wife – Jessica. The last thing we see before the episode ends is Strand disappearing into the darkened honeymoon suite.

—Nick’s Story—

Back at the Colony Nick wants to make up for his sins by helping out with the Bandits by stretching out their narcotics by crushing up the pills they have left and cutting it with powdered milk and then reforming them into pills. 2016_ftwd_s2_e11_nick_lines

After Nick does the first tab he & Alejandro get busy converting what looks to be twenty or thirty bottles of oxy into two or three times that by cutting it with powdered milk. After the drugs are packed up Alejandro tells him how he was bit – and survived. As Nick is leaving town Luciana is playing soccer with some of the kids in town and he joins in – bonding with the kids and with Luciana, at least until one of the town’s scouts shows up. They found Luciana’s friend Pablo – and it sounds like he’s not in good shape, or even once piece.

Luciana ends up going with Nick. She tells him how Pablo (her brother) has helped her, which ends up in Nick pulling her in for an embrace.

We don’t get to see Nick make the trade. When we cut back to his story he is back in town already after having made a trade and Alejandro gives him a reward – his own living space.

Now that Nick isn’t living in the pharmacy Luciana decides it would be a good time to visit his new living space.2016_ftwd_s2_e11_nicksdoor

Nick laments not having taken Spanish. He’s been reading a dictionary to try and learn. They chat and relax until Luciana says she needs to leave. Before she can leave Nick confronts her – asking her if she’s testing him. She approaches him slowly which leads to them passionately kissing.

Things I loved about this episode…

  • Nick showing Alejandro how to cut their Oxy to get more trade from the banditos.
  • Nick: “Surviving feels like eating shit.” A reference to TWD?
  • Strand’s emotional speech as he offers to help the newlywed by taking care of his wife – Jessica.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

  • Alejandro is really going to let Nick, a self professed drug addict take their whole supply of oxy to trade with? (Oops – Luciana ends up going with him.)
  • Strand going into the room and being forced to wait until next week to find out what happens!!!

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.
  • Alejandro – the leader & Pharmacist who runs the colony.
  • Elena – manager at the Hotel who the other guests blame for locking them in.

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Fear the Walking Dead (Season 2, Episode 10)

TJ Provost Leave a comment

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2

Episode 10, Do Not Disturb

Summary:

We start Episode 10 with a flashback to the wedding in the banquet hall before the ZA started. As the newlyweds profess their love during their first dance the mother of the bride tells the lead hostess they will need to cut the wedding short – the “sickness” is spreading and their is talk of shutting the border. She wants to end the wedding and get her family home before the border is shut.

Just then double tragedy strikes. The father of the bride has a heart attack and goes down. His daughter tries to give him CPR only to end up being his first post mortem snack. Two of the hotel staff run out of the hall and appear to lock the door behind them. Thus starts Do Not Disturb.

—Team Travis’s Story—

When we come back from the first commercial we get to catch up with Travis & Chris. Travis has a hurt ankle but they rapidly find a car which he hot wires as Chris meets some new friends – or enemies? Chris doesn’t tell his dad that he ran into other survivors, he just tell his father they have to go. They drive into the night until Travis lets Chris have a turn and they bond a little until the car runs out of gas.

They build a little fire to stay warm as they talk about the possible futures. Travis is sure there will be a new world but Chris is less sure. They are chatting about the mountains when the guys Chris stole from show up and tell them to come out.2016_FTWD_S2_E10_NewGuys

The guy seems edgy – but doesn’t shoot them which might be a good sign. The two groups sit down and circle the fire while one of the others puts up cans and ropes. The other survivors are from San Diego but Travis doesn’t have any good news for them. The leader of the new group offers to give them a ride – and is being just a touch too friendly.

Of course Chris wants to go with the newcomers and doesn’t believe Travis that they are dangerous.

The next day they head out and find a farm – but the house has already been picked over. Travis thinks its a good spot – he wants to stay and let the others go. They have water and some crops – maybe a start to a new life?

Chris follows the new guys into the barn where they quickly start a game of “chase the chickens for protein” while Travis walks around outside – and finds multiple graves. Someone is still alive at the house.

Travis goes into the barn and tells them they need to leave just in time for the farmer to show up with a rifle. One of the new guys snaps a chicken’s neck which triggers the farmer to shoot – which then leads to Travis watching as the farmer is blown away in front of him.2016_FTWD_S2_E10_Travis_Shooting

When he looks up it is Chris who killed the farmer. Travis is devastated, you can tell he feels like he lost some battle for Chris’s soul?

—Alicia’s Story—

In the hotel we see Alicia counting the undead as they go by her peephole. She eventually decides it is quiet enough to try and find Ophelia. The emergency lights are on,2016_FTWD_S2_E10_Alicia_Hotel_EmergencyLights

and the hallways are full of the undead.2016_FTWD_S2_E10_Alicia_HallwayWithin twenty feet Alicia is running for her life. She makes it to an elevator and peels the doors open before making a leap to the cables. 2016_FTWD_S2_E10_Alicia_Elevator

The undead plummet down to land on top of the car before the hostess from the flashback during the beginning of the episode reaches out from above to help pull Alicia in. Alicia is safe – at least until the woman pins her to the hallway with a fire ax – asking her where “he” is.

The woman wants to know where Hector is but Alicia obviously has no idea who he is much less where he is. The woman and Hector have been luring the undead onto specific hallways before locking it down. Hector went to find food before the “guests” took him. Apparently the woman has the keys to the hotel and knows how to move around and where everything is. The guests took Hector because they want the keys and the knowledge that the woman has.

Alicia convinces the woman that she can play Hector’s part – helping her trap the undead into a room. It involves tricking the undead into a room so they can lock the door behind the undead then climb around the balcony to the next room.

After they cleared the stairs Alicia and the women flee downstairs and make it back to the ballroom. The woman admits she “locked them in” to Alicia. She knows she condemned the people inside to being attacked and turned – and some of the guests know what she did – which is one of the reasons the survivors hate her.

Which is when Alicia makes a stupid promise – telling the woman she won’t let the other survivors hurt her.

They continue to search until they find the undead pressed up against the glass doors to the bar where Alicia left Madison and Strand. She wants to un barricade the door but is stopped when the surviving guests find them.2016_FTWD_S2_E10_Alicia_Confronted

Alicia tells her new friend not to give the guests her keys until after they tell her what happened to Madison. Unfortunately they don’t know anything about Madison and they want put Alicia, Elena, and Hector outside the hotel – which is a death sentence.

Alicia pulls a fast one on the guests once they hand over Hector when she unleashes the undead trapped in the bar behind them. This kicks off a frantic run which ends up with Alicia being reunited with a very hungover looking Madison and Strand.

Things I loved about this episode…

  • Alicia handling the butterfly knife.
  • “You say you saved my life – I say you stole my shit.”
  • That moment of fear when you think Alicia found zombie Madison.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

  • Travis – why did you light a fire? And Chris, why didn’t you tell him you saw survivors? Maybe they are following you?
  • Is Chris the new Carl? His actions are really getting on my nerves. Listen to your old man kid.

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.

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