Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 2: Recap & Discussion

Hey gang! Brian here! We are through 2 weeks of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD! Hope you guys are digging it. Feel free to let that feedback fly down in the comments section. And now, with your recap and discussion, heeeeeere’s Johnny! (I’ve been holding on to that one for weeks).

“So Close, Yet So Far”

Madison’s daughter Alicia begins looking for her boyfriend, Matt, whom she’s recently lost communication with. After searching through his house she finally finds him…on the couch…wheezing…because he’s…SICK (you thought we were going to say turned).

Panicked, Alicia calls her mom (who’s still with Travis and Nick) to come check on Matt. Only an hour after discovering a jaw-less Calvin, Madison is cautious about Alicia being around her boyfriend. They drive to Matt’s house and Travis notices Matt’s been bitten (time to throw away your Team Matt shirts) but Matt tries to convince Alicia everything’s going to be fine (oh Matt, if only you knew).

Being that it’s the second infected person she’s seen in an hour, Madison suggests Travis to go get his son Chris. He agrees and promises to be back in an hour and a half TOPS (LA traffic in the beginning of the apocalypse? Good luck with that). While Travis is stuck in traffic (we knew it) he notices a cop stocking up on water (not doughnuts??). He finally makes it to his ex, Liza’s place, who explains that Chris is on a bus. Liza is completely out of the loop on recent events so Travis explains the crisis and that people are getting sick and things are “getting worse.”

While Chris is on the bus, a stranger walks on and yells that a homeless man got shot 20 times by the cops nearby. Outraged, everyone exits the bus to see the crime scene up close. Chris joins them and begins filming as he approaches the dead man. Police have barricaded it off and are catching heat from the crowd, who claims the police shouldn’t have shot an unarmed man. The crowd is in full protest mode. Travis calls Chris from Liza’s phone and learns that he’s downtown in a protest.

Travis and Liza make it downtown and locate Chris. When they get there, they witness police shoot a woman in the head. It’s all out chaos in LA as Travis, Liz, and Chris try to find a safe place to hide. They approach a barber, Daniel, and ask to ride it out in his shop. He reluctantly lets them in as rioters start banging on their garage. Daniel’s shop is also his home, where he, his wife Griselda, and daughter Ophelia live. Ophelia persuades Daniel to let them stay. Confused by the pandemonium outside, Liza asks Travis what he’s seen and he tells her, “People don’t die, they come back. We have to get far away from what’s outside.” No kidding.

Back at the Clark’s house, Nick is relapsing HARD and Madison can’t reach the doctor for his prescription. Out of options, Madison leaves to go to the high school to search for medicine. Nick looks like Jamie Foxx in that scene from Ray where he’s… well, relapsing from heroin. Despite the fact Nick is in the worst shape of his life, Alicia decides to leave to check on her totally doomed boyfriend Matt (priorities). Nick starts yelling and says Matt will try to kill her, but she doesn’t understand. As she leaves the house, Nick’s screams abruptly stop, prompting Alicia to run back inside where Nick’s convulsing. Later, Nick thanks Alicia for staying to take care of him. She dryly states, “I hate you.” Nick knows.

After making it to the high school, Madison breaks open a cabinet in the nurse’s office with a crowbar and finds the prescription. Tobias, the omniscient bullied kid who predicts things before they happen, startles Madison and asks for his knife back, which she returns. While Tobias takes Madison to his food stockpile in the cafeteria, he comments, “When civilization ends, it ends fast.” After hearing a noise on the Principal’s eaves-dropping machine, an alarm goes off and they rush down the hall with the canned goods. Madison spots Artie, the Principal. “Artie?” she yells out from zero experience watching horror movies.

To no one’s surprise, Artie, covered in blood, has turned into a zombie. In disbelief, Madison walks over to help. When Artie tries to attack her, Tobias grabs his knife and stabs him multiple times to little avail (not as easy as The Walking Dead makes it look). Artie wrestles him to the ground and almost bites him when Madison beats Artie repeatedly and brutally with a fire extinguisher. They run away. Madison drops Tobias off at home and offers to let him stay at her place. Tobias says he’ll be OK and walks off. Madison notices a car drive by with little girls wearing surgical masks (the surgical mask market is about to skyrocket, by the way).

Madison makes it back home to Alicia and Nick, but not Travis. She hands Nick the prescription and advises him to ration it (right). Nick rats Alicia out on trying to leave (as you would with someone who just saved your life) but Madison has more important things to worry about. Locked in the bathroom, Madison starts crying as she cleans Artie’s blood off her coat (not as effective as burning). Travis calls her and catches her up on his situation of being stuck downtown, which has only escalated. Travis instructs her to take the kids and head to the desert. The call non-conveniently cuts off as Madison hears gunfire from Travis’s end. For the cherry on top of this nightmare day, Madison and Alicia hear a scream outside and notice a (turned) neighbor biting another neighbor. Alicia tries to run outside to help but Madison prevents it. They’re on their own, and judging by what’s outside, they’ll have to get accustomed to fending for themselves.

So with a second episode in the books, what do you guys think of FEAR so far? Is it reasonable that high-schooler Tobias seems so in-the-know? Isn’t this a world without zombies? Predictions for next week? Will anyone make it to the desert? Should they?!