Well, after watching episode five of Fear the Walking Dead, I’m kind of disappointed. Cobalt still made for an interesting episode, and it absolutely wasn’t bad TV, but I think I have to give up hope on this ever being the show I was hoping it would be.
Our super packed household of main characters is still reeling from the loss of Nick, Griselda and Liza. But Daniel isn’t willing to just sit around and trust the government to take care of things. So he kidnaps Ophelia’s soldier boyfriend to torture information out of him. Yeah, this was a week for fantastic plans. We’ll skip back to the results of that shortly, but I expect appealing to his humanity would have gotten the same result. But where’s the drama in asking nicely?
Things aren’t exactly going smoothly for those over at the makeshift hospital. Liza is being worked to the bone, trying to save anyone she can but getting zero answers about what’s going on or the people she came in with, at least right away. Surprisingly, they didn’t just take Griselda out back and shoot her, they amputated her foot, but she was doomed to die of septic shock all the same (somehow I don’t see Daniel believing Liza’s story on this one, but I doubt the military’s true goals will matter for much longer anyway). Before she died, she did have a quick chance to rave about the devil who may or may not be her husband, but it’s not like we didn’t know by now that Daniel has a serious case of the dark and twisties going on. Then, on the other side of the facility, we have Nick. And newcomer Strand (Colman Domingo), who Nick is currently sharing a cell with. Strand may end up being an interesting character, but I’m really not sure what to make of him at this point. Though I do expect that season two might be more interesting if Nick never reunited with his family, and instead he and Strand go off to have many adventures in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Meanwhile, Travis was supposed to be getting a lift to the medical facility with a group of soldiers, but it turned into the world’s worst ridealong. First, they stopped on the side of the road to shoot some random walker waitress, seemingly more out of boredom and testosterone than necessity. The leader of the group tried to make Travis pull the trigger, but our leading man is still too much of a “nice guy” to do it, though it was left somewhat ambiguous if he still thinks these people can be saved, or if he’s just not ready to be involved in the violent side of survival. I expect season two will get him ready real quick.
Their next stop was somewhat of a nightmare as the group stopped to rescue a trapped squad who were being overrun by the undead. All Travis could do was listen from the tank as more than a few men died. When the survivors finally came back for him, it was only to drop him off at the side of the road before taking off for the hills (or to head back to their families) realizing they were all risking their lives for a losing battle. Hopefully the experience opened Travis’ eyes to some of his new reality, otherwise all this episode did was spin him around in circles a few times to pass time.
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The big reveal at the end of this week (and gearing up for next week’s finale) was the result of our little torture fun-fest. It turns out the military is only a few hours away from abandoning ship (aka LA) and taking off for greener pastures. But for some reason that also means “humanely” putting down all of the remaining survivors. I’d assume the logic there is that you wouldn’t be leaving any potential threats behind you… but this is the worst plan/plot twist/strategy of recent memory. It’s the end of the world, humanity is already at risk of extinction, and you’re going to kill people en masse? People who could potentially provide labor to help the military. THIS IS A HORRIBLE PLAN! Also, you’re expecting for this plan to be carried out by the remnants of the remaining military, even though a lot of them are already jumping ship. Not to mention the fact that these guys weren’t exactly raised in a warzone. I’d like to think that at least a few of the guys expected to shoot civilians in the head would realize that maybe this isn’t the best possible option.
So I guess we’ll see how all of this plays out next week in the season one finale. I expect that this will be the beginning of the end as far as what’s left of civilization is concerned, and after all of the back and forth in terms of pacing and conflict, I can’t say I’m really disappointed about that. This series has been a bit of a disappointment as far as showing us the initial outbreak, but it can come back next season as another zombie-filled ratings juggernaut. Hopefully. Maybe.
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