As was hinted going all the way back to when the group was still on the Abigail in “Blood In The Streets,” our survivors have been heading for a sharp division. From the moment when Chris (Lorenzo Henrie)  killed Reed on a mere hunch, a force has slowly been pulling everyone apart with Travis (Cliff Curtis)  obviously standing by his son and with Madison (Kim Dickens)  and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey)  moving towards Strand’s (Colman Domingo)  side even in the face of everything Strand has done. Well, it all comes to a head tonight with lines being drawn and major moral questions raised to where by the end of the hour, our survivors — all of which we have grown to love — will have fractured into 3 separate groups: a group of 4, a group of 2, and a group of 1. And, what appeared to be a safe haven as the group approached the Abigail mansion last week is reduced to ruins — a true paradise lost — in just a matter of minutes.

A GROUP OF 2 — TRAVIS AND CHRIS

I think most of us suspected after watching that shocking ending to last week’s episode that things weren’t going to be the same between Travis and Madison going forward. First, Chris threatens Alicia, and then, she and her mother wake up to Chris standing over them with a knife. You can’t really un-ring the bell, right? While there’s no question that Madison loves Travis very much, at the end of the day, a parent will **always** choose his/her child over everyone else. As a mother, Madison has a primal instinct to protect Alicia and Nick — and, as a father, Travis will stand by and defend his son at all costs.

This being said, it’s no surprise that after Chris takes off in the middle of the night, Travis goes after him, and the love of this father is so great that he even forgets to put on his shoes. We can’t really be sure how far he goes in his search, but it appears Travis scours the countryside for the better part of the following day and only stops because his feet start to bleed from the rough terrain and the pain becomes unbearable. Travis encounters only the dead the entire day, but he finally catches a break and stumbles on a Hispanic man who is sympathetic to his situation.

The man claims to not speak English but does see Travis’ battered and bloody feet and offers him a pair of shoes. When Travis tries to make him understand that he’s looking for his son, at first the man claims to know nothing and says once again that he doesn’t speak English. But, then the man suddenly becomes very agitated and yells, “East! East!,” indicating that he did, in fact, see Chris and that he was heading east. A tad bit suspicious? Yep, to say the least. Then, just when Travis is about to take the man’s tip and leave, he sees a shadow under a closed door and realizes the man is hiding someone in the back room. So, Travis pushes the man aside and races in, only to find Chris holding the man’s little boy hostage at gunpoint. Can you imagine what had been going through Travis’ head? Here you someone whom Travis had tried to raise to be kind, sympathetic and compassionate, and he’s now threatening the life of a little boy who has no idea what’s going on nor what he did to deserve this.

Of course, Travis tries to reason with his son, but it turns out to be futile and so, he ends up tackling Chris and chasing him out of the house. Then, if Chris threatening the young boy isn’t bad enough, when he is finally cornered by Travis, he lunges and tries to stab his own father.

Look at me, I’m no good. I’m no good — Chris to Travis

For those who thought Chris was morphing into a Lizzie Samuels 2.0, this should make it clear that is definitely not the case. Lizzie was a textbook sociopath who had no compassion and who couldn’t empathize with people. She got pleasure torturing innocent animals and even seemed to enjoy nearly suffocating Baby Judith to death. In contrast, Chris clearly has emotions and compassion but has been damaged by the harshness of this new world. He’s scared and is controlled by blind instinct, and because of that, he’s a threat to everyone around him.

Travis sees this clearly, and so, when Nick (Frank Dillane)  finally tracks him down and says that he has to come back because Madison needs him, he is forced to say “No” no matter how hard it hurts. “Tell her you never saw us,” he instructs Nick, and while Nick initially objects, I think he finally understands and respects Travis’ decision.

So, is this really a good-bye to Travis and Chris? I definitely don’t think so. Chris may have some issues, but I don’t think he’s too far gone. He just needs time to work through everything and with the one person in the group who truly cares about and loves him — his father. Once Travis thinks Chris is safe to be around other people, I’m sure the 2 groups will reunite. Whether that’s the latter half of the season or later remains to be seen.

A GROUP OF 4 — STRAND, MADISON, ALICIA AND OFELIA

As most of us suspected, Celia is pretty angry that Strand betrayed her “son,” Thomas, and very loudly exclaims in front of everyone, “This man loved you, and he died believing your lies.” Ouch, that one hurt. She then gives Strand 1 day to give Thomas a proper burial, and then both he and the rest of the group must leave. However, don’t worry too much about our core survivors, folks, because you can count on Nick to come to the rescue! To try and smooth things over and convince Celia to allow his family to stay, Nick returns to the Abigail and brings Luis (who is now a walker) back to his mother. Well, it works because Celia is very thankful to “her Nicholas” and  allows them to stay with the exception of Strand, who is eventually escorted through the main gate and off the grounds.

So while Alicia is very thankful to her brother for talking Celia into allowing them to stay, Madison is nothing but. In fact, she is almost desperate for the group to get out of there as quickly as possible, and tells Nick and Alicia to start packing up supplies to which they respond with a big “Hell No!” In their eyes, this is a paradise in the middle of a world that has become worse than hell, and sees Madison as just an over-protective, paranoid mother. So, not left with many choices, Madison is forced to go on the offensive, and it starts with Celia.

As I was watching the episode, I couldn’t help but think “All of their problems would magically go away if Celia somehow ended up dead. I bet someone’s going to kill her.” It seemed like every few minutes the idea would pop back into my mind, and as it turns out, it was more than just a passing thought. Madison finally approaches Celia, and for reasons not entirely known, it is then that Celia decides to show her the basement full of walkers. Did she really believe she could sway Madison into understanding what she’s doing? Celia is very good at reading people, and I can’t imagine her honestly believing that. Regardless, as expected, Madison isn’t moved by Celia’s argument and promptly locks Celia in. Ironically, Celia doesn’t seem surprised nor does she appear afraid. Could it be that Celia can somehow walk among the undead without being noticed or hurt? Or, could there just be some alternate way out of the cage that we don’t know about? Either way, the audience is led to believe that Celia is walker chow and is presumed dead, courtesy of Madison.

Now, let’s move on to Daniel (Ruben Blades).  You know, going into tonight’s mid-season finale, I had a strong hunch that either Chris or Daniel was going to go completely off the rails, kill someone or get themselves killed — or both! Both have been spiraling into madness for quite some time now, and the only question was who was going to hit rock bottom first. It’s no secret for those who know me that Daniel Salazar has been my favorite character since day 1, and so, obviously I have secretly been hoping it’d be Chris. But, of course, as my luck would go, it turns out to be Daniel. Sigh — as I blurt a whole slew of colorful curse words!

So, while Chris is spiraling outside of the gates, Daniel continues to lose it inside the walls. Things have literally gone from bad to worse, with Daniel now being delusional, seeing and talking with this dead wife. Telling Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) to follow him because her mother is waiting for them at the gate. Pleading with Strand not to “put Thomas in that hole,” because he will come back to haunt him. These are just 2 examples, but there are plenty more OMG Daniel Salazar moments in tonight’s episode. To make matter worse, he attacks some of Celia’s men, which only lands him locked up and bound in one of the cages in the basement.

Celia ends up visiting him, and while Daniel may call her “unholy” and wants to hear nothing of what she has to say, what Celia tells him is actually very profound. In perhaps the best scene of the entire episode, Celia explains to Daniel what is happening to him, and the conversation alternates between Celia and the voice of his dead wife, Griselda. “Unholy” or not, I think we can all agree that Celia is very much a people-person, and it seems she has Daniel all figured out even without knowing much about him to begin with.

It is the dead you fear, but not the ones I am keeping — Celia to Daniel

Very, very interesting observation. After Celia leaves, we are taken once again to that flashback of the little boy, except this time we learn that the boy is actually Daniel. He is surrounded by dead bodies with only a single man remaining alive, and it is here that he is taught to kill and takes the life of his first victim.

I have told you about all my victims — Daniel to Griselda

Did you? Even the one that haunts you now? — Griselda to Daniel

Yes, the first one. Do you remember? — Daniel to Griselda

No, my love. The first victim was YOU — Griselda to Daniel

A very profound thing for a ghost to say but also one that makes complete sense. No matter how many people Daniel has killed, no matter how many lives destroyed, his biggest victim will always be **himself**. His past has impacted his family tremendously, and in a way, has alienated his only daughter. And, even though all of this happened years ago, it still haunts him and has worsened after Griselda’s death. It is at this point that I knew — Daniel wasn’t going to make it past this episode alive. He’s too damaged, both emotionally and psychologically, and there’s just some things you can’t come back from.

To be honest, I had always imagined Daniel committing suicide, and I stood by that belief going into tonight’s episode. However, what I didn’t expect is the method he chose to do it. After finally escaping Celia’s cage in the basement, he grabs a canister of gasoline and goes directly to Celia’s cage of horrors (and, BTW, we don’t see Celia in this group of walkers, which makes me believe she may still be alive). At first, I thought Daniel was simply going to burn all the infected up as he called them an “abomination.” But, then, he just stands there, staring, as the fire begins to rage out of control. Finally, the image of Griselda emerges from the group of infected, and Daniel walks right into the flames to be with his love forever. Yes, everyone, it is perfectly fine to cry now.

Next we cut to Ofelia outside, crying and completely inconsolable, as the house becomes engulfed in flames, and Alicia has to pull her back to prevent her from running inside for her “Papa.” The final scene is almost surreal with Strand, Madison, Alicia and Ofelia leaving together with the Abigail mansion burning in the background, especially when you think back to their arriving just 1 day ago full of so much hope.

A GROUP OF 1 — NICK

With everyone beginning to go their separate ways (or presumed dead like Celia and Daniel), the only person we have left to cover is Nick. Celia had asked Nick at the beginning of the episode to stay with them because this is where he belongs, and while most may have thought Celia to be nuttier than a fruitcake, she did have a good point. Nick **is** special and even more importantly, he’s changing. Just like Chris no longer fitting in and having to be taken away by his father, Nick, too, is slowly turning into an outcast (and, I don’t think it’s entirely because of Celia’s brainwashing). He is clashing more and more with this mother, except now it’s with his being completely sober and thinking clearly. Madison can no longer blame the drugs for her son’s erratic behavior.

So, when Nick returns from the run to find Travis and Chris and sees the Abigail mansion burning, he knows what has happened, he knows who is responsible, and he knows what he has to do.

[Celia] WAS right about us. She knew what we are. We destroy everything — Nick to Madison

Such strong and profound words for such a young boy. The funny thing is he may not be entirely wrong. Think back to The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes and his merry band. Taking Alexandria as an example, isn’t it ironic how death and destruction always seems to follow that group. Makes you think, doesn’t it? Ultimately, Madison is forced to leave without her son as Nick walks among the dead just like he said and just like he had wanted to do.

All in all, a very good ending for what has proven to be a brutal first half of the season. The writers did a fantastic job setting the viewers up to thinking either Chris or Travis would meet their end, but then turned it around with a bait and switch and giving the short straw to Daniel. They also laid a very good foundation for the back half of the season, and it will be interesting to see how all of these diverging story lines will play out (and whether any of them will ever converge again).

That’s the positive — now, for the negative. First, and foremost, if you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, you should have recognized this entire Celia arc as a re-hashing of the Hershel Greene story line. Hershel kept walkers in his barn because he thought they were simply “sick.” Celia collected the infected because she thought they weren’t really dead and instead, were higher forms of human beings. And, those scenes of the Abigail mansion burning, OMG, some of them could have literally been pulled from The Walking Dead season 2 finale “Beside The Dying Fire” with the burning of Hershel’s farm as it is being overrun.

So, while the writing team may get an ‘A’ for the character development and the surprise and shock value, it gets a ‘D’ for originality. Lastly, what about the million dollar question — is Daniel really dead? Logically-speaking, he should be dead, and everything we see points in that direction. The fire is raging at the very end, Daniel wants to be with his dead wife, and so, would have no reason to even try and escape. But, remember, some of the Executive Producers of this show are also producers of the mothership, and we all know too well some of the shenanigans THAT series pulled this past year. Yeah, I’m talking about that Glenn Rhee fakeout death fiasco, and so, if history repeats itself, Daniel will walk right out of those flames like the Lord Jesus Christ.

While Daniel is my favorite character and as much as I would love for that to happen, PLEASE, for the love of God, don’t do it! Enough already! Sometimes the dead remaining dead can be a good thing, and for a series with “Dead” in the title, you’d think that would be a no-brainer. Regardless, Fear The Walking Dead has emerged as a very good, well-written, entertaining series, and it should not need to — nor want to — mimic another show, even if they both have “The Walking Dead” in their titles.

Fear The Walking Dead  returns for the 2nd half of season 2 in the Fall of 2016.

Critic Grade — A-