Walkers – Fear of the Walking Dead _ Season 2, Episode 8 – Photo Credit: Richard Foreman Jr/AMC
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
As everyone recalls, the mid-season finale left virtually all of our beloved characters in some pretty dire straits. Daniel (Ruben Blades) is presumed dead after he torches Celia’s House of Horrors. Poor Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) can only look on in horror, but ultimately decides to leave with Strand (Colman Domingo), Madison (Kim Dickens) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). And, with Chris (Lorenzo Henrie) completely unhinged and posing a potential threat to the group, Travis (Cliff Curtis) makes the difficult decision to leave his new family behind in order to protect the only person left in his old family, which is Chris. But, the real wild card is Nick (Frank Dillane) who decides to foresake the entire group and walk among the dead.
With our group of survivors now scattered, the writers now had a difficult decision to make. Have each episode “check-in” with each individual group, or have each episode focus on just one. In the end, the writing team settled on the latter (which, in my opinion, is a much better choice, since character check-in’s can make an episode feel very disjointed). So, with 3 groups to choose from, which do you think is highlighted in our mid-season premiere?
As it turns out, our group of 1, Nick, is whom ultimately receives that honor. Literally, the entire premiere episode is centered around Nick, with virtually no mention of the other survivors. The episode begins just a couple of days after the horrific events at the Abigail Ranch, where we learn that Nick has been staying with a Hispanic woman and her young son. The woman is moving on in search of the boy’s father, but she does leave Nick with some food and water as well as info on where Nick wants to go. Nick is in search of a place where the dead aren’t viewed as “monsters,” and the woman recommends for him to go to Tijuana. It’s well over a 100 miles away, but with the provisions she left Nick, he should be able to make it.
Frank Dillane as Nick Clark – Fear of the Walking Dead _ Season 2, Episode 8 – Photo Credit: Richard Foreman Jr/AMC
Of course, as you may have guessed, with scavengers and marauders everywhere, Nick is eventually attacked and is forced to leave everything behind or be killed trying to retrieve it. So, let’s summarize. Nick’s on a 100-mile road-trip (uh, on foot, BTW!), in the middle of the desert, and has no food and no water. Needless to say, things get pretty desperate, pretty fast. A man can survive a fairly long time without much food, but after only 3 days without water, your body starts to shutdown. Just what will a man do when he’s about to die of thirst? Well, Nick shows us, and I must warn you, it is **disgusting**. Be sure to make a note of this because you’ve been warned!
On the upside and in the midst of Nick’s delirium, we do manage to get a fantastic series of flashbacks of before Nick and his girlfriend hit rock bottom in that church in the Pilot. We’ve never been told much about the girl, but in this episode, we learn who she is and how she met Nick. It’s actually somewhat surprising as she turns out not to be your typical junkie.
The good news is while it may seem that all is lost, Nick does have a stroke of luck towards the end of the episode. This is when new cast member, Danay Garcia, is finally introduced. Her character’s name is Luciana, and she is running with 2 other survivors who appear to be part of a larger community. They observe Nick walking among a small herd, but at the same time, they see that he’s very weak and close to death. Luciana’s comrades want to help Nick, but she says it’s too risky.
Will they decide to help Nick, and even if they do, what secrets will their “community” hold? As we all have learned from The Walking Dead and sanctuaries like Woodbury and Terminus, safety and protection always seem to come with a price. How much will Nick have to pay and more importantly, what will be the price for living among people who don’t view the dead as “monsters”? Remember, that’s exactly what Nick wanted and why he was travelling to Tijuana, but the question is will it be worth it?
The season 2 mid-season premiere of Fear The Walking Dead is titled “Grotesque” and airs Sunday, August 21st, at 9/8c on AMC.
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