*SPOILERS AHEAD … AND BEACH-GOING ZOMBIES AND CREEPY ODD SURVIVALISTS*
“We don’t talk to strangers” (Victor Strand)
Remember when you were a sweet, trusting child and your parents instilled in you over and over that talking to strangers was a Bad Thing?
It was pronounced in the sort of super-serious tones (fair enough since not all strangers are beneficent, caring souls) that you quaking in your boots, fearing that were you to be so cavalier as to say “Hi” to someone you didn’t know, that the world would end and life as you know it would cease to have any meaning or good favour.
Well in Fear the Walking Dead, the world has actually ended, and guess what? Mum and dad’s advice still stands, especially in a world where the strangers are (a) undead and looking for a fleshy meal, (b) out to take your life, your $10 million boat – who’s boat exactly? Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) pretty much came out and said that Strand (Colman Domingo) may have purloined Abigail – and all your stuff, or (c) are unhinged survivalist convinced there’s little point fighting back when the hordes arrive.
The latter group were on full gaga display in “We All Fall Down”, where Curtis (Cliff Curtis), Madison (Kim Clark) and the other inhabitants of the Good Ship Might Get Sunk At Any Moment by the Mercenaries Hot on Their Tail tied up a jetty on an island, hoping to wait out their pursuers zeal to get all piratical on their asses.
While their pursuers of less than noble intent went merrily skipping by – clearly they are new at this whole track-and-rundown schtick – the Abigail’s inhabitants found themselves face to face with strangers in the form of a family of survivalists at a ranger station headed by George (David Warshofsky), an intense true believer who is convinced the zombie virus is the earth’s way of telling homo sapiens their time is well and truly up.
His wife Melissa (Catherine Dent),, who met an unfortunate end when daughter Willa (Aria Lyric Leabu) took some of daddy’s Jonestown-ing poison and “awoke” to feast on her mother who had her in way too close an embrace, is not quite as fervent a disciple of the cause, something that emerges when Madison realises she was the one who turned on the light that alerted them to life on the island.
Melissa begs Madison to take her two youngest Willa – who gives up her seat on the Abigail on account of, you know, zombified death and all – and Harry (Jeremiah and Maverick Clayton) so they can be spared George’s “When the Apocalypse Really Arrives We’ll All Take Poison What Ho!” doomsday scenario.
It looks like they’re going to be able to fulfill her wishes until George catches them about to spirit the two kids anyway, Willa goes full zombies and older teenage child Seth (Jake Austin Walker) – who teaches Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) how to kill the zombies that gather at the wire fence strung across the beach beneath the family’s house – decides that Harry should stay and die with his family because … Maoris. (George is fascinated the Curtis is Maori and lauds his peoples’ connection to their land, in life, and rather ominously, in death.)
So much for everyone NOT dying then.
By the time everyone’s back on the Abigail and getting their Enya on and sailing away – no one is sure where exactly since it emerges that the entire west coast had been napalmed into oblivion and the Mexican border is shut – Willa and Melissa are dead/not dead, and the three men of the family can’t be too far behind.
Yep the good old Main Characters in a Walking Dead Franchise Show Arrive, Destroy the Lives of Those They Meet Before Moving On Curse is alive and well, or undead depending on your point of view, and you have to wonder just which set of strangers should be fearing whom.
In this particular scenario, it’s the genially wacko survivalists who come off well and truly second best, reinforcing the idea that strangers, even the ones we have come to know, should be held at arm’s length and not given the time of the day.
Yes that would rather neatly pole axe Madison’s constant desire to save the entire world around her – hasn’t worked out so well now has it? Perhaps you need to staunch that bleeding heart of yours Mads – but that might be all for the best, not just for Travis and the crew, but pretty everyone who has the misfortune to cross their path.
Where this slow burn episode excelled – I appreciate there is misgivings out there that Fear the Walking Dead is moving way too slowly with no discernible end point but surely that’s the point right? These people are in way over their heads in a world none of them even recognise so slowly, slowly makes sense – is in examining what we have to fear and gain from strangers.
While the main game in town was the interplay between George’s family and the well-meaning but deadly inhabitants of the Abigail, there was also the sense that none of them really know what Strand might be up to way up in his steering eyrie.
We see him, though no one on the boat does, having a conversation via mobile phone with someone unnamed who’s obviously pressuring Strand to fulfill some part of a bargain.
Daniel too discovers a heap of maps with notes and coordinates marked, suggesting that Strand was planning something else altogether entirely when the apocalypse got in the way.
While he assures Daniel his intentions are Good Samaritan pure, the evidence increasingly suggests he has some pretty shady dealings going on and everyone has as much to fear from their rescuer as the people pursuing them on boats and likely saviours on land.
With the family, which had barely formed before apocalyptic stresses were placed upon it, already splintering – Chris has pulled away from everyone and finds more solace killing zombies than spending time with those nearest and dearest and Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) darkly muttering tat the world is cruel and she understands it and her father far better than she once did and Victor’s intentions dark and unknown – perhaps there is far to fear from within that without.
It’s a stark contrast to The Walking Dead, which was all about disparate people having to pull together to survive.
Quite whether the Abigail’s inhabitants can hold themselves together or will spin in some self-destructive way remains to be seen; the fact that they are, in effect, strangers thrown together by circumstance, reinforces that your parents were right all along and that you shouldn’t talk to strangers, much less share a boat that is critical to your survival with them.
- So lesson learnt – don’t talk to strangers … or hitch a ride on a big ass boat too? What’s Strand up to and should you really go ashore where a plane has just crashed? We find out next week, at least on the latter point, in “Ouroboros” …
