Fear The Walking Dead: “Not Fade Away” — Sept. 21, 2015
This episode of Fear the Walking Dead is really a slice of life in the middle of a whole lot of uncertainty. Special Contributor Tracey M. looks at how truth, lies and life play out for the survivors after military rule is established in this episode. – David F.
Our episode of FTWD opens to Lou Reed’s melancholy “Perfect Day”. Nick has donned the shades, and is blissfully laid out on a float in the family pool. He even declines an oxycodone offered to him by Maddie. She smells bullshit, but doesn’t call him on it just yet. I would, he just looks too relaxed. Nick is as likable as he is vexing, like a lost little boy with a crooked grin. Chris is on the roof with his favorite appendage – his camcorder. He narrates day nine of the apocalypse as he pans the area. Chris sees an S.O.S. blinking on the distant hillside. He tells his father.
Travis, our man of denial, is out for a morning jog. He was glad for the arrival of the military; he thought the cavalry had arrived and all would be well. Poor fool. It all felt wrong from the get-go.
He returns home and Maddie’s in his face within seconds. She’s under pressure from her kids, has troops using their rooms for triage, power blinking on and off, no phones and no real answers while Travis jogs along, smiling and waving like the friggin’ mayor. That’d piss me off, too.
The troops have secured a six-mile radius, tidily wrapped up in a chain link fence. No one in, no one out. The commanding officer announces that their zone is officially virus-free. They must stay within the fences and obey the curfew or they will be detained. He won’t answer any of the questions shouted at him. He’s clearly a power-hungry ass, joking “Be nice and I won’t have to shoot you, he-he.” This smells real bad, he-he.
Alicia gets her teen angst moment, looking through the Tran’s empty house. She finds a suicide note from Susan, and reads it over and over, feeling the love that must have lived in that house.
She has herself a good cry, which was probably a long time coming.
Liza is caring for Hector, a sick man in his home. She was able to get morphine, and has set him up with an intravenous drip. Nick spies her leaving and manages to get his addict ass into the house and under the hospital bed. Next thing you know, he has the IV inserted in between his toes, lying under the bed like a vampire. Nick is sick, the poor bastard needs help.
Maddie’s taken up drinking bourbon from a coffee mug. She even takes a swig right after some great make-up sex with Travis in the car in their garage. She flips back to angry pretty quickly once he opens his mouth. Just be pretty Travis, just be pretty. She can’t stand his naive attitude. Why are there no medicine, doctors, phones or answers?! Her instincts tell her they’re all being lied to. Maddie needs to find things out for herself. She sits on the roof with a flashlight, clicking it on and off, S.O.S. She sees the blinking S.O.S. reply Chris saw.
Liza returns to check on her patient and is instead met by Dr. Bethany Exner (Sandrine Holt), who informs her that Hector has been taken to a government medical facility. Dr. Exner smiles a bit too much, but manages to convince Liza to go along with her to the facility and lend a hand. Liza helps Dr. Exner convince Griselda Salazar to go to the medical facility for treatment for her busted foot. I don’t like this at all. There’s too much talking and nothing’s really being said.
Maddie’s had enough and heads to the perimeter with a pair of wire-cutters — ya gotta love Maddie. She breaks into the Danger Zone, and sees wall after wall of missing persons photos and mementos. There are bodies everywhere, and she chokes on the air. She had no idea things were this bad. When she returns, she seeks out her son. She finds Nick rooting through the medicine cabinets of a neighbor’s house. Maddie begins hitting Nick, each blow punctuated by a word, “You have no idea!” over and over. She really beats his ass; maybe it will do some good.
When the military’s medical team comes to pick up those who need treatment, Daniel Salazar is prevented from going with Griselda, and Nick is on the list to go, too because he’s suffering from drug withdrawal. Maggie tries to fight the soldiers off, but they manage to take Nick anyway. Maddie turns to Travis — “You did this.”
It’s true. They should have left the day before, getting out of there ahead of the military, while they still had their freedom. Travis takes his tears to the roof, where he sees the S.O.S for himself. Maybe the light’s finally going on for ‘ol dim Travis.
Maddie on the other hand is fierce; a force to be reckoned with, especially when it involves those she loves. Can she and Travis survive as a couple? And where are the soldiers really taking the sick? At least Liza’s there with Nick and Griselda, right? Maybe things will be okay, eventually.
Fear The Walking Dead airs on AMC Sunday 9/8c
