Travis jogs down the street and waves to a neighbor. Furthermore, the promo trailer for “Not Fade Away” shows that the military presence increases and everyone is untrusting of their motives. Houses are burnt down. Well, it’s only been nine days, Madison. They’re stuck inside the fence under the Army’s rule.
Advertisement
The clock ticks as Madison watches. Perhaps. But also consider that while the military may not know everything, they know more than the Clarks.
On the roof, Chris uses a mirror to signal the far away house. Travis is hesitant to go inside and talk to him because their relationship is barely existent, but when the officer says he’ll have to “put [Doug] down” he finally caves. And yes, Travis still being so nonresistant, and still making nearly everyone around him angry for various reasons, continues to be a frustrating part of the series.
Nick is in the pool. Did she, as Madison accused her, expose Nick’s drug abuse to the government? Soldiers find him crying by a fence and take him to a government facility for help.
“They can’t, or they won’t”, Chris told her.
Maddie has this info now about the area outside the safe zone after breaking through the fence.
Remember what Daniel called Travis last week? If the community is safe, why are they taking the sick people out of it to get treatment? It’s easy to understand that kind of attitude in a terrible situation, because you want that burden taken from you. You can read into that, but the bottom line is he now realizes that the National Guard soldiers are not as noble as he thought they were.
At the Clarks’ house, Nick peered through his wood fence. We will see a couple of unique and very specific ways of collecting all their loved ones – and will see which approach works. The kids color, in hazmat gear, in the kitchen. I think that’s specific to his character.
Doug is very uneasy.
On the last episode, Travis, Liza and Chris sought refuge with the Salazar family after escaping a violent riot. She reports to Salazar what she saw outside and he warns her that this is the beginning of the end. A note she finds there brings her to tears, and later she uses a needle there to self-tattoo the fading pattern her boyfriend Matt drew on her arm in the pilot with a permanent marker. In fact, Travis trusts authority so much that he oh so helpfully tells the CO about the signal coming from the house on the hill.
Liza leaves a man and his wife offers Liza the chance to stay. They didn’t want to be forced out, and what this speaks to is, you’ve got a group of soldiers, guardsmen, women – and this is mentioned later on in the show – who are not hardened warriors. Did she feel some guilt that she brought Nick to Dr. Exner’s attention, that Nick was taken away, and maybe this is her way of trying to keep an eye on him? Madison tries to convince him otherwise but is being persuaded by Nick that someone is out there. Bethany tells Liza she should come with them to help.
Unfortunately, residing in a guarded, sectioned-off suburb allowed Nick to indulge in his addiction (borrowing some of his ailing neighbor’s morphine). He shows her the video and she sees it. Nick goes to Hector’s room and we see he took the morphine IV and put it into his foot. She goes back inside.
Outside, in her auto , Madison drank something from a mug. Madison quickly dressed herself and starts to leave. She hesitates and then jumps in. Travis, holding a bottle of whiskey, asks what is more specifically wrong.
Madison said, “Vivian told me there were quarantine camps”. Travis’ inclination – and this goes back to the pilot – he does have faith and trust in the institutions. Travis signs up to find Doug. Even if that person just can’t hack things emotionally, like that Doug character.
A shining light in the distance distracts Chris. He plays golf when Travis nervously explains that people just want to be informed if loved ones are being taken away (“You could have notified his wife, sir.”). These are folks who are accustomed to doing their weekend a month, and suddenly they’re literally placed in the apocalypse where they’re fighting people who have recently turned. He looks into the distance and sees the flashing light his son saw earlier that day. Stupid Alicia. Alicia is the new Chris who is the new Carl. She cuts through a fence and makes her way onto the abandoned, corpse littered streets. Until now, the series has been an intriguing curiosity – a new story, set in the Walking Dead universe, that seemed content to make all the same mistakes The Walking Dead did. A military doctor has ordered that Hector be taken to another facility. Liza checks in on a patient and tells the wife that he’ll be okay. Her husband is missing, and he took his auto with him. Daniel looks on from inside. Madison comes inside and Daniel asks where she went and what she saw. She tells him to slow up then says sorry. Madison says there are bodies of the infected but there was a man shot with the others but he wasn’t sick. “And there were others like that”. He talks about how some people were taken away from his village when he was young, and his father was assured they would return.
“They can go to the soldiers”, Madison replied. The doctor told Nick that his heart rate had gone up. Meanwhile, Daniel being present for Griselda’s operation could introduce an unwanted emotional component. Madison reluctantly agrees to look after his daughter.
Nick is in full drug-addict mode. Travis tries to help her but Alicia claims to have it under control. However, people are getting restless with the phones being down and a curfew being enforced. Madison slaps his face several times. He’s sad and humbled. When Madison walks out of the room, Nick is left sitting on the floor stunned at what he just experienced. Instead, the soldiers take Griselda and Nick, who’s dragged away at gunpoint. Chaos ensues in the house. God, I hate it when Chris is right.
I will tell you where the episode lost me though. These people are here to help, so you let yourself believe.
Advertisement
Madison reenters the house, where Chris is storming off. “Liza”.
