FEAR THE WALKING DEAD Review “Not Fade Away”

By Lewis Richards

This week on Fear the Walking Dead we pick up 9 days after the cavalry have arrived in the neighborhood. The initial drama of the apocalypse has died off and the area surrounding the neighborhood has apparently been secured.

Travis’ skills as a teacher (and his naively hopeful approach to the apocalypse) naturally allow him to settle into a ‘man of the people’ role and he becomes the army’s first port of call when communicating with his neighbors. Even though there is a guarded perimeter now surrounding them, some of our survivors still have trouble believing they are safe.

The National Guard, led by obnoxious Lt. Moyers, have provoked suspicion among our sharper survivors early on (thankfully some of the noobs catch up later). Moyers’ general conduct doesn’t seem very military, and he even jokes about shooting people who don’t fall in line with the new rules that he has been provided by “the government” if there even is one at this point.

Nick portrays a heroic effort in his drug rehabilitation as he relaxes in the pool. Forgetting to take his latest dose of Oxy, he  prompts Madison to give it to the still bed ridden Griselda. However, Nicks shows that deep down he is actually a giant d*#% when he steals morphine from critical neighbor, Hector.

Liza helps the sick and injured as the safe zone is running desperately low on medical supplies. New face on the block Dr. Bethany Exner commends her work before revealing she knows that Liza isn’t a nurse. Regardless of her qualification, Exner still enlists Liza in her mysterious hospital project.

This week we saw the show morph from the familiar horror/thriller genre into a more tense mystery. Nobody has heard from friends and family that were extracted from the neighborhood when the NG first showed up. Moyers is dismissive when questioned on their whereabouts. However, following Doug’s mysterious disappearance further suspicions are raised that not even Travis can ignore. There seems to be a pattern emerging with non conformists and the potentially infected. It looks like Moyers’ joke about shooting everyone was more of a threat.

Later, Travis and Madison investigate a signal Chris claims to have intercepted. Travis takes his findings to Moyers, informing him that there may be survivors outside the fence. Moyers is uninterested, and it becomes clear there is a cover up of some sort taking place among the NG ranks. Tensions escalate when Madison narrowly escapes a firing squad after she disobeys orders to stay within the safe-zone perimeter. While  exploring she stumbles across horrific scenes with dead bodies littering the streets.  On closer inspection she finds that some of the bodies are non infected civilians. Too many to be human error?

On her return Salazar shares a story with Madison that is very similar to their current predicament in which the government executed people from his village in El Salvador when he was younger, under the pretence of removing them for medical treatment. (Finally a little light has been shed on the enigma that is Daniel Salazar.) Madison and Salazar are on the same page as they slowly putt together the pieces of the NG puzzle. Suddenly there is a new threat, the peaceful safe-zone neighborhood starts to look and become more and more like a prison.

The survivors’ suspicions are confirmed when the NG invade home base and take Nick. Salazar is forced to stay as they take Griselda away. Liza heads the facility when given the choice of staying in the safe-zone or going there with Exner. Each family within the group of survivors has lost a member to the facility. A rescue plan is surely impossible against a fully armed battalion. Though Madison blames Liza for the abduction straight away, she may turn out to be their only hope.

Things have gone from looking hopeful to very grim for the survivors. The cracks are starting to show as the NG are pushing their authority further and further into our survivors’ lives. With only two episodes left inthe season it’s time for our survivors to stop living in a bubble and push back.