With next week being the mid-season finale of Fear the Walking Dead‘s second season, it was nice to see the show didn’t save all the guts and glory for the last episode before the break. Rather, this week’s episode cranked up the carnage in a pleasantly surprising way.
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Let me stop right here and give you the standard spoiler alert, though — if you haven’t yet seen Season 2’s episode 6 (“Sicut Cervus”), this recap will reveal some pertinent plot points.
Now, onto the good stuff.
So, the episode started off with a bang by showing a pastor and his flock in front of a church in Mexico. Strand’s lover, Thomas, shows up and tries to reason with the pastor. Shortly after, all of the people (pastor included) start bleeding from the eyes and keel over. Yikes!
Things are equally amped-up back on the boat, as everyone — except for Strand and Luis — must hide below deck as a boat containing two men approaches. Long story short, there’s a shoot-out and Luis doesn’t make it.
Then they finally find their way to dry land, massacring the zombified group of church parishioners before making it to the Abigail compound.
Tragically, Strand soon discovers that he didn’t make it to his beloved in time, as Thomas has been bitten. He is slowly dying, and ultimately Strand shoots him in the head after he passes to keep him from reanimating. It’s sad, y’all.
The following things also transpire: Chris starts to turn into a little sociopath, threatening Alicia and Madison; Nick has some trippy moment with a carved owl; Daniel stumbles upon a throng of walkers being kept in the cellar; and Celia cooks a damn good dinner but treats the undead like pets.
Which brings me to my big hope for the mid-season finale — that one of the main characters will die.
I realize this is a rather maudlin thing to wish, and normally I would never advocate for a core character to get axed. (Possibly quite literally, on this show.) However, I feel like Fear the Walking Dead is finally on the right track, and killing off a main character could propel its progress even further.
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I’ve tried to love these characters — I have. I know I unfairly compare them to their post-apocalyptic counterparts from The Walking Dead, and that’s a very apples-and-oranges comparison. I’m simply not as attached to them as I would have hoped I’d be at this point in the series.
And I don’t think I’m alone in that sentiment. The majority of the comments I get on my weekly reviews of the show are from people who are discontented with the characters. Some of these fans quite bluntly beg for the core family to get bitten or otherwise be exterminated.
Do I want them all to go the way of the walkers? Well, no. There wouldn’t be much of a show left, if that was the case. Besides, I am starting to grow fond of some of the characters.
I never thought I’d see the day, but Alicia has become kind of a badass these last few weeks. And who doesn’t like Strand? He can be sketchy, but he’s also cool AF. Nick is, uh, I’m not sure what Nick is. I can’t decide if he’s insane or a total genius but, either way, he intrigues me.
More:Fear the Walking Dead: WTF, Alicia? You have the worst taste in dudes
The jury is still kind of out on Madison and Travis so, if we’re being real, I wouldn’t mind one of them being written off. It could be just the thing the show needs to solidify its merit in viewers’ minds — to prove that it has true grit, like TWD before it.
If it were up to me, I’d love to see a scene where Chris does something reckless that puts Madison in danger and forces Travis to make a decision that costs someone their life. Depending on which way it goes, this could lead to a seriously dark arc for Chris or Travis, and I’m down for that.
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