In the Fear the Walking Dead recap, the survivors have to fix the boat before following Strand to his secret location and a plane crash site offers supplies and danger….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
When Fear the Walking Dead debuted a season ago, the six-episode order matched the same span of time that defined The Walking Dead when it first debuted on AMC in 2010.
The premise for Fear the Walking Dead, different from the original series, was that this show would take place at the very beginning of what would eventually become the zombie apocalypse. A lot was packed into six episodes as the new characters were living a normal, everyday life when the series began and by the end of the final hour, they were escaping a burning Los Angeles after the government decided the invasion of the dead was more than they could handle any longer.
It was a brilliantly executed six-episode arc, but the success of the show then demanded that the series was expanded and the Fear the Walking Dead season 2 jumped to 15 total episodes spread over the spring to the fall, bridging the gap between seasons of The Walking Dead.
So the growing pains for season two are very evident because the writers for Fear the Walking Dead have now been forced to stretch the series out to 15 total hours and it’s clear by the first few episodes that there’s a lot of space to fill.
It was never clearer than the latest episode titled “Ouroboros”, which featured a random cameo from a character first created in a web series titled “Flight 462” as well as a lot of standing still without the story really moving forward. Now there are certainly plenty of these episodes in The Walking Dead as well, but there have been a few complaints that Fear the Walking Dead is suffering from the season two doldrums and a lack of story thus far.
Some of that argument is on point — Fear the Walking Dead was at its best a season ago when the tension was ratcheted up with a real sense of dread that hung overhead while we all waited for the inevitable zombie invasion to happen. This season the show feels almost directionless in many ways as one episode showcases the survivors making it to shore and befriending a group of survivalists and the next has them discovering a plane crash site where they scavenge for supplies.
It’s not unwatchable by any means, but the tease of the survivors getting where they’re going or any real conflict to draw them into a larger story that will bleed over the entire season hasn’t developed. If that arc that’s being built is surrounding Strand’s mysterious planned destination and the random person he’s talking to on the other end of the satellite phone, it’s not quite working yet.
Hopefully as the show moves into the next few weeks, Fear the Walking Dead will begin to focus on a common goal or more fluid storytelling instead of these one off episodes that really haven’t told us anything that we don’t already know.
With that being said, let’s recap the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead titled “Ouroboros”…
Clogged Arteries
Picking up from last week’s episode, Salazar is still very untrusting of Strand’s real motives as well as his destination for all of the survivors. To hammer home his point, Salazar shares what he found out about Strand with Madison, who confronts the captain of the ship to find out his true intentions.
She’s not about to let him kick her and the rest of her family off the boat, but Strand promises that’s not his plan. Instead, he weaves a tale about a fantastic place in Baha, Mexico complete with food, supplies and even concrete walls to keep out the zombies. He also implores Madison to trust him more because the only way this ship full of strangers will ever work is to work together.
Meanwhile, Travis is becoming the ship’s resident mechanic after studying up some schematics with the water filtration system stalled out all of a sudden. It seems a dead person got lodged inside the intake valve and his blood, guts and even a hand gets trapped in the system, which not only pollutes the water they are drinking but also stops the boat from moving any further without clearing the blockage.
Travis decides to go deep sea diving to remove the obstruction and get the water filtration system back up and running. Of course he doesn’t enjoy Strand ordering him around to get the job done so in response, his less than hospitable host fires back at him with a soliloquy that only Winston Wolf could truly appreciate.
Flight 462
If you didn’t catch the multi-part web series titled “Flight 462”, the remnants of that doomed airplane ride showed up on Fear the Walking Dead this week with a woman named Alex caring for a boy named Jake along with two more male survivors who made it out of the crash alive. Alex was badly burned and barely hanging on and after a mutiny at sea, Alex was the only other person to make it out of that deadly crash.
Now Alex is caring for Jake, who is still recovering from massive burns all over his body while she tries to navigate this new, frightening world for the both of them.
Now Boarding
While the survivors wait for Travis to clean out the zombie mess blocking the intake valve, Alicia spots the remaining wreckage from Flight 462 and notes that the suitcases that washed up on shore could have valuable items needed for survival. To no one’s surprise, Madison doesn’t want her kids going ashore to look for anything but Alicia finally revolts and tells her mother that in this new world, everybody has to be a survivor and she can’t shelter them forever.
Salazar decides to escort the group on the beach with Alicia, Nick and Chris all making the trip.
Once they arrive, everybody spreads out to find different items. Nick and Alicia search for clothes and supplies while Salazar secretly looks for antibiotics to treat Ofelia’s gun shot wound that’s suddenly infected. Of course, Nick sniffs that out in a hurry and even offers to help Salazar hunt for the right medicine to save his daughter’s life despite his pleas that they are going at it alone.
Meanwhile, Chris discovers the remaining fuselage on the beach and inside he sees a few zombies trapped by their seatbelts. It looks like Chris found some real joy a week ago when he learned out to dispatch zombies with a pick-axe and now he’s using a piece of the airplane wreckage to take out the dead people inside the plane as well.
Unfortunately one of the people on board is still alive and Chris does his best to save the man, but he’s already too far gone. So Chris is forced to make a tough decision, which ultimately ends with him clubbing the man to death. Now maybe Chris can begin to realize what his father did by killing Liza at the end of season one. With the zombie virus ready to claim anyone who dies, maybe Travis was just doing the merciful thing by killing his mother.
Everything appears to be going well until Nick accidentally slips into a canyon and nearly gets eaten by a walker trapped underneath the sand. And everything then goes to shit after we find a fleeing Alex running over one of the sand dunes warning Salazar and everybody else on the beach to run because they are coming.
A second later, a horde of zombies tumble over the sand making a direct path to our survivors.
Survival of the Fittest
On the beach, Salazar and the others begin to battle the zombies with guns, sticks and everything in between to keep from being overwhelmed. The horde is too much to handle although Nick learns a neat trick after emerging from the pit unscathed — covered in blood, the zombies don’t even notice him walking on the beach and he finally just learned a big secret to getting away from the dead — become one of them!
Finally, the group gets back on board the life boat and makes it back to the Abigail.
Once they arrive, Travis and Madison check on the kids and everybody is all right — even Nick, who is covered from head to torso in zombie blood. They also meet a new friend named Alex, who helped them escape but the moment she begins to step foot on the boat, Strand puts an end to that.
He’s not allowing anymore strangers to step foot on his boat and that’s the end of it. While everyone tries to protest, it’s Madison who finally speaks up on his behalf while relaying their next course of action to follow Strand to Mexico. It seems this trust thing is a two way street and Madison is putting her faith in Strand at least for now.
She also backs him up when it comes to Alex and poor Jake, but they agree to tow them on their life raft until they get south and then they can go their separate ways. Everybody appears happy with this arrangement, but once the boat gets moving and the rest of the crew is back inside for the night, Strand emerges from the captain’s room and chops the rope holding onto the boat with Alex and Jake on it.
Madison tries to stop him, but Strand is committed and he leaves Alex and Jake in the middle of the ocean with no one and around and little chance of survival.
Strand is only worried about one thing — getting to his rendezvous in Mexico and he’s not about to let anyone or anything stop him from going there. That certainly includes two people he’s never met and has no reason to know so they are expendable in this war against the dead.
Fear the Walking Dead returns next Sunday night at 9pm ET on AMC but check out a sneak preview for the episode below:
