Fear the Walking Dead: Episode 2 recap, So close, yet so far

When civilization ends, it ends fast.

Episode 2 of Fear the Walking Dead kicked up the intensity level. Walkers are increasing in number and things are starting to get chaotic in Los Angeles.

Matt

Alicia goes to Matt’s house to figure out why he didn’t show up at the beach and why he’s not answering her texts. She finds him with a dangerous fever. When Travis, Madison and Nick arrive to pick up Alicia, Travis discovers that Matt has been bitten. Matt talks Alicia into going home with her parents, assuring her that his own parents will be home soon to care for him.

Escape plans

Chris, Fear The Walking Dead – AMC /

Travis and Madison have decided to get out of Los Angeles to the desert while this is going on. Travis needs to go and get Chris and Liza since they aren’t answering their phones and Madison goes to the school to get Nick some pills from the nurse’s office to help him through his withdrawals. Chris was on a bus and then participating in a protest against a police shooting of a homeless man when Travis and Liza find him. They need to find shelter with the Salazar family in Daniel’s barber shop as things start getting crazy on the streets.

Lights going on and off

Literally and figuratively. Power and phone service is starting to go in and out. And lights are starting to go on in some of the characters heads and some characters are still in the dark. Travis sees a cop loading up the trunk of his police car with water. Liza was in the dark because she was studying and hadn’t seen the news, but now on the streets, she’s starting to see things and she knows Travis has seen even more. Chris is in the dark still. Alicia is in the dark and Madison is trying to keep her there, but at the end of the episode, you can see in Madison’s face that she realizes she can’t shelter her daughter much longer.

Tobias. The lights are really on.

Madison runs into Tobias while she’s at the school getting meds for Nick and she helps him gather food for his family. She gives him his knife back! Tobias is cryptic about his mom not being back yet, but his uncle has been around. Tobias doesn’t know everything. He hasn’t seen “any of them” yet, but he breaks down what he predicts will happen for Madison, who tells him they will contain it. To which Tobias glibly remarks something like “the same they who will warn us?”

Tobias lays it out for Miss C. The satellites will go out, no cell phones, no internet. Looters will go for pharmacies first, then gun shops and liquor stores. The less you’re out there, the less you’re exposed.

Obama Walker

fear-the-walking-dead-episode-101-art-lawrence-935 /

We see Artie, the principal, whom everyone on earth predicted would be a walker this week, and, yes, he’s a walker. Madison, still naively approaches him and tells him she can help him. Tobias readies his knife. But Tobias hasn’t learned what we know about head shots. “Gotta be the brain!” They have a close call and a fire extinguisher makes Madison the series’ first main character walker killer.

Tobias is Morgan?

Madison drops Tobias off and offers to have him and his family join hers until this is all over. To add to last week’s “No one’s going to college. No one’s doing anything they think they are,” Tobias tells Madison, “This doesn’t end.” We sense that Tobias doesn’t want to burden Miss C. He knows she has Nick to deal with and her own daughter, so Tobias goes in his house and we don’t know if or when we’ll see him again. (Sniff)

Emotional Effect

Travis and Madison, Fear The Walking Dead – AMC /

We’re seeing the emotional effect that killing a walker and perhaps especially a friend is having on Madison. It’s very good they put that on tonight’s episode and didn’t wait for episode 3 to show that. We still forget how desensitized we’ve become to walker kills. Artie was her friend and boss. One day life is normal. The next day she’s killing the principal with a fire extinguisher. She doesn’t understand what’s going on yet. To her she just killed someone, infected or not. Self defense or not. And then has to drop off Tobias and go home to her family and gear up to escape to the desert.

When civilization ends, it ends fast.

Next: Season 5:All Named Character Deaths

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