Fear the Walking Dead: Episode 5 recap-Cobalt
By Susie Graham
Cobalt is code name of a mission that will take place tomorrow morning at 0900 hours. Ofelia brought her soldier friend to Daniel who held him bound to a chair in the basement. The plan was to trade him to the Army for Nick and Griselda.
Madison and Ofelia realize that trade isn’t what’s going to take place. Madison acquiesces when Daniel calls her on her hypocrisy. She doesn’t want the soldier hurt, but she wants Nick back. Daniel calmly tortures and interrogates Ofelia’s gentleman friend.
Nick finds himself in a fenced-in little holding area with sensitive neighbor Douglass and fancy new man Victor Strand, self-described closer. The Morgan Freeman from Shawshank Redemption. The man who knows how to get things. He trades his cufflinks for favors from the “guards” like Red traded cigarettes for Raquel Welch posters. This closer loved Nick. He liked to have someone indebted to him. And unlike Daniel, Nick was fine with that.
Alicia and Chris bond in a symbolic teenage version of The Great Gatsby and The Hunger Games. They go to a rich neighbor’s house down the street and play dress up with their clothes, their toys and their wine and grand piano. Then shedding the riches and the materialism of life as anyone knew it or wished for it, moving into what we know is the apocalypse, they break and destroy with joy vases, chandeliers, and all the fancy things in the house.
While on a trip with the army, Travis must face what he wasn’t sure of, when the soldiers taunt him into shooting one of the infected with a rifle through a scope. They told Travis if he couldn’t do it and he thought she was a person, then he was calling them murderers. Travis tried, but then saw the face of the donut shop worker and then her name tag. Kimberly. He couldn’t do it.
Poor Griselda had made it through surgery. She lost her foot, but then became septic and went into shock. She called out to God to take her and felt she was being punished perhaps for things she and Daniel had experienced in the war. The doctor was going to put a shot through her head to prevent her from turning. She explained that the brain is the only injury that stops that process. Liza does it.
Daniel comes upstairs with a bowl filled with blood. He washes the bowl and his hands and arms. Earlier we saw the soldier’s arm with a tapestry of blood and cut flesh as Daniel hypnotized him with his talk and questions. Daniel shared with Madison another story. This time not of his father, but of himself.
How Ofelia was 9 years old when she asked about the war. Why they came to America. He said he told her in detail about the violence, except he didn’t tell her which man was him. Daniel choked up as he cleansed the bowl and his soul and wondered if she would understand that it was necessary both times in order to survive.
Madison’s response seemed cold and selfish, but was rather generous. She let him know that she understood it was necessary, not by giving him any unnecessary words but by focusing on his goal. She asked if the boy told “us what we needed to know.” By saying us, she let Daniel know he wasn’t alone in his decision. She could have said, “Did he tell you anything?”
Travis found Ofelia outside upset about what her father has decided to do. Travis can’t believe Madison would knowingly let Daniel do this. They are not aware that Griselda is dead, but we find out that Daniel has potentially saved all their lives.
Cobalt. Code name for the EVAC mission from the LA base at 0900 hours tomorrow. The soldier told a story of how things went bad. They locked people in the arena. They couldn’t tell the infected from…
Cobalt. The code name for the EVAC mission of the soldiers from the LA base. The humane termination of…