Fear The Walking Dead 204: Blood in the Streets [recap and poll]

Episode 204 of Fear The Walking Dead was quite an action packed hour, during which we learned more about the mysterious Strand. What did you think? Our weekly poll is finally up, and we need your feedback more than ever! So vote, and then leave your thoughts!

The episode begins at night, at a beach along the coast. The surf is rough, and someone is skinny dipping? No, he’s fighting the current to make it to shore. The lights of a helicopter fly overhead. Wait, WHAT? I have some serious questions. 

It turns out that the man in the water is Nick, who puts on clothes and then wanders into a camp of tents along the beach. We’re either in a flashback or a dream… right? I’m so confused at this point.

A walker snarls, and Nick bangs on a plastic jug to draw it out. It slowly staggers between the rows of tents which may or may not be abandoned. He slips into an empty tent and zips it closed. The walker comes to the mesh of the tent, snarling at him, and Nick kills it through the flimsy material with a stab to the head. He pulls the walker inside the tent and lays him down, then plunges his knife into its midsection.

Nick opens up the walker, looking like he’s going to throw up, then proceeds to cover himself in the its blood. He emerges from the tent, completely covered, more thoroughly than any character on The Walking Dead ever has. Rick Grimes would be so proud.

Related Story: The Walking Dead and Fear could be connected by Victor Strand

On the boat, Travis is very upset about Strand cutting the raft free at the end of last week’s episode. He tells Madison that he thinks they can survive without him, but Madison disagrees. Besides, she doesn’t want to just survive, she wants to start over. Travis sees trusting Strand as too great a gamble.

Ofelia and Chris sit outside on the deck chatting about their old lives. Suddenly, they hear a splash and see a raft rowing towards the boat. Chris doesn’t know what to do, whether he should shoot them or not, which he asks Ofelia repeatedly. One of the people on the raft is a pregnant woman, who appears to be in distress. The newcomers come onto the boat without waiting to be invited. They claim to have lost the engine of their boat and to have been drifting.

Strand comes out onto the deck and sees that there are new people there, but then runs back inside the cabin without being seen. Travis and Daniel aren’t sure about them. Madison walks the pregnant woman down an interior hallway. Alicia comes out onto the deck slowly and hears a young man talking. She asks him if he’s Jack, at which time the newcomers overpower them, seeing that their ruse may be over. Below the deck, Madison has been knocked out.

Alicia first refuses to help tie up Daniel, but one of the men says they can either bind him or shoot him. Chris and Alicia go outside and see another raft. One of the invaders shoots at it, and appears to hit whoever is in it.

And now for a flashback. Strand is watching footage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (to orient us in time, no doubt, back to 2005) while chatting with the man next to him at a bar. They’ve had a lot to drink. Strand helps the man back to his room and, when the man passes out on the bed, goes through his wallet. He takes the man’s credit cards, then leaves. We’ll later figure out that this man’s name is Thomas.

Back in the present, Strand is the one on the raft, drifting.

Jack comes into the room where Daniel and the others are all tied up and asks who has the key to the boat is. He puts a gun to Chris’ head and only takes it away when Travis says he can start the boat without the key. Madison is brought into the room with the rest of them.

Jack takes Alicia out onto the deck and says that Connor will make things better when he gets there. Jack promises that Alicia will be safe, but is not so reassuring about the others, saying only that “Connor listens to me.”

Back to Nick – he’s covered in blood, and is now walking through a neighborhood – slowly so as not to attract attention when he passes a walker.

Back to Strand’s flashback – it’s what appears to be the next morning, and Strand is in his bathroom when there’s a knock at the door. Two men, one of whom is Thomas, the man whose credits cards Strand stole the night before, come into his room. The conversation is surprisingly civil. Thomas tells Strand that he is now obligated to him, then leaves.

In the present time once again, Strand is still in the water. It’s not looking good for him. He drops the radio he’d been struggling to hold onto.

On the boat, Jack points his gun at Travis, who has yet to get the boat working without the key.

No one has seen Nick. Madison and Daniel plan to make a break for it, since there’s only three of the invaders. Madison asks the female invader when she’s due, and after pretending she doesn’t know, the woman tells her four weeks. Madison keeps talking to her, trying to keep her distracted. Daniel is working on getting his bindings loose behind his back.

The second man has Travis down in the engine room because Travis had told him that he needed to override the system from there.

Jack has Alicia in the cabin, and he asks if that’s where she sleeps. It is. She asks him if anything he said on the radio was true. He tells her a little about himself, and says that when someone saves your life, you owe them. Interestingly, Alicia doesn’t seem afraid of him. Jack asks her to come back with him, and Alicia says she could – with her family. Jack doesn’t think Connor will go for that. He cuts off her restraints and she surprises him by hugging him.

Nick walks casually up to the address he’d been looking for. At the front door, a man surprises him from behind with a gun pointed at him. It’s Luis, who grew up with Thomas – the man in Strand’s flashbacks. Nick puts his hands up and tells him that Strand sent him, that they’d had boat trouble. We assume that he was the man Strand had been talking to about their arrival.

Luis tells Nick to go inside and clean the blood off of him before he gets into his car.

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Back on the boat, Madison keeps talking to the woman.

On land, Luis pulls the car over and he and Nick get out. Luis says he had only planned for two people, and that he could provide passage into Mexico for two only. Nick says that Strand must have a plan.

Flashback to Strand, who is lying in the sun by a pool beside Thomas. Strand wants to talk about a tract of land that he wants to invest in, but Thomas, doesn’t want to discuss business. He wants Strand to just stay there with him instead of going back to the real world.

The man watching Travis sees Connor’s boat approaching. He tells Travis to start the engine, which he does. The men board and tell them that Travis and Alicia are going back with them. Jack puts a hood over Alicia’s head and leads her away. Two of the others threaten the rest of the group with their guns to stay seated.

Nick and Luis approach the Abigail on a small motorboat. Luis shoots several of Jack’s friends before they can react. Daniel is suddenly free, and the rest of his group are as well within a minute. Luis is surprised that Strand isn’t there, and says that they’re not going to Mexico without him.

Next: Fear The Walking Dead 204 review: Blood in the Streets

In another flashback, Strand is with Thomas, inside a house, where Strand tells him he’ll be back in two days. Thomas kisses him.

In the water, Strand is just barely staying afloat on his back. Madison finds him and pulls him into the lifeboat.

The poll is finally up! Please vote, so we can make up for lost time and I have some data on which to base my response article! And as always, leave your comments as well.