Fear The Walking Dead 207: Shiva [recap and poll]

The Fear The Walking Dead mid-season finale has come and gone, and while we were promised a cliffhanger, it wasn’t quite what I had expected. Read on to see a recap of what happened, vote for the rating you would give the episode, and leave all of your thoughts and reactions.

At the end of last week’s episode, Strand’s middle of the night gunshot alerted Madison and Alicia to the fact that Chris was standing beside their bed with a knife in his hand. No, that’s not creepy at all!

In the next scene, it’s raining, and a young boy is standing in the forest. It’s young Daniel – the current Daniel is having a flashback. The spell is broken by a gunshot.

He gets up and rushes Ofelia, who is in the room with him, out into the hall, telling her to hurry. They go outside, and suddenly Ofelia can’t stand up. She starts tearing the skin off of her face… and then Daniel wakes up from what was thankfully a dream. He can hear voices nearby and people are running down the hall outside his room. Ofelia isn’t there.

Everyone gathers in the bedroom where Strand sits up in bed beside Thomas, who he shot at the end of last week’s episode. Celia walks up to the bed and confronts him. The others stand there listening, shocked – except Travis, who runs out of the room.

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Celia concludes her angry monologue by slapping Strand across the face and telling him in Spanish, “You love no one.” Madison tries to stop her from getting any more agitated, and Celia turns on her. Celia turns to leave, stopping in front of Nick by the door. Nick offers his condolences.

Outside, Daniel calls for Ofelia. She asks him what’s wrong, because he looks stunned. After the dream he had, he had needed to assure himself that she’s okay.

Travis can’t find Chris. He asks Alicia to help him find him, but Alicia refuses, telling him that Chris was standing over her with the knife when the gunshot went off. Travis insists that Chris would never hurt her, then walks away.

Strand tells the rest of the group that he has to bury Thomas because it was what he wanted. Celia, getting angry again, yells back at him that what her son had wanted was him. Strand replies that Thomas wasn’t her son. Nick intercepts Celia before she can reply, assuring her that he hadn’t meant it. He convinces her to relax, but she tells them that she wants them gone by sundown at the end of that day – from the fact that the sun hasn’t risen yet, they’re looking at about 12-16 hours.

Outside, Travis calls to Chris as he walks around looking for him. Chris sees him but doesn’t stop, and Travis runs after him, calling his name again.

The sun rises over the hills. Travis is still walking around looking for Chris. He finds a dead man with a knife sticking out of his head, takes the knife and goes on his way. The man’s gun is already gone. Chris is still walking ahead of Travis, and he has the dead man’s gun.

Madison tells Nick and Alicia to gather whatever they can without drawing attention because they need to pack the truck and get back to the boat. Alicia refuses to go back to the boat, to which Madison replies that, “These people are not our friends.” She says that Celia is dangerous. Nick insists that Celia is just upset, but Madison tells them to stay away from her.

Madison tells them that when Travis comes back, they’re leaving. Alicia asks what happens if he doesn’t come back, but Madison insists that he will.

Travis is still walking through the remains of the village, finding body after body among the remains of civilization. He sits for a second and then gets up, having heard a noise inside a house. Venturing inside, he comes across a man who yells at him in Spanish, holding a large, sharp object.

They come to some sort of agreement, seeing that neither of them mean the other harm, and Travis collapses into a chair. The man brings him water, and Travis tells him that he’s looking for his son. The man doesn’t speak English. Travis indicates that it’s his feet that are bothering him, which makes sense since he’d left the house in a hurry and wasn’t wearing shoes. When his socks are removed, we can see why they hurt – they’re bloody.

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Note to self, don’t go for a long walk in the Mexican countryside without shoes.

Back at the house, Madison is gathering supplies, thanking a woman who gives her a box of something. She and the others in the courtyard watch in shock as Nick, covered in blood the same way he had been after learning to blend in with the infected, hauls another man, who’s making very walker-like noises and who is bound and gagged, up to the entrance of the house. It’s Luis. Or, it was Luis. Several other men gather around to hold him and bring him inside.

Nick leaves “Luis” with the others and slowly follows them into the house. Celia stands in front of the men holding her son and says that he has changed, but he’s still her son. Nick watches from a distance. She tells the men in Spanish to put him with the others. She asks Nick why he’s not afraid. Nick doesn’t know. She tells him that he belongs there with them, and that he should stay. He asks her what about his family. She says that they are not like him.

Celia tells Nick that she knows that when the others – his family – look at Luis, they see a monster. Celia calls the infected “creatures who cannot control their nature.” Nick says that the others will learn, but Celia says he cannot change them. Celia breaks slightly, telling him that his family can stay, but that he will be responsible for them if they do. She says that this is not an apocalypse, that it is a beginning, and the end of death itself.

Celia, I don’t think you have a firm grip on reality. Those things want to eat you.

Strand is digging a grave, with Daniel standing beside him. Daniel tells Strand that he shouldn’t put Thomas in the ground because the whole place is unholy, infected. He says that Thomas won’t rest, that he’ll come back for him. He walks away, but Strand keeps digging, unswayed.

Nick is showering in his clothes at an outdoor shower beside the pool. He asks Madison if Travis is back yet, which he isn’t. Madison tells Nick that he’s different ever since they left LA. She doesn’t understand his fascination with the dead. Nick says that they’re not dead and not infected. Madison says that she doesn’t understand him.

Nick tells her that she’s talking to him like he’s using again, which Madison ignores. She asks if it was Celia who put him up to it – the task of going out after Luis, no doubt – to which he says that he can’t talk to her when she’s like this. She says that she’s just trying to understand.

He’s getting upset now, and yells that Celia just wanted her son back, and that she can understand that. Nick says that he’d do the same thing for her. He says that nothing could touch him, that he didn’t feel fear or hate, that he couldn’t die.

Try going outside not covered in blood, Nick. You could definitely die.

Daniel finds Ofelia outside and tells her to come with him. He says that her mother is waiting for them at the gates. Ofelia is understandably worried about him, knowing that her mother is long since dead. He starts to yell that the place is evil and if they stay, they die. He yanks on her arm, but she resists.

A small group of the men who live on the grounds approach the father and daughter and get between them, shouting noisily. Daniel cuts one of them in the face with a blade he had in his pocket, and several of them hold him down while another one punches him. Two men hold Ofelia back as well.

Strand is still digging, and the hole is getting deep. Madison approaches him and tells him that she knows what he’s going through. He asks what she wants. She mentions Nick, and says she doesn’t know what’s happening to him. Strand tells her that she does know: that the combination of being an addict who’s dropped into “a mess of death and doubt” has made Nick crave something to cling to. Celia with her quasi-religious bullshit has her hooks in him, he says.

Strand says that he’s going back to the boat, if there still is one. He asks if she’s interested, but Madison says she can’t leave without Travis. She tells him that she wishes there was something she could do, but Strand stops her. He tells her that they got each other there because it was a useful arrangement, but they shouldn’t be confused – they’re not friends.

Back in the village, the man who doesn’t speak English gives Travis a pair of shoes. Travis thanks him, then points to a picture of a boy and asks the man if it’s his son. The man replies, “Ramon.” Travis says that he’s looking for his son, trying to describe him with gestures. The man points in the direction that he’d seen Chris go.

Travis suddenly sees a book sitting on the couch that’s written in English, and asks the man again if he speaks English. The man tells him in Spanish that if he hurries, he can catch him.

Seeing a shadow move under the door to the next room, Travis asks in a whisper if someone is in there. The man whispers back, in English, “Please, he says he will hurt my boy if I don’t make you leave.” Travis nods as if he’s going to cooperate, but then pushes the man aside and forces his way through the door. He’s met with Chris pointing a gun at him, standing in front of the boy. Chris asks Travis why he can’t just let him go.

On the grounds of the hacienda, Celia is making a speech. She says that forty years before, they had worked for the Abigails, cooked and cleaned for them and that she had raised the son they had ignored as if he had been her own. She says that Thomas was her son. Today, she says, standing in front of the hole in the ground that Strand had dug, she is no longer a housekeeper.

As Madison, Alicia and Ofelia stand together nearby, Celia says that the past is forgotten and the world is reborn, that now the work begins. The locals file past, throwing dirt on Thomas’ grave. Alicia asks if they’re really going to let her throw Strand out alone. Madison doesn’t know what else to do.

Celia tells Strand that it’s time to leave. He replies that he’s not done. She repeats herself in a louder voice, and asks several of the men to help. He picks up the shovel he’s holding to defend himself, but she says that she won’t have violence. She tells him to hurry because it’s a long way back in the dark.

“What wouldn’t you do for your children?”

Ofelia comes down the hill and asks Celia where her father is. Celia won’t let her see him but says that he’s safe. She says that he’s a danger to himself and to her. Celia asks how long he has been unwell. Ofelia says that he’s not unwell and Celia walks away.

Back to Chris, who’s still pointing the gun at Travis. He asks if he’s seen the way they look at him, like he’s disgusting, like he’s a monster. Travis tells him he’s not. He tells him to look at the boy, because the boy is scared. When Chris glances away, Travis reaches for the gun. Chris breaks away and runs out of the room and out of the house, with Travis running hard to catch up. At least this time he’s chasing him with shoes on!

Travis tackles Chris in the dirt and tries to hold him down, but Chris grabs the knife out of Travis’ belt, forcing Travis to move to avoid it. He clamps down on the wrist of Chris’ hand holding the knife, knocking it away and then tossing it out of reach. Travis sits back to catch his breath, then tells Chris sadly “I should have helped you.” Chris sits up and tells Travis to look at him, that he’s no good.

At the house, Celia approaches Daniel with a tray. He’s tied to a chair and doesn’t look quite as well cared for as she had suggested to Ofelia. She tells him that he must be hungry. She tries to spoon food into his mouth, but he refuses. She asks if he thinks that she would poison “a good posole.”

She says that she is not the killer here, and if she didn’t know better, that she’d say it was hatred she saw in his eyes. He tells her that he’s not afraid of her, and that the creatures she keeps are an abomination.

While Celia is talking, Daniel hears another voice. It tells him to look at it, and asks how many. He replies “too many.” The voice says that at night he would recite the names to her. He’s hearing the voice of his dead wife, Griselda. She’s been dead since season 1, but suddenly, there she is.

Celia tells him “They hate you,” while Griselda him that he would confess in his sleep and she would grant him absolution. Daniel’s really having a moment. Celia tells him to confess his sins because he’s dying. He says that he has nothing to say to her. She crouches in front of him and says that she’ll take care of him and that there’s a place for him there, then walks away. As she leaves, he sees his wife, or thinks he sees her, for the first time.

Outside on a hill, the next morning, Nick approaches Travis, who’s sitting and staring into space. Nick is covered in fresher looking than usual blood from the top of his forehead right on down. Nick catches his breath and tells Travis that he came to bring him back because she (Madison) needs him.

Travis replies “So does he.” Nick sees Chris in the distance and says, “You found him.” Travis replies, “No, and you didn’t find me. He needs his father.” He tells Nick to tell Madison that he never saw them because Chris can’t come back, and so neither can Travis. Nick gives Travis the knife he was holding, and walks away.

Celia is clearing away the bloody sheets where Thomas had been shot, while Madison tells her that she’s making a mistake. Celia replies that it happens every day. Madison says that she and her children are alive because of Strand.

But Celia simply repeats that he killed her son and that she’d think that Madison would understand. Madison asks “What about my son?” Celia wants to know if Madison thinks that she’s filling his head with “false faith.” Madison does. Celia calls Nick a remarkable soul, and says that the only reason the rest of their family are still there is because she sees the light inside him.

Celia tells her that if she remains there, they’ll have to accept “them” (the infected) as Celia and the others there do, or that Nick will have to choose between his family and “the truth that they don’t want to understand.” Madison says that she wants to understand. Celia tells her to come with her.

Daniel is still talking with his dead wife, who says she doesn’t like the place. He obviously doesn’t either, and he calls it unholy. She says that Celia wants to take Ofelia from him, but he insists that he won’t let her. She’s not sure how he can stop her in his current condition.

Griselda, who he now sees as well as hears, asks why he didn’t bury her. He says that he looked for her but couldn’t find her. She says that she’s still waiting. He replies that he had told her everything, but she doesn’t agree. There is one more thing that haunts him now, she says.

We’re back in the rain, in the forest, from the flashback at the beginning of the episode. The boy is on the bank – young Daniel – and a body is laying in a shallow river. No, wait, there’s lots of bodies.

In the present again, Daniel says there are so many. She asks if he remembers the first one.

In the forest, someone hands Daniel a gun and he points at a body… no, the man is alive! The man tries to sit up. Back in the present, Daniel calls that man his first victim. He recalls shooting him, saying “they” made him. His wife tells him that no, his first victim was himself.

Madison follows Celia into the walker dungeon that she has set up in the wine cellar. She opens the gate and walks in as if it’s no big deal that there are walkers at the other end of the room, asking “If your child was hungry, would you not feed him?”

Madison has followed her in, but backs up very slowly toward the gate as Celia continues to ask the same sort of questions, ending with, “What wouldn’t you do for your children?” Madison replies, “Nothing,” as she locks Celia inside the gate and walks away without so much as a glance back.

A man comes into the room where Daniel is being held and unties one of his wrists to let him take the spoon from him, which Daniel immediately drops. The man bends down to pick it up, and Daniel headbuts him (OUCH! That’s the second time someone has done that this season on this show!), knocking him over. He’s still tied to the chair and stands up, but then falls over, breaking the chair as it hits the ground. He struggles with the ropes as he hears his wife tells him to set her free.

The locals walk Strand to the gates of the property in the dark. He tells them not to worry about him, he’ll hail a cab. Alicia had been walking down the road behind them and waves to him. He waves back as the gates close loudly.

Travis and Chris walk through the dark.

Daniel enters the wine cellar, where the walkers are gathered at the far end, trailing gasoline along the floor behind him as he walks. They stand up and look at him, inching forward, and he just stares at them. His vision of his wife walks out from among them, towards him. He lights his lighter and drops it in the gasoline, the trail running along the floor. Still, he just stands there.

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Outside the gates, Strand gets into the truck.

Nick is on his way back from his failed mission to retrieve Travis, and sees the flames. Madison has seen them at the same time from elsewhere, and runs forward as flaming pieces of debris fall in front of her. She calls to Daniel, who is still inside the cellar.

The whole hacienda is now quickly going up in flames. Strand drives up in the truck and tells them to get in. Madison says that Nick and Travis are coming back, but he says that the rest of them will be dead before they get there. Alicia, Ofelia and Strand get in the truck.

I can’t help but be reminded of the Greene family’s farmhouse going up in flames on TWD, and Rick’s crew escaping however they could. Somehow, this just doesn’t compare to Carol jumping on the back of Daryl’s motorcycle in the nick of time… but I digress.

Madison walks slowly away from the truck, staring out at the dried out vineyard fields. They call her back, but she ignores them. Nick walks toward her, looking torn, and Alicia yells to him to get in the truck. He says that he couldn’t find them, then asks, “Where’s Celia?” He asks who did this.

Madison doesn’t answer, just tells him that they have to go back to the boat. Nick says that Celia was right about them.

A crowd of walkers is approaching them. Nick says, “We destroy everything.” Strand has gotten out of the truck and now grabs Madison by the waist, pulling her back toward the truck as Nick turns to walk away. She calls his name, but he runs. Strand drives them through the property, past Nick, who walks between the walkers easily, since he’s still covered in blood. (I’m sure he’ll be fine… at least until it rains.)

They drive through the gates and out into… what? We won’t find out until August.

We at Undead Walking appreciate all of your enthusiasm and participation in the first half of this season of Fear the Walking Dead. Don’t be a stranger! There will be a reader response article as usual in a few days using the comments and ratings that you leave here, so don’t be shy!