Fear the Walking Dead’s Nick : Romanticizing the dead

NIck Clark has an unusual relationship with the dead that has developed on Fear the Walking Dead over the two months since the infection hit.

The character of NIck has been a fan favorite from the first day he opened his eyes in the church and found Gloria. He has a charisma and charm that draws people to him. He is also an addict. Even though he is clean now, he has qualities of an addictive personality and his family has learned to behave codependently around him.

Interestingly, the audience is codependent as well. They forgive him and romanticize him in almost the same way that he romanticizes himself and the dead. Any other character who felt the same way about the infected would be criticized immediately as weak or crazy. Travis was condemned as weak and stupid when he didn’t want Madison to kill Susan or burn his neighbor and even said good morning to Susan.

Celia was looked at as evil and sinister when she kept her son and the dead in the cellar. She was not naive like Hershel or Travis, hoping for a cure, she was a bruja or evil voodoo witch, thinking they are not really dead and just changed, crazy like LIzzie.

But when Nick says something poetic like he wants to be in a place where the dead are not looked at as monsters, we all swoon. He is a tortured soul and a survivor. He’s a romantic and he is romanticizing Celia’s views of death and he sees deeply.

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I’m not being overly sarcastic. Much. I have romanticized the walkers as well. I have found beauty and symbolism in them. But I think they need to be killed. They are not the people we once knew. The people we knew are gone.

The symbolism that Nick has placed on the undead is one step further than mine. He sees himself, the addict, in the walkers. When he was using, he was gone, too. He was looked at as a monster. The walkers and the addicts in the world are both troublemakers to their families.Sometimes you have to cut them off or let them go.

The families have to adjust everything in their lives around the walkers now. The world is theirs. Everything revolves around their needs. The walkers and the addicts don’t mean to be as “selfish” as they are, but their intentions don’t matter, their gut desires take over and that’s all that matters. You can’t reason with either one.

Much like the mocking of day of the dead that death is the great leveler, addiction is as well, it doesn’t care about who you are or how much money you have, what profession, race or religion. Once it gets a hold of you, it’s over. Once you’re bitten by addiction or a walker, you turn. You’re family doesn’t see you the same anymore. You’re a monster.

Next: Celebrating the death that comes for us all

If NIck is truly going to become a survivor, he will have to look death in the face and slay it. He will have to kill the walkers again. He will have to accept that he is not them. He is not a monster. He can change. He hasn’t turned with no turning back. He doesn’t have to walk among them the way MIchonne once did. He deserves to break free and walk among the living again.

Walking among the dead is pretty. But life isn’t pretty. Life is messy. Clean off the blood and become messy again.