Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: The best in us

As Fear The Walking Dead has shown us, a zombie apocalypse has a funny way of making us realize our potential, and bringing out the best inside of us.

Last night, as I was finishing up my weekly Facebook posts on friends in a zombie apocalypse, it got me thinking about Troy Otto as a individual. When we first met him in the Season Three opener, “Eye Of The Beholder”, he came off as some kind of demented wannabe scientist, killing people to determine what, if anything, factors into how long it takes for someone to turn.

He was, clearly, a bad person.

However, if my analysis of the San Diego Comic-Con trailer for the second half of Season Three is correct, that initial assumption would be…incorrect.

By the looks of things, Troy risks his life to protect Nick, and warns him to get out of dodge as things at Broke Jaw Ranch break down. Clearly, Troy isn’t as bad of a person as the first episode (And the trailer) would lead us to believe. For one reason or another,  a more human side to Troy has been brought out, he isn’t the same demented person he was when we first met him.

And that is when it hit me: Troy has become better because the zombie apocalypse brings out the best in us.

Now, obviously, this isn’t a universal axiom, as there are plenty of people who turn quite rotten in a zombie apocalypse (I may, in fact, focus on that next week…), but, it can’t be ignored that, in the face of such overwhelming chaos and horror, people can and do rise to the occasion. I believe Troy to simply be the most recent example of that in Fear The Walking Dead.

However, this isn’t to say that he is the only such person, as we’ve come across at least a couple of other characters in the show who’ve managed to shake off their rather unsavory coils and become otherwise good survivors and, more importantly, good people.

Look at Nick, for example. When we first met Nick, he was a homeless junkie, drifting around in Los Angeles with his family having no idea where he was or whether he was even alive.

Since the outbreak began, Nick has completely transformed. We’ve watched him evolve into a genuine survivor, managing to eke out a living in the harsh Mexican desert, staying a step ahead of infected, hostiles, and even wild dogs. He became a leader, guiding the Colonianistas (Would that be the correct term?) to the U.S.-Mexico border, in the hopes of finding them a new home. Only Troy’s militia (Presumably believing them infected) stopped them.

Regardless of his ultimate success, this would have appeared impossible for the Nick we were introduced to. Nick had been living on the edge, far removed from anything like the person he’s become.

And, that’s the point: The arrival of the infected has brought out the best in Nick. Having to be a step ahead of everything out there trying to kill him has forced him to bury his addiction. Having to protect his family, his friends, and the communities that have taken him in has made him both compassionate towards others and wary of the threats people can pose to the safety of those he cares about.

Yet, Nick is not alone. Nope, there is a second member of Fear The Walking Dead’s cast who’s shown that extreme circumstances can bring out the best in people. I speak, of course, of Daniel.

Not long after we were introduced to the rather grim and unflinching barber, we learned he had a dark past, one kept well hidden from his daughter.

As he callously tortured Corporal Adams to learn about the nature of Cobalt, then unleashed an army of infected on the military’s makeshift hospital, it became evident he would do anything to get what he wanted. While all he wanted was to protect his family, it was, nevertheless, frightening to see the lengths he would go to achieve that, not least of all to his daughter.

Yet, a funny thing began to happen as the group fled L.A. and arrived in Mexico.

Cracks began to show in Daniel’s otherwise stoic demeanor. With the loss of his wife, Griselda, it became evident just how important she was in helping him fight off the demons of his dark past.

Rather than have it simply be normal to him (As the aforementioned tortured might have suggested), that dark past was a burden, slowly crushing him with guilt he could never truly assuage.

But, after having visions of his late wife, Daniel began to come to terms with the demons of his life left behind. By burning down the infected-filled Abigail hacienda, Daniel felt he had taken a step towards earning absolution for his sins.

After Dante Esquivel recruited Daniel to serve as one of his security guards (Albeit reluctantly), Daniel was assigned finding and interrogating people Dante saw as stealing “his” water. When the culprits were found, Dante ordered them, and Strand, executed…by Daniel. This was, essentially, attempting to thrust Daniel back into the very Hell he was trying to lift himself out of.

Yet, rather than comply, Daniel killed Dante and his goons.

This is a rather stark turn around from the man we met at the beginning of the series. When we first met Daniel, the only reason he let Travis, Liza, and Chris ride out the riot in his shop was at the insistence of his wife. However, at this point in the series, he’s rejecting a relatively comfortable existence to save the lives of people he barely knows.

All of this goes back to Daniel’s desire for absolution, both from those he killed during his service in the El Salvadorean army, and from his daughter, whom he’d hidden it from.

This desire for forgiveness has transformed Daniel. His hope of washing away his past sins has compelled him to become a better person. He now has concern for strangers where he didn’t before. Going from a man who wouldn’t even think about torturing someone to one who tries to escape doing it.

Daniel is far from perfect. His time in war has irrevocably changed him, but, the circumstances of the outbreak have forced him to come to terms with that, and strive to be better than the man he was when outbreak began.

While the zombie apocalypse can certainly turn people rotten, it also has an amazing ability to do the opposite.

Whether it’s the need to survive, the desire to protect friends or family, or the hope to atone for one’s mistakes, the nature of the zombie apocalypse can cause people to rise to the occasion, casting off who they were to become someone better.

The lesson here is not to underestimate people in a zombie apocalypse, including yourself.

You will likely meet people from all walks of life once civilization crumbles, and you shouldn’t judge who someone might be based on who they were. This, obviously, isn’t always true, but, who a person is before zombies emerge may not be who they are afterwards. People who you might think of as unsavory, dangerous, even worthless, may surprise you.

Even you. You may not think too highly of yourself, but, you never know how you might react to a situation such as a zombie apocalypse. We never know, until we’re tested.

But, that’s the point: The zombie apocalypse can bring out the best in us. Any of us.

This is why you follow…The Rules.

Next: Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Stick by your friends

And that’s our survival rule of the week!! Hopefully, it will help you should you ever need it and give you that mental edge that will prove so crucial once the dead start eating everyone.

If you like this and want to find out more rules to survive the zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can get it on Kindle here and on iTunes here!