Fear The Walking Dead: Nick’s fear and Nick’s hope
By Liam O'Leary
In the latest Fear The Walking Dead, it became evident that Nick wanted to try to spare Troy, but, why? I think the answer lies in Nick’s own fears.
Throughout the second half (Thus far) of Season Three of Fear The Walking Dead, it seems as though it’s been Nick’s mission to save Troy.
Why? During most of the first half of the season, Nick has, well, hated Troy. Why this change in attitude all of a sudden?
Has his brief time working alongside Troy made them that close of friends? Somehow…I doubt it.
No, I think that Nick’s quest to redeem Troy is much more personal than that.
If you recall, during his conversation with Alicia in this past Sunday’s episode, Nick openly wondered if he wasn’t that different from Troy. The implication from their conversation was that Nick believed he was just as messed up as his friend.
While Alicia certainly acknowledged Nick’s self-destructive tendencies, she wasn’t willing to outright equate her brother with the mildly disturbed Troy.
Now, this might seem odd, the idea that Nick would compare himself to the homicidal Troy, yet, if we look back on Nick over the course of the series, this is just another instance of a deep rooted fear he’s had since the series began. That fear I speak of is Nick’s dread of being insane.
If you recall, all the way back in the pilot episode, it was clear that Nick was terrified that the infected were some sort figment of his imagination.
After leaving the hospital when his roommate died (And, almost certainly, turned), Nick franticly called his friend (And drug dealer) Cal, hoping to get to the bottom of what he’d seen. When Nick finally got a meeting with Cal, he fearfully questioned his friend as to whether or not the heroin he’d bought was laced with any other sort of drug. Nick’s obvious hope was that what he saw was simply the result of a hallucinogen, and not that his drug abuse had driven him crazy.
If you want to see just how much the idea of being crazy truly terrifies Nick, look no further than the end of the pilot episode.
As Nick accidentally shoots Cal (Himself fearing Nick was losing it, and may have blurted out Cal’s business to the LAPD in a crazed stated), he calls Travis and his mother, hoping they can help.
When he brings them to where Cal was, they find nothing, save Cal’s gun, and a bloodstain where Nick had left him. Upon seeing Cal not being where Nick told Travis and Madison he should have been, Nick collapses in horror. For him, this is a living nightmare: Where he sees death around him, yet, when he tells other people, they see nothing, making it appear as though it were all in his head.
While Cal’s reanimation reveals that Nick was not imagining the horrors he was seeing, it would not mean the end of Nick’s fears that he was going off the deep end.
As he roamed the Mexican desert alone in Season Two, Nick used his skill in wearing infected blood as camouflage to march along with a horde of infected.
While marching, he began to hear the dead whispering to him, until, finally, he turned to see Gloria (In infected form) talking to him. The look on Nick’s face says it all.
Even though it seems Nick realizes this was brought on by heat exhaustion, dehydration, and/or sleep deprivation, his reaction still suggests that he’s afraid of what the hallucination means for him. It suggests that Nick fears that this — Seeing what he knows isn’t possible — may become his future; That his past lifestyle may make him irrevocably mentally damaged and that these waking nightmares will become permanent.
Which brings us back to Troy. He’s not right in the head. There’s no arguing it. While Troy still has some humanity to him: He stand’s by his friends, he cares about his family, etc., his psychological problems can’t be overlooked.
And, that, I believe, is why Nick seems so adamant to try to save Troy. Despite the differences between the two, Nick (A little erroneously, to be honest) sees himself as being similar to Troy. He maybe even fears that, someday, he may become just like him.
I think Nick’s inherent fear of becoming crazy has made him desperate to prove that if someone goes off the deep end, that that isn’t a death sentence. I think he hopes that, if he can bring Troy back from Crazytown, then, in a worst-case scenario, he could come back, too.
Next: Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Family
But, what do you think? Do you think I’m wrong? Do you think Nick is right? Is Troy redeemable and, if so, what does that mean for Nick? Let me know in the comments!
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!