Fear The Walking Dead, Survival Rule: How far would you go?

Fear the Walking Dead

If there’s something that would make you go too far, it makes you easy to manipulate.

It was made pretty clear throughout this week’s Fear TWD that, what made Madison so willing to break her moral code and start kidnapping children, was P.A.D.R.E. promising her that they could reunite her with Nick and Alicia so long as she did what they told her.

We watched the aftermath of her first successful grab, where she told them that she did what they wanted and wanted them to hold up their end of the bargain, but they told her that one wasn’t enough and that they needed more from her. A similar dialogue occurs after her second mission. Still, they deny her, once again telling her it’s not enough, something they repeatedly remind her, until finally, after more successful kidnappings, they finally told her they’d hold up their end. By then, Madison was so disgusted with herself that she refused. This, however, did not end Madison’s tenure working for P.A.D.R.E., as she continued serving at their beck and call, which, along with ending her attachment to her children, seemingly gave P.A.D.R.E. precisely what they wanted.

The story here is that, by offering Madison the one thing she wanted the most, P.A.D.R.E. had been able to not only get her to break her morals but to keep doing it, over and over again until even the desire for the very thing she wanted was destroyed, leaving her with nothing left but to do P.A.D.R.E.’s bidding.

In an apocalypse, you should take every precaution imaginable not to be separated from the things or people you care about the most. It could become effortless for someone to manipulate you, using what you care about as a hostage or bargaining chip to get you to do what they want you to do.

You should always plan with your group what to do and where you’ll potentially go if you get separated. At the very least, you can all have a rendezvous point that potential hostiles won’t know about so that you can minimize the chances of your separation being used against you.

It’s bad enough to break your moral code, but it becomes even worse when other people have used those you care about against you to get you to do it.