Fear the Walking Dead: 1.03 "The Dog" (open spoilers)

[Master_Wang-Ka]

@Disgruntled_Penguin

Absolutely. I mean, none of those things are traumatic at all and the average citizen has clear as a bell thinking and planning when faced with traumatic events.

You make a good point. No doubt if I had to beat someone to death because he tried to rip out my throat with his teeth, I’d be mighty shaky afterwards, being a person who does not normally bludgeon folks to death.

On the other hand, a TV show about MY life would bore you to tears.

“Stupid decisions” has been a hallmark of the show’s protagonists from the beginning. Admittedly, being a junkie isn’t the brightest decision anyone can make, but, hey, we’re setting up dramatic conflict. I can overlook the stupid in the name of the drama.

But when a schoolteacher goes to an abandoned church in a major metro center in the middle of the night, knowing it is infested with junkies and crackheads and bears, oh my, slips in a puddle of blood and giblets, AND THEN LEAVES AND DOES NOT TELL ANYONE, either the cops or “hey, junkie stepson, I saw weird things, and maybe you’re not crazy after all?” I’m sorry, but this level of dumb belongs in slapstick comedy, not any kind of serious drama. It’s character stupidity to the point of creating plot holes.

This is not always a bad thing. In “The Mist,” a scary, dramatic moment occurs when a bunch of people leave the supermarket, simply refusing to BELIEVE that any monsters are lurking in the mist, outside, deliberately ignoring evidence to the contrary. They are stupid and stubborn, yes, but their actions serve the plot.

This time around, though, it’s frankly frustrating. Idiots are around to get killed, in this sort of situation. They should not be our protagonists.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

Master Wang-Ka, well said. If the intention is to make an interesting show, it has to aim for something higher than “During the zombie apocaplypse, imagine what happens to the kind of person who in everyday life leaves his kid on the roof of the car.” Well, sure, we could watch that, but most people wouldn’t find it interesting. Nobody is looking to play out the “how would I fail to survive the ZA” thought experiment.

[Disgruntled_Penguin]

@Master_Wang-Ka

You make a good point. No doubt if I had to beat someone to death because he tried to rip out my throat with his teeth, I’d be mighty shaky afterwards, being a person who does not normally bludgeon folks to death.

On the other hand, a TV show about MY life would bore you to tears.

“Stupid decisions” has been a hallmark of the show’s protagonists from the beginning. Admittedly, being a junkie isn’t the brightest decision anyone can make, but, hey, we’re setting up dramatic conflict. I can overlook the stupid in the name of the drama.

But when a schoolteacher goes to an abandoned church in a major metro center in the middle of the night, knowing it is infested with junkies and crackheads and bears, oh my, slips in a puddle of blood and giblets, AND THEN LEAVES AND DOES NOT TELL ANYONE, either the cops or “hey, junkie stepson, I saw weird things, and maybe you’re not crazy after all?” I’m sorry, but this level of dumb belongs in slapstick comedy, not any kind of serious drama. It’s character stupidity to the point of creating plot holes.

This is not always a bad thing. In “The Mist,” a scary, dramatic moment occurs when a bunch of people leave the supermarket, simply refusing to BELIEVE that any monsters are lurking in the mist, outside, deliberately ignoring evidence to the contrary. They are stupid and stubborn, yes, but their actions serve the plot.

This time around, though, it’s frankly frustrating. Idiots are around to get killed, in this sort of situation. They should not be our protagonists.

This is weird but as I recall there weren’t any zombies in the church so he is supposed to tell the cops that the house that his stepson was running out of when he got hit by a car is full of bodies. That doesn’t sound muchn better to be honest. I agree he could have talked to junkie stepson about what he saw though. In fact, how could he not? That was dumb.

[Master_Wang-Ka]

Dang. Hentor done put it better than I did.

And that’s an accomplishment!

At this point, our entire cast has seen at least one zombie, and two of them have killed zombies. True, any of them could still simply refuse to accept what they’ve seen, or rationalize it; this is a common trope in the zombie genre.

But none of them have an excuse any more.

Still wondering when Teen Girl is going to slip away to go check on her bitten boyfriend and find herself confronted with Zombie Boyfriend and his Zombie Parents. And maybe be our first main cast casualty…

[Master_Wang-Ka]

Although, to kick Hentor’s idea around, it’s more like “How I Survived The Zombie Apocalypse Despite Being The Kind Of Person Who Leaves Their Kid On The Roof Of The Car.”

Everyone at my house laughed when they realized they’d left the shotgun shells in the neighbor’s house.

[doorhinge]

@Master_Wang-Ka

Yeah… frustrated is the word.

I understand, our characters don’t know the Z word and aren’t aware of what’s happening.

(post shortened)

Yeah, when will the main characters come up with their own name for the zombies? They haven’t even ID’d them as “zombies” yet. Walkers, roamers, lurkers, geeks, and biters have already been taken.

How do they say “zombie” in El Salvador? El zombi, La zombi? Dos zombi? Esos zombi? Aquellos zombi?

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

@Master_Wang-Ka

Although, to kick Hentor’s idea around, it’s more like “How I Survived The Zombie Apocalypse Despite Being The Kind Of Person Who Leaves Their Kid On The Roof Of The Car.”

So, maybe something like “Mr. Bean Goes to the Zombie Apocalypse”?

Everyone in my house laughed at the tiny phalanx with the guy beating his shield and the untouched truck.

We all simultaneously had the hope that the junkie kid would get mistaken for a zombie at the end.

[Wile_E]

@alphaboi867

Aww, that’s just adorable. Too bad the dog died because his dumbass family didn’t bother to close the door behind them. :mad:

I knew they wouldn’t want to deal with having a dog as a regular character but I was so angry that they killed it off.

@brewha

My biggest beef with the episode was with the dog. How did a zombie go toe to toe with a big ass German Shepard and win? That dog would either tear the zombie to pieces - or realize it was losing and run away. No way dog ends up on the ground getting chewed on - I just don’t see it.

IIRC, it was not the main idiot family’s dog, it was the family across the street. This may be why the dog was reluctant to really attack. It knew it was its owner but that there was something wrong with him. Also, the dog was pretty much cornered thanks to the idiots leaving the door open. Which I think was the single biggest stupid thing in the episode. They saw zombie neighbor heading toward their house, they saw the dog was running scared, they let the dog in and decided to get a gun to defend themselves (when really all they needed to do was shut the damn doors) and they leave the door open so zombie neighbor can have a doggie snack while waiting for them to come back. Also, why did they all go? They were expecting Travis to come back, someone should have stayed with the door shut to warn him if he came back.

@El_Kabong

…
With that said, I didn’t have that much of a problem with the behavior of the family in that episode. They’re still not entirely clear on what is going on, and they don’t have much in the way of survival skills, so mistakes will be made.

Even if they don’t know for sure what’s going on, zombie-wise, they know there is some disease that turns people murderous- the mother and son had first-hand experience and they all witnessed their neighbor attacking his family. If you think there’s a crazed murderer running around the neighborhood do you ever leave your doors open?

Sure people can be in denial but when 2 out of 3 people have had direct experience with the walking dead you’d think they’d be more careful.

@Master_Wang-Ka

…

But when a schoolteacher goes to an abandoned church in a major metro center in the middle of the night, knowing it is infested with junkies and crackheads and bears, oh my, slips in a puddle of blood and giblets, AND THEN LEAVES AND DOES NOT TELL ANYONE, either the cops or “hey, junkie stepson, I saw weird things, and maybe you’re not crazy after all?” I’m sorry, but this level of dumb belongs in slapstick comedy, not any kind of serious drama. It’s character stupidity to the point of creating plot holes.
…

To me, up until this episode and leaving the door open, this was the other stupidest moment. Even if you don’t know about zombies yet, who the hell goes into a crack house/shooting gallery that isn’t an addict?

The CDC must not have figured out at this point that even those who die of other causes will reanimate so the army were not concerned that Mama Salazar’s injuries could prove fatal or they didn’t care because they didn’t think she’d be a threat even if she didn’t survive.

[Disgruntled_Penguin]

@Master_Wang-Ka

Dang. Hentor done put it better than I did.

And that’s an accomplishment!

At this point, our entire cast has seen at least one zombie, and two of them have killed zombies. True, any of them could still simply refuse to accept what they’ve seen, or rationalize it; this is a common trope in the zombie genre.

But none of them have an excuse any more.

Still wondering when Teen Girl is going to slip away to go check on her bitten boyfriend and find herself confronted with Zombie Boyfriend and his Zombie Parents. And maybe be our first main cast casualty…

Well apparently the mom is supposed to but I don’t really like this explanation.

From showrunner Dave Erickson

Madison comes home with Artie’s blood on her jacket and very much isn’t OK. Why doesn’t Madison tell Alicia what’s happening? This seems like another clue to what Madison may be hiding from her own past.

It is a clue. Madison alludes to a darker history in the pilot and it’s a violent history. She has gone to a place in the episode that she’s horrified, mortified and broken by what she has done. It echoes something from long before — something she doesn’t want her daughter to be aware of. What Madison does as we build to end of this episode, isn’t your typical hero gesture. She realizes that her neighbor and her family across the street are in jeopardy and the neighbor next door has turned. Alicia’s first instinct is to go outside and try to help because she doesn’t know what’s on the other side of that door since she hasn’t encountered it. It’s same thing that Nick was trying to protect her from earlier in the episode. Rather than go across the yard and try to do something, Madison is so traumatized by what she’s had to do already in the episode — and she’s so desperate to protect her daughter from it because Alicia hasn’t seen this yet — that she slams the door against the apocalypse and tries to keep everybody inside. This is something we explore in episode three: If you’ve got a child, somebody whom you’re protecting, and they haven’t witnessed this unnatural thing yet — and Alicia hasn’t seen what these people are yet — Madison’s instinct is to shut it out and hope it gets better before Alicia has to encounter. Which ultimately is misguided.

‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Boss Defends Polarizing Character Deaths

I honestly don’t recall her alluding to a dark history.

[cmyk]

Is her “dark history” alluding to her killing the principal, or something that happened to her pre-show?

If it’s the former, seems silly to call it “history”.

She did say something in this episode to her junkie son, something like, “If she doesn’t have to know about it/see it, let’s keep it that way.” Which makes sense, since no one knows what this is or how long it’ll last. To the Mom, it could be something that blows over in a matter of days.

[Disgruntled_Penguin]

@cmyk

Is her “dark history” alluding to her killing the principal, or something that happened to her pre-show?

If it’s the former, seems silly to call it “history”.

She did say something in this episode to her junkie son, something like, “If she doesn’t have to know about it/see it, let’s keep it that way.” Which makes sense, since no one knows what this is or how long it’ll last. To the Mom, it could be something that blows over in a matter of days.

If it echoes something from long before then I don’t think it’s killing the principal either.
I’ll admit, if this is the real reason then it makes sense that the teenage girl might just forget the ammo if she’s unaware of how bad things really are.

[Chimera]

And of course my eyes wander across this, see the subject line and the last post by and in my head I see “Fear the Walking Penguin” and had to stop for a second…

[Wile_E]

@cmyk

…
She did say something in this episode to her junkie son, something like, “If she doesn’t have to know about it/see it, let’s keep it that way.” Which makes sense, since no one knows what this is or how long it’ll last. To the Mom, it could be something that blows over in a matter of days.

I can understand a parent wanting to protect the child from the horrors they’ve seen. Sure, they don’t know that this isn’t something that will be long-lasting. They still have the hope that there will be a cure and everything will go back to normal. However, they could still give the kids some basic survival skills like “if you see someone that looks infected, do not approach them because the disease makes them violent and they could hurt or infect you.” Not even offering a basic explanation like that just leads to the kids doing something stupid.

[carnivorousplant]

It occurred to me that Travis is stuck in the zombie apocalypse with his Ex-Wife.
Not only will she argue with every decision he makes, the apocalypse will be all his fault.
:dubious:

[Master_Wang-Ka]

@carnivorousplant

It occurred to me that Travis is stuck in the zombie apocalypse with his Ex-Wife.
Not only will she argue with every decision he makes, the apocalypse will be all his fault.
:dubious:

Ooo. Hadn’t even thought of that. Although I’d thought about the fact that I would NOT want to try to weather out any social emergency in the same house with my wife, my ex wife, and a grouchy Ruben Blades…

Sigh. It’s getting better, and we still have three more episodes. I’m very much curious to see what happens under martial law. Dad seems to think things will get back to normal, now, but Ruben seems to think the exact opposite.

We know Ruben’s got the truth of it, but it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out.

[kiz]

@Hentor_the_Barbarian

I should note that even with all the flaws, in my opinion this episode was an improvement over the first 2.

I don’t do animals being eaten by walkers. Every time it happened on TWD I’d run out of the room.

[MacTech]

@Wile_E

I knew they wouldn’t want to deal with having a dog as a regular character but I was so angry that they killed it off.

Better a dog as a regular character than a whining baby…

Yes LPITA, I’m talking about you…

[Master_Wang-Ka]

Actually, I think I agree with that. The dog got and held my interest, which is more than what half the cast has been able to do.

[TBG]

I like the show, but I wish it was set somewhere other than LA. Until the military showed up at the end of this ep, there wasn’t much to tell if this was about a zombpocalypse starting or an LA sports team winning or losing a championship. Setting it anywhere less prone to riots would have been better.

[alphaboi867]

@GrumpyBunny

Wouldn’t everyone and their brother be Googling? Watching internet videos? Aren’t there horror movie/book/graphic novel buffs?

It’s a standard conceit of most zombie movies that they take place in a universe were George Romero never made the Living Dead movies. All signs point to this being true of TWD so the word “zombie” just means Voodoo slave and the idea of dead bodies reanimating & eating people is entirely novel.

@brewha

I’ve only seen zombie dogs in the Resident Evil universe. The T-Virus will re-animate anything.

In the TWD/FTWD world, it seems the disease only acts on humans.

The zombies will attack & eat animals (at least warm-blooded ones); we’ve seen them kill horses, cows, chickens, & deer before. Nobody showed any concern over zombie animals, but they did pass up on eating zombie deer for fear it was infected meat.

@Wile_E

…The CDC must not have figured out at this point that even those who die of other causes will reanimate so the army were not concerned that Mama Salazar’s injuries could prove fatal or they didn’t care because they didn’t think she’d be a threat even if she didn’t survive.

Do they even know about her foot? I though all Madison was give her name when she was listing the occupants of the house.

@carnivorousplant

It occurred to me that Travis is stuck in the zombie apocalypse with his Ex-Wife.
Not only will she argue with every decision he makes, the apocalypse will be all his fault.
:dubious:

Speaking of Travis’s ex-wife; I just realized she’s the same actress who play’s Daya’s mother on Orange is the New Black. Madison’s actress was Joanie Stubbs on Deadwood.