Sure, most of the characters are unlikable (for now, they make actually evolve like on The Walking Dead) and make poor decisions, but the co-producer explained that he was trying to show how ignorant a normal family would when everything went down.
Yeah, I’m betting that they will have to deal with human pirates, not zombies. Unless, of course, the crew of the yacht has turned…
Or human pirates that are getting ready to turn.
I had a moment of “are you KIDDING?” when all of the adults went into the “hospital”.
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Salazar was the one who left the gate open, and possibly drew all the zombies. Makes sense. He’s a pragmatist, and he knew that the zombie horde would be the priority over one civilian. Brutal, but that’s Salazar.
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Abandoning the neighbors to their fate? Again, brutal… but our protagonists know that the military’s pulling out, the food supplies are gonna stop, the power’s not coming on… what do you do, then? I agree that leaving a note or something might be neighborly, but they looked out for their own… and I’m not sure I can blame them.
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If Andrew didn’t want his face beat in, he might have been a bit more relaxed with that gun. Travis let him go as opposed to leaving him for zombie chow or letting Salazar kill him. Travis’ payback was attempted murder. Can’t really blame Travis.
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I agree that the situation with Liza could have been handled better… but Liza didn’t exactly show any signs of wanting to wait or handle the situation more slowly… and after running off and leaving her son the FIRST time, I’m sort of wondering what kind of person Liza was to begin with… particularly considering she’s telling the doctor she wants to take Travis with them, as well. And Travis is just going to abandon everyone? You’d think she’d know him better than that.
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I am glad they gave away the old man clothes that Nick was wearing. Perhaps now he will seek out some damn other thing to wear. Has he literally been wearing these stolen clothes for more than two weeks?
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Word is that we are never going to get a COMPLETE explanation of how and why the zombie virus works, came from, etc. I am inclined to think that Robert Kirkman doesn’t have a great understanding of infection and sepsis, though, since human bites don’t necessarily kill people, particularly when proper medical attention has been applied. It IS possible to get infected, turn septic, and get worse, even die, but Kirkman seems to be adapting the Romero point of view: “Zombie bites are always fatal, 100%.”
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I did kind of wonder about the conveniently appearing zombie horde, though. Los Angeles is dark except for the wildfires, the freeways are jammed… and all this time, no zombie hordes… and one appears JUST as we’re trying to get into the Secret Military Facility. Maybe Salazar turned ‘em loose from the arena and led them there? I also wondered about the soldiers’ reactions; it sort of seemed to me like they’d never seen that many zombies before. Panicky.
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What the hell was up with Strand’s Ride, aka Captain Cufflinks? I can appreciate he’d want Strand to kill him, but I’m still wondering why he just lay there and let a zombie snack on his leg. Paralyzed? Did I miss something?
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“Carl, stay on the yacht!” Hee, hee. Yeah, that big shiny boat is likely going to draw some attention. And I do wonder if there’s already anyone on it. And whether or not it is armed. I do believe these will be some plot points next season…
Altogether, I liked it. It made up for a lot of the dull in the previous five episodes. I was surprised to see Salazar make it, as I didn’t think Ruben Blades would want to hang around for a TV series; perhaps I was wrong. That, and while I didn’t necessarily agree with the decisions everyone made in the story, at least I didn’t have any moments where I said, “No, no, NO, you MORON, what did you leave the DOOR open for, there’s ZOMBIES in the STREETS, you just SAW one, and now he’s going to walk in your back door and nom on your dog…”
And if that’s not enough, they’ve released a new web series: *Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462. *First episode is here.
I was a bit disappointed. Seemed like a come-down from the last couple episodes. And I wish they had taken the lady doctor with them (not just because she’s hot, either
). Liza should have waited a bit longer, at least to say goodbye to her son.
Maddy, unfortunately, reminds me of a very difficult customer I have right now, and I’m having trouble compartmentalizing that. Sorry, Mads!
Liza had to die - she has to start filming season 4 of Orange is the New Black…
All kidding aside, I thought it was a pretty good show overall. This was just one family in one city. Thousands of other families in other countries went through this same thing, so perhaps they handled it better? Or maybe they handled it even worse?
Strand said they had stay mobile, so I’m thinking they’re going to be boating to other places and raiding them for fuel and supplies.
I think we’re definitely supposed to think Salazar released the horde from the arena and led them to the secure facility. He was leading them like the pied piper and suggested to the guards that they save their ammo instead of shooting him. This was his plan when they left the neighborhood.
The yacht will be a perfect setup for these writers. Instead of us watching a handful of people sit inside and play board games while the zombie apocalypse rages outside, we can watch them sit on a boat and talk to each other.
Ignorant is one thing. Willing to sacrifice a whole lot of innocent people to a zombie horde for your own benefit is quite another.
Sure, you have to be pragmatic and look out for your own. You’d even be willing to kill a non-zombie to save your loved one. But mass murder to get access to your loved one? Rick and the gang on TWD do some nasty stuff but it’s all supported by their moral code that you don’t kill humans unless you absolutely have to. These folks are pretty damn cavalier about it and they haven’t even been through much trauma yet.
Well, the zombie apocalypse ain’t for wimps. Lord knows they hammered it down hard enough on Rick, and now it’s Travis’ turn.
I’m still wondering if they all agreed to pied-piper the zombie horde in… or whether that was Salazar’s idea… because the Travis who let Soldier Andrew go instead of killing him would probably agree with the idea that leading a zombie horde into a secure medical facility’s a bad idea. And Salazar would think, “Not gonna tell Travis, just gonna do it.”
The more I think about it, the more I think even Madison would object to the zombie horde distraction idea. But I’m also thinking that these people are rapidly adjusting to the idea that “if you ain’t my tribe, the hell with ya.” They didn’t bother to tell the neighbors about Cobalt, they sneaked off in the middle of the night… and again, I wonder how much Salazar had to do with this. This all seems very in line with his character, and he’s been right, all the way down the pike, to the point where Madison allowed him to torture someone in the basement in order to get info to protect her family. And it seems that Travis is headed the same way; at first, I figured he’d get kilt, but now I ponder whether or not they’re gonna just have tragedy after tragedy fall on him. Worked in the other show…
But then again, I think about zombie horde distraction, and I think, “Okay… secure facility, chain link, guard towers, soldiers with assault rifles… all right, what NON-zombie-horde plan do we have for accessing this place?” I find myself thinking I’d do it, simply because durned if I can think of any other way that has a snowball’s chance of success. Particularly if I didn’t really understand the sheer power of a zombie horde.
I thought it was shitty of them to murder all those people just to sow confusion to find their family.
This show steadily improved from the lackluster pilot. I also like where it seems to be going. Living on a boat and going to port for supplies periodically seems like a good idea.
As far as the origin of the virus (or whatever it is), we will never get that information. Anything they em up with won’t be satisfying so the safest route is to just hand wave it away.
It occurs to me, though, that life on a boat could get dull real fast. We spend an episode or two dealing with the zombie crewmembers, we spend an episode or two arguing and exploring personal issues, we spend an episode or two dealing with a moral quandary (refugees), we spend an episode or two dealing with pirates…
At least this epesode was interesting and it held my attention. Maybe there’s hope for FTWD?
Time to bug out but gotta get mom and Nick the junkie. Don’t alert the neighbors. Every man for themselves. Travis leaves the front gate open. Surprise! Travis let’s the kidnapped soldier go. Surprise!
Edward’s Air Base has room? If that matters?
The infection’s not treatable.
Salazar the Butcher (aka Salazar the Barber) turns the stadium zombies loose to create a diversion and to kill as many remaining humans as possible. The military compound is overrun. The plan works.
We’re going for a boat ride! YEA! Maybe Captain Black Guy needs a crew? I noticed that he didn’t contact the ship’s crew when he finally arrived home??? Maybe that’s why he took NtJ along when he escaped? He assumed NtJ had shanghai-able crew members in the safe zone? And women. 
Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh!
Farewell to Foreign Shores, we sail at break of day-ay-ay-ay;
Through our last night on shore, drink to the foam,
Until we meet once more, here’s wishing you a happy voyage home!
The medical facility was part of the military base right? Why wasn’t it overrun also?
And my wife asked a good question: what about Hawaii? Would it be immune from the spread of the virus?
A thing just occurred to me.
The soldiers took Griselda because she was badly injured. They took Nervous Breakdown guy because he was a “head case,” a loose cannon. Presumably. They took Nick because he was a junkie.
Why was Strand locked up?
The zombies only broke thru one gate. Takes time to amble from one end of the compound to the other??? Long hallways? Locked doors? Can’t remember directions?
It also occurs to me that it could be argued: If Salazar hadn’t let the zombies in, Liza would still be alive.
I assume they took NtJ because he had a fever. He did have one in lock-up. Medical personal had been alerted that he was a junkie. That would have warranted a closer initial exam than a non-junkie, or average, person would have had. Triage?
I don’t believe they have explained (yet) why Strand was locked up? Drunk and disorderly? Found unconscious?
They’ve made it clear in both TWD and FtWD that it’s not a communicable disease, infection, virus, or anything that can be transmitted. It’s a new condition that everyone has. If anyone dies, for any reason, anywhere on the planet, they rise as a zombie. Liza spelled this out again for us at the end of the episode.
There is no reason to think that the fatal infection you get from bites can be treated with antibiotics.
Seems weird that Strand went out of his way to save Nick when Nick did nothing to help him escape. People that came for Nick helped him, sure, but that’s a horrible bet. Of all the people in the detention center, Nick is the last one you’d think would have rescuers.
So without being exposed to any type of virus all of humanity spontaneously developed this condition that turns everyone into a zombie upon death?