# Fear the Walking Dead: 2.05 "Captive" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354 "2016-05-09T01:08:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/21 "2016-05-10T07:47:05Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > How did the girl get on the ship in dry dock without knowing she was boarding a ship in dry dock? Because they sure implied that she was surprised by it, and how trapped she was because of it. I agree that they did imply she was trapped because of it, which is weird because in the end, she simply jumped right off it into the water. ---
**Author:** ![flaming\_yawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@flaming\_yawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flaming_yawn)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/22 "2016-05-10T12:00:34Z")
all the teenage angst…I too may give up on this show. I should have just let it go and watched on a marathon on a Saturday someday. It feels like a soap opera. Druggie kid is the only interesting one so far but would like him to find shampoo. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/23 "2016-05-10T12:25:11Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I agree that they did imply she was trapped because of it, which is weird because in the end, she simply jumped right off it into the water. How deep is the tide there? ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/24 "2016-05-10T13:39:21Z")
So whiny-angry teenager did flat out murder the brother who was being held prisoner, right? The fact that he was dead with a gunshot wound to the mouth (apparently) and THEN came back indicates he may have been alive when he was shot. Well, maybe he was dead and then got shot in the mouth but it just took a plot-convienent amount of time to reanimate. Nah, I think the kid lost his temper and flat-out murdered him for making him feel all boo-hoo about his mommy being dead and daddy didn’t love him as much now that he remarried. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/25 "2016-05-10T13:42:52Z")
OK. This was stupid. Even stupider than TWD level stupid. In Kramer’s immortal phrasing… [I’m out.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPDISgMAyWE) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/26 "2016-05-10T14:02:06Z")
> [@MeanJoe](#): > > Nah, I think the kid lost his temper and flat-out murdered him for making him feel all boo-hoo about his mommy being dead and daddy didn’t love him as much now that he remarried. I agree. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/27 "2016-05-10T20:06:57Z")
I thought he – Chris, isn’t it? – felt guilty at not stopping the boarding party. And he was also having his buttons pushed by – Reed? guy with bar sticking out of his guts, conversing in quite a normal manner for somebody with a diaphragm impacted by major trauma, and in what should be excruciating pain – the prisoner, who was deliberately antagonizing him. Damn it, I intended to just explain the way I interpreted this scene, but I’m gonna stick this in here, because I can’t stand it any longer. Again, the unreality strikes me in the face and destroys my suspension of disbelief. I mean, here’s a guy with a mortal wound, tied to a chair and bleeding freely inside and out. Does he beg for his life? No. Does he slump into a pain and depression induced coma? No. Does he try to wheedle his way into at least some relief, if not actual release? No. Instead he conversationally, and with considerable apparent knowledge of psychology, torments a visibly unstable teen who has access to weapons! C’mon. I don’t care if he has brass balls the size of grapefruit, that just isn’t happening in any world I can relate to. Anyway, Chris feels guilty for letting the boarding party on in the first place. So he decides to rectify his error by killing this guy. Perhaps he thinks the prisoner was only kept alive out of some lingering holdover to ‘civilization’ or mercy, and he decides to demonstrate that his earlier hesitation doesn’t mean he is soft, and he wants to prove that he’s as tough as anybody else. With maybe a bit of “Push _my_ buttons, will you?” mixed in. So, bang. And then he finds out that he’s fucked up again, and pretty much ruined any chance they had of getting his father back in a prisoner swap. Boy, this kid just can’t get anything right! Kill? No kill? His judgment sucks and he flubs it every time! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/28 "2016-05-10T20:13:33Z")
> [@CannyDan](#): > > And he was also having his buttons pushed by – Reed? guy with bar sticking out of his guts, I think I would have wriggled that crow bar a bit. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/29 "2016-05-10T20:21:15Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I think I would have wriggled that crow bar a bit. “Is that bothering you? Here, let me – oops! Gosh, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to do that. Let me try again… Darn it! I don’t know how you expect me to get anything done with you screaming like that! Maybe from the other side…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/30 "2016-05-10T20:26:59Z")
> [@CannyDan](#): > > “Is that bothering you? Here, let me – oops! Gosh, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to do that. Let me try again… Darn it! I don’t know how you expect me to get anything done with you screaming like that! Maybe from the other side…” > > 😃 Good man. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/31 "2016-05-10T23:27:39Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Alicia and Travis both had bags over their heads until they were on the ship. But the ship on dry dock was way over the level of the water. Looks like you’d need a crane or something to get someone on the ship, or a large rollaway staircase that you’d ascend after having descended to the dock in the first place. And by the way, why did they put [sacks over their heads](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlindfoldedTrip)? Yes, it’s menacing, and would presumably make them more docile since they can’t see well enough to scheme a turn-about, but I thought that plot device was about preventing people from knowing where they’re being taken. But since they clearly don’t intend to bring them back, the usual role the sack plays is moot. And then the crew doesn’t seem to have any trouble figuring out where to go for a rescue anyway. > [@CannyDan](#): > > I mean, here’s a guy with a mortal wound, tied to a chair and bleeding freely inside and out. Does he beg for his life? No. Does he slump into a pain and depression induced coma? No. Does he try to wheedle his way into at least some relief, if not actual release? No. Instead he conversationally, and with considerable apparent knowledge of psychology, torments a visibly unstable teen who has access to weapons! C’mon. I don’t care if he has brass balls the size of grapefruit, that just isn’t happening in any world I can relate to. I have had a suspicion for a long time that more and more minor villains are being given the epic bloody-mindedness that used to properly belong to the greatest of foes. It’s become diluted. Next thing you know, every mook is going to be Hannibal Lecter. > [@CannyDan](#): > > Anyway, Chris feels guilty for letting the boarding party on in the first place. So he decides to rectify his error by killing this guy. Perhaps he thinks the prisoner was only kept alive out of some lingering holdover to ‘civilization’ or mercy, and he decides to demonstrate that his earlier hesitation doesn’t mean he is soft, and he wants to prove that he’s as tough as anybody else. With maybe a bit of “Push _my_ buttons, will you?” mixed in. So, bang. The way it came out was pretty sudden, but I think we were supposed to understand that this was part of the character development arc that begins with him learning to pop a zombie’s skull with a pickaxe, goes through him doing a mercy killing on the airplane, both of which he managed to pull off with the right amount of deliberation. But it haunted him that he still needed to be able to perform a grim act with little time to contemplate it. He killed shitstack by way of making up for his own failure, but once again it appears to have taken screwing up his courage first, so he hasn’t solved the problem of his inability to kill in a fast developing situation. Arguably, though, killing an actual living person was also something he felt he needed to develop the nerve to do, and flinching from doing so put the party in jeopardy. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/32 "2016-05-11T01:52:53Z")
“Shitstack”. I like that. ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/33 "2016-05-11T14:43:17Z")
The first season of this show was disappointing, and this season is turning out worse. In the last season, we here complained that there was little to no exposition of how the zombie apocalypse came about, the disintegration of society, how the survivors came to understand and cope, etc. – all the things we wanted in the prequel to TWD. It was just some people holed up in a house going through relationship stuff. No discussion or questioning of what the fuck is happening, how _fucking dead people are coming alive and trying to eat us!,_ what we heard from other parts of the country, whether the whole world is like this, etc. If they didn’t throw in one short walker scene once in a while, you could think they were just riding out a hurricane or civil unrest. So now we take that and put them on a boat, still further away from just about everything happening in the build-up to TWD. Lots and lots of boring talking about relationships, ethics, etc. and then a halfway decent walker scene at the end. I thought the budget seemed cheap last season, with 90% of each episode filmed inside a house or on the street. Now it looks like the budget per episode is down to about $15.35. Most of it took place in dark rooms, and even the few scenes in the bridge of the ship had no view to the outside. Even aside from the plot holes, poor character development, and questionable writing, it’s starting to seem like community theater. Think I’m about to give up on this one. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/34 "2016-05-11T15:20:48Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > In the last season, we here complained that there was little to no exposition of how the zombie apocalypse came about, A writer or producer said that the zombie virus origin will never be explained. ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/35 "2016-05-11T17:02:22Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > A writer or producer said that the zombie virus origin will never be explained. I’m fine with that. I was referring to what happens as it first hits, how it spreads, the confusion and shock, the media response, what religious leaders say, how the military realizes it can’t stop it, the steps in society breaking down… all that good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/36 "2016-05-11T17:38:24Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > I’m fine with that. I was referring to what happens as it first hits, how it spreads, the confusion and shock, the media response, what religious leaders say, how the military realizes it can’t stop it, the steps in society breaking down… all that good stuff. That would be very interesting, but I believe many people watch the Walking Dead to see blood and guts. We did see a little of that, such as cops shooting a zombie that people believed to be a homeless person. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/37 "2016-05-11T18:19:45Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > I’m fine with that. I was referring to what happens as it first hits, how it spreads, the confusion and shock, the media response, what religious leaders say, how the military realizes it can’t stop it, the steps in society breaking down… all that good stuff. Agreed on all counts. That would have been interesting, and I personally feel like that’s what we were promised. Unfortunately, this show is already past the point that Rick wakes up in the hospital, so we have officially passed the point of no return. All the promise of seeing a different side of the zombie apocalypse is now over, and this show has no future beyond Walking Dead 2: Electric Boogaloo. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/38 "2016-05-11T19:00:46Z")
“walking Dead: The Beginning”. Fred, an intern working the night shift in an emergency room, learns first hand of an unusual fever that causes patients to die. As the deaths mount, one of the dead reanimates. Fred and the staff discuss the fever, the deaths and a lot of personal drama. And then we pretty much get to the forehead stabbing, zombie munching regular stuff. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/39 "2016-05-11T20:22:21Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > I’m fine with that. I was referring to what happens as it first hits, how it spreads, the confusion and shock, the media response, what religious leaders say, how the military realizes it can’t stop it, the steps in society breaking down… all that good stuff. I’m with you on that, and your lengthier version in Post 33. The frustration I feel with lack of realistic characters is that real people would be talking endlessly about exactly those points. “Our crew” never gives them a thought! I have little interest in their relationships except as verisimilitude and background to the bigger issues, but nobody ever so much as mentions the bigger issues. I’ve gone this far, and digital recording doesn’t cost me anything, so I suppose I’ll watch the rest of the season. But unless I’m overcome by a wave of masochism I’m not likely to tune in if this turkey returns after its break. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354/40 "2016-05-11T20:26:08Z")
It’s no mystery why they don’t want to explain the mechanics of zombies. The premise of your basic zombie apocalypse is indefensible, particularly if you examine the great number of preposterous premises it breaks down into. I think they made a mistake in the first season of The Walking Dead by even showing brain scans of a person turning. It just provokes more questions they will have to recuse themselves from answering. Like, so, if activity remains only in the lizard brain, how come damage to any part of the brain is sufficient to kill a zombie? And so on… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fear-the-walking-dead-2-05-captive-open-spoilers/754354.md?page=3)