Fear the Walking Dead, Episode 2, Come Close, Not Too Close

After a suspenseful opening which some viewers interpreted as boring, let’s see if tonight gets down to the horror-fest brought to you by the fine folks at the “Walking Dead” franchise.  

We pick up from last weekend with school closed early; the principal patrols the empty hallways with his radio. Alicia walks into a house where the door has been left ajar.  She sees a shattered vase and proceeds cautiously calling her boyfriend’s name. She hears him groan and sees blood spatter.  Finding him she calls, “Oh my God!”

The rest of Alicia’s family is riding in the truck, which Nick has just used to ride over his dead friend twice! Travis calls Alicia telling her they are planning on leaving town as soon as possible. Alicia protests stating she needs to take care of Matt who is seriously ill. Maddy implores Alicia not to touch him. At this point, no one is sure how the virus is spread.

Travis’s son Chris sulks on the bus and ignores a call from his dad. The family arrives to pick up Alicia from Matt’s house. The parents want her to leave with them immediately. Matt’s feverish and appears to have a bite on his right upper chest! Alicia is reluctant but Matt insists she leave him. They say a tearful goodbye.

Chris continues to ride the bus. An ambulance streams by. A man enters the bus screaming, “They shot this homeless dude like 20 times!” This brings confusion and outrage on the bus and Chris and others exit.

The family arrives home to see their neighbors setting up a “bouncy house” for their daughter’s ninth birthday party. They complain of poor turn out due to many people sick with the “flu.” Nick, who witnessed undead action first hand muses, “No one is paying attention!” Nick tells his mother he’s scared of the heroine withdrawal symptoms. After removing Calvin’s blood from the truck’s hood, Travis leaves to find his son Chris. (Is it just me, or do they all seem pretty blasé about having to kill their son’s childhood friend?)

Travis calls his ex-wife, who is super annoyed with him interfering with Chris and their custody arrangement. As he drives on, he spies a police officer being treated for a bite wound on the forearm. He hits traffic and also notes a police officer buying all the bottled water from a convenience store.

At the house, Maddy tries to get Nick some medical help for his withdrawal symptoms.  Frustrated, she decides she needs to retrieve something from the high school.  Maddy walks the empty halls “borrowing” some keys from the principal’s office.  Entering her own office, she uses a crowbar to open a locker containing drugs confiscated from students. (Surprising they would keep them, not law enforcement.) Tobias surprises her in her activity. He asks her if he can have his knife back.

Downtown, Chris is part of an increasingly agitated crowd of protesters.  He begins to film the police activity. Alicia reluctantly takes care of her brother. She is eager to leave him to get back to Matt.  Nick urges her to stay saying, “Matt is not safe!” But Alicia doesn’t care.  Nick has an expertly timed seizure and Alicia returns to his aid, angrily.

Travis arrives at his ex’s house, only to be met with more resistance.  Travis tries to inform her of the pending crisis, Liza seems uninterested in the news.  He grabs her phone to call Chris, who, thinking it’s his mom, answers.  Chris shouts at his father he’s at a protest.

Maddy and Tobias go into the kitchen to load up on canned food.  Tobias predicts people will try to obtain food, medications and guns when the full crisis hits.  He asks Maddy excitedly whether she’s “See any yet?” Maddy denies it.

Like no teenager ever, Alicia has donned rubber gloves and is scrubbing his vomit off the floor.  Nick, looking surprising well after his seizure, notes the power had been going on and off.  Sirens wail in the background.

Maddy and Tobias wheel the can goods on a cart down the hallway. Tobias approves of her idea to leave the city for the desert.  Tobias muses how quickly civilization can fall apart.  Suddenly, they hear groans approaching. The principal advances and doesn’t respond to Maddy calling his name. He begins to attack her and Tobias stabs him with his knife.  Unfortunately, Tobias doesn’t know where to stab the walkers and the principal continues to advance with the knife sticking out of his abdomen.  Maddy does some quick thinking and grabs a fire extinguisher and starts to beat the Obama doppelganger.  Finally, she bashes in his head and has killed her first walker!

The duo head out to the parking lot, sadly forgetting all the canned goods.

Travis and Liza try to drive into downtown LA to pick up their budding vlogger Chris.  She sees a man shot through the eye lying down in the street. They find Chris and attempt to force him to go with them.  The SWAT team is approaching.  A rainbow dread headed girl snarls and is shot in the head by police.  This freaks out our trio and they burst into a barbershop just as the owner is closing the metal door.  Travis implores them to give them refuge. The man’s wife agrees, “Let them in, close the door.”

The siblings are alone dealing with Nick’s symptoms.  The radio urges people to “Stay indoors.”  Wait, people still listen to the radio?  Maddy drops off Tobias at home.  He assures her he’ll be okay.  Will he turn into a nerd badass like Glen?  Maddy passes a family in a sedan where the kids have decorated paper scrub masks like monsters. Foreshadowing!

The barbershop group shelters in the candlelight. Liza asks Travis what he knows as it begins to dawn on her there may be a serious problem brewing. Travis tries to explain, “They don’t die, they come back.”  Thank you Captain Obvious!

There is an aerial shoot to show the traffic is coming to halt.  Maddy returns home and gives the confiscated drugs to her son.  She won’t say what happened at the school.  Nick tells her Alicia tried to leave.  Maddy gets emotional in the bathroom by herself as she washes the blood out of her coat. She calls Travis. He informs her they’re stuck downtown and for her to leave without him. (Explosions and gunfire sound in the background.)

In the suburbs, a man growls down the street.  Suddenly there is commotion and the kids can’t help but take a peek outside.  Mr. Dawson (seen earlier in the episode looking ill) is now feeding on the Cruz’s.  Hope the nine-year-old escaped.

So ends the second episode of “Fear the Walking Dead” which has been long on walking and short on fear.  Can the fledgling series keep us interested enough in the characters to care when they’re in peril?  I’m a little surprised at the lack of horror and gore.  Without the suspense, it was a little dull.  Hope things pick up next week.