This week returned to a bit of the
thrill and suspense of the first episode. The tension is between how the living are
handling the crisis. The characters
wrestle between feeling imprisoned and protected by the military. Can the authorities be trusted to solve the
crisis? The looming uncertainty is
mingled with the horrific fear the world is coming to an end.
With the song “Perfect Day” by Lou
Reed plays as Nick floats in a dirty pool and Travis goes for a run. Chris films from the roof, explaining it’s day
nine within the fenced military zone. He
sees a flash from a window outside the “safe” zone. Is someone alive out there and trying to
signal them? Chris puts the camera down and says, “Hello.”
Inside, Maddy and Alicia set about
painting the living room. (Where Dawson was shot.) They have electricity, on a
rotating schedule. Travis comes home
from his run and bickering quickly ensues, mirroring the opening of the pilot.
Alicia becomes inflamed, “Why are you acting like everything is normal?” Why
indeed? Their property values are shot to hell, paint or no paint! Alicia storms out.
Chris attempts to show his father
the video he shot. Travis quickly dismisses
anything that contradicts the military’s information. Maddy finds Nick in the pool and offers him a
pill. Nick claims he’s okay, he’s not using
anymore. Mom is skeptical and so is this
viewer.
The military speaks to the gathered
neighbors. They claim there is a six-mile
“infection free” zone around the fence. Liza
asks about medicine, she’s been busy helping the sick in the zone. The commander seems upset by their complaints,
“You’re the lucky ones!” Ofelia flirts with a soldier. Travis is asked by the commander to speak to a
neighbor who is refusing a mandatory “health check.” Travis seems to be the civilian “mayor” of
the zone.
Travis goes to the man’s house and
speaks with the man’s wife and two kids who are coloring wearing improvised HAZMAT
suits. She explains Paul has been acting
strange since the night before. Travis enters
the bathroom to speak to Paul who seems highly anxious. He says, “I don’t think I can do this! How can
I lie to my kids? (That everything will be okay)” Travis tries to reassure him
that things are going to be okay. Is
Travis really this naïve?
Alicia goes to the Tran’s house. Is this a good idea, considering nobody
understands how the infection is spread?
She sees an empty cup of tea and an empty pill container. Has Patrick killed himself? In the couple’s bedroom, Alicia sees a framed
picture she drew for her former babysitter. She finds a handwritten note on the bed that
the audience can’t read. Is it Patrick’s
suicide note? Alicia cries.
Doug comes out and Travis seems
confident in his coaching. Liza is
offered a meal from the wife of a man she helping. He looks critically ill, it is surprising given
the circumstances but maybe he had the set-up prior to the “crisis.” Nick spies
on the scene through the window.
Chris shows Madison his video. She seems more open to the possibility of
people alive outside the fence. Nick
hides under the sick man’s bed, stealing his morphine drip! Very uncool dude!
Ofelia’s continues to flirt
privately with the soldier. She interrupts
the passion to plea for medicine to assist her mother. Talk about a mood killer.
Travis and Maddy are in the mood
and have passionate sex in their car. In
the next instance, Maddy exits the car.
She is upset with Travis for dismissing Chris’s video and his blind
allegiance to the military presence. Maddy
expresses frustration with their broken promises regarding water, food and electricity.
She is also suspicious about the lack of
outside information about what is happening outside the zone.
Maria, Doug’s wife, reports to
Travis he has gone missing. She is
frantic. Travis promises to find him. Maddy
sits on the roof and attempts to signal the house outside the zone. In the early morning light, Travis spies
Doug’s car near the fence, he is nowhere in sight. He also looks in the distance and sees a
possible flicker of light. On the roof,
Maddy sees it too.
Travis confronts the commander
who’s practicing his golf swing in the middle of the street. He explains to Travis they had to take Doug
since he was clearly a “head-case.” Travis
tries to tell him about Chris’s video, the commander dismisses the possibility
of survivors outright. Travis, discouraged, says, “Forget it.” The commander
replies, “I already did!”
Liza goes to check on the critical
ill man Hector to find his room empty. A
female doctor enters with the man’s wife. She praises Liza’s care but when they talk privately
she calls Liza a fraud. (This is never explained, the wife had said she’s a
nurse practitioner and the doctor alludes to the fact she has no license at
all.) After this is said, the doctor
implores her to keep doing the work and “pretend a little longer.”
The military goes outside the fence
on patrol, Maddy cuts an opening in the fence and exits. (Not a brilliant move
in terms of everyone’s security.) She sees pictures with candles memorializing
the dead and the missing. This is eerily
reminiscent of September 11th.
Bodies’ lie rotting in the street, one man looks uninfected but has a
fatal wound to the head. Was he trying
to defend himself from the military? The
patrol approaches and Maddy hides under a car, gagging on the stench of a
nearby corpse.
Griselda needs urgent medical care
due to an infection in her leg. Dr.
Exner wants to transport her to a “nearby” hospital. Daniel is suspicious and vows to go with her.
The Dr. Exner meets Nick and examines
him despite his protests. Nick claims to
be clean and sober. Nick is frustrated that Liza “narced” on him. Perhaps she suspected he was sneaking
Hector’s morphine since the man was doing so poorly. Dr. Exner responds to Travis’s concern about
Doug, stating he is in good hands, just like Griselda and Hector will be. Upon
hearing this, Nick freaks out and visits Hector’s empty room. What will he do now? In the Tran’s house, Alicia cuts her arm where
her boyfriend had doodled the heart.
Daniel knows Maddy snuck outside
the fence. He asks her what she
saw. She tells him she saw corpses that
didn’t even look infected. Daniel tells
her a story from his childhood in El Salvador.
There were men from the government who came and took some people away.
The Capitan assured Daniel’s father they would come home. One day, he was swimming in the river and
realized the disappeared had come home, as bodies decomposing in the
water. It’s a startlingly image which
indicates he’s a survivor. Daniel
relates his father told him, “Men do evil because of fear.” He shakes his head
at the memory, stating, “ He was a fool believing there was a difference. If it
happens, it will happen very quickly, and you must be prepared.” He advises Maddy to watch out for her son and
watch after Ofelia if he doesn’t return with Griselda.
Maddy finds Nick in Hector’s empty
room. She realizes he took the ill man’s
morphine, punches him in the face. Nick
runs home and locks himself in his bedroom.
Alicia tries to talk him out, Travis tries to help, but she shoos him
away. Finally, he opens the door and she
asks about his wounds. They hug. Maddy cries outside by the car, frustrated.
The military moves in to transport
Griselda. Daniel says goodbye to Ofelia.
They will not let him go with his wife. They are looking for Nick too, and a
scuffle ensues to get him on the transport vehicle. Daniel tries to fight with
the military to go with his wife. The guns come out and Travis pleads for calm
and asks to speak to the commander. Nick
runs but is caught and forced into the transport Humvee. Dr. Exner tries to convince Liza to go with
them to the hospital. She hesitates,
looks at her son in the window mouths something to him. She decides to leave.
Maddy is furious and yells at
Travis, “Liza, she did this!” (Getting Nick taken away.) She runs to the garage in dismay.
Alicia reads the note she found at
the Trans; “Patrick, if you find this, I’m sorry, if you find this, I love you.
I saw today, something that horrified me. At first I thought it was unnatural, I
thought it was an aberration, but I was wrong. What I saw was prophesied, what
I saw was Godly and I think it’s overdue. I wish you were here but I will see
you soon and you will hold me. If you find this, I am sorry, if you find this,
I love you.”
Maddy cries in the garage. Travis is
on the roof, looking for the mysterious lights outside the fence. Then he sees
a flash, and hears gunshots.
The episode was interesting
development for the forming group. The
mistrust of the military is evident, and they seem to realize how powerless
they are to make decisions on their own. They may be the lucky ones; those living
outside the wall are being murdered. It
seems unlikely we’ll see Doug, Nick or Griselda again. It is an ominous development as the “weak” are
also removed from the safe zone. Only
the “strong” will survive. Who will that
leave? There are only two more episodes
this season, where will it go?
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