Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 6, The Good Man

The last episode of season is here and the action has been building to crescendo of gore. The opening shows an aerial view of a blacked out and burning Los Angeles.  The song “It Comes back to Haunt Us” by Timber Timbre adds to the depressed mood.  The arena of two thousand walkers strains at the chained doors.

Maddy and Travis realize they need to leave and quickly before the “human termination” of the neighborhood.  Alicia and Christopher have seen the soldiers retreating and looting.  The plan is to pick up Nick and Griselda on the way out of town.  Daniel and Travis argue about the fate of the tortured soldier.  Adams pleads with the men that he still is needed to find the exact location of their loved ones and to make it past the guards.

Daniel and Ofelia share a tense moment.  She realizes her father has been lying about his past her whole life.  Daniel defends himself, stating, “I protected you.”  Ofelia would have preferred to think of her father as a victim. She wonders if her mother knew the truth.  Maddy takes a last look at her home, and the kid’s heights marked on the walls.

At the “hospital,” Dr. Exner phones for assistance to transport her patients. The plan is to retreat to Andrews Air Force Base.  Liza holds out hope her family will come to get her.  The doctor cynically, and disapprovingly, asks if she really wants to save her complete extended family, including Travis’s girlfriend. Liza decides her priority is Travis and Christopher.

In the parking lot, Adams pleads with Travis to let him go, he fears Daniel will kill him. “ I can see you’re not like them.”  Three cars leave in a caravan.  The kids ask about warning the neighbors about the eminent danger.  Maddy is cold, “They didn’t help us.”  Daniel steps out to unlock the now abandoned fence.

Daniel approaches the hospital on foot and immediately gets stopped by the guards.  He warns them to “save their ammo.” A herd is approaching, the victims from the arena.  The group meets in a parking garage.  Daniel is upset the soldier has fled.  Chris and Alicia are told to wait there while the adults leave to retrieve the others.

Inside, Strand tells Nick to calm down, and visualize “a needle in his arm.” (Healthy!) Soon they hear the soldiers gunning down the herd outside.  Strand looks for his key; Nick had stolen it from him.

Liza and Dr. Exner are outside on the helipad.  They can see walkers have breached the compound.  The doctor pleads over the radio to the helicopter pilot to pick up her and her patients.  She lies, stating the compound is still secure. The chopper flies away.  She tells Liza to go, and that she will “Take care of the patients.” (By killing them, no doubt.)

The teenagers are impatient, “This is crazy!” exclaims Chris.  Alicia tries to reassure him, “They’ll come back.”  Chris echoes his father, “I don’t want anyone to die.”  Alicia, already more like her mother states, “You can’t save everyone.”   They hear someone approaching.  The teens hide in the SUV.

Nick and Strand leave the quarantine area; they ignore the other people’s pleas to free them too.

In the car, Alicia theorizes if the noise outside is “the dead” they will keep walking.  Unfortunately, very aggressive and alive military personnel have found them.  The teens are pulled out of the car.  The men leer at Alicia and demand they give them the SUV.  After a brief attempt by Chris to protect Alicia, he is kicked to the ground and the car is stolen.

Daniel walks uninhibited through the compound.  Liza goes outside, only to see the fence has been breached.  A bitten soldier attempts to board an evacuation helicopter but is denied entry.  He runs toward the back of the chopper and loses his head.  All hell breaks loose as the lookout towers fall and the herd swarms toward entrance.

Nick and Strand move cautiously inside, avoiding the retreating military.  Fire alarms wail throughout the building.  They come upon a walker eating a man in uniform.  Stand recognizes him as the man he bribed with a watch and cuff links.  Strand coldly takes the cuff links back and his side arm, ignoring the man’s plea to “Help him.”

Travis enters the quarantine area, looking for Nick.  He does let some of the people out, but hurries forward abandoning the others.  In the hallway, Strand and Nick are cornered.  Strand starts shooting as Nick tries to open the door. Liza appears at the last moment to open the door with her key card, miraculously, Maddy is on the other side of the door.  The newly reunited group runs through the kitchen.  Liza encounters a walker whom she fights off.  Ofelia and Nick managed to kill zombies.

When the attack is over, Daniel asks Liza, “Where is my wife?”  Liza shakes her head and explains how she died.  Ofelia is not satisfied and wants to see her mom.  Liza tries to explain that’s not possible. (Sorry Ofelia, proper closure will not be possible in the zombie apocalypse!) It would also reveal her head trauma, which would be hard to explain to the grieving daughter.

In the makeshift hospital ward, all the patients are dead, courtesy of Dr. Exner.  Maddy looks for pills for Nick.  Liza asks the doctor how to get out of the compound and pleads with her to come with them. The doctor replies, “Where, there is nowhere to go.”  The doctor is passed caring.  Maddy tells Liza, “She’s too far gone.”  It appears Exner shots herself off-screen. 

Maddy and Strand discuss the escape plan.  He urges them to go west, where he has a house on the beach.  The group exits in the dawn light. Daniel and Ofelia pass piles of partially burned bodies.  One leg bone is shown without a foot, implying it maybe Griselda.  Ofelia weeps.

Travis enters the parking garage and looks for Alicia and Chris.  Chris discloses the soldiers stole the SUV.  The group prepares to leave in the remaining cars, when Adams emerges from the shadows pointing a gun on Daniel. Ofelia tries to reason with him until a shot rings out and she falls to the ground. Travis unleashes his fury on the soldier.  He is angry the man he tried to save turned violent towards the group.  Maybe Travis can learn to adapt to the new world.

The group is headed west in the truck and sedan.  Ofelia clutches her right arm in the back of the pick up truck sitting next to her father.  Maddy drives the sedan with Strand in the backseat.  They argue on the best route to his house. (Typical L.A.!)  An aerial view reveals many freeways clogged with still vehicles.  The caravan drives on the aqueduct, where Calvin was killed in episode two.  Nick has his head out the window like a dog.  Occasionally they pass a walker in car.

Strand arrives at his home, which still has power thanks to a back up generator. It’s surreally tranquil, with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. Maddy says to Nick, “I’m sorry I let them take you.” He shrugs it off.  He reveals due to his addiction he feels like he’s been living in the apocalypse for some time. “The rest of the world is catching up to me.” He muses.

Liza examines Ofelia’s arm and declares she’ll be okay as the bullet went through her arm and exited.  (I was a little upset since it looked like she was mortally wounded at first; it was Beth all over again!)  Liza and Chris hug, saying they love each other, clearly Liza saying goodbye.  Strand tells Nick he plans to “Stay in motion.” He will not let the family stay in his house either.  Nick asks, “Where’s Abigail?  Why are we here?”  Strand has Nick look through high-powered binoculars in which he sees a fancy yacht anchored offshore.

Maddy follows Liza down to the beach.  Liza reveals she has been bitten on her right side.  She takes a gun from the waistband of her bloodied scrubs, (How in the world were flimsy scrub pants holding up a Beretta?) and she asks Maddy to promise not to let Travis be the one to shoot her.

Suddenly, Travis appears and is horrified to learn of his ex-wife’s wound. He tries to give her hope, and says they should wait to see what happens, maybe try antibiotics.  But Liza knows that everyone whose bit will die, and then return.  She asks Travis to protect Chris.  Travis takes the gun from Maddy as Liza cries.  Alicia and Chris are on the deck enjoying popsicles and the view when they hear the single gunshot.

Chris finds his mother’s lifeless body and cries and holds her.  Alicia sulks nearby.  Travis kneels in the surf as Maddy attempts to comfort him.  Neither woman thought he could handle shooting Liza, but he did.  Will it break him like when Rick lost Laurie?  Will Chris forgive his father?  Where will Strand and the yacht take the group?  It seems even at this stage of the apocalypse, that the living are more dangerous then the dead.

The series finally delivered for Walking Dead fans elements of the original series.  There has been a death of a major character and questions about whom to trust.  The group has seen the violence of the living and the first hoard of undead. (Daniel using zombies to storm the compound like the Governor used to storm the prison.) If the series continues, it will explore new territory on the water. Can zombies swim? Will it be a zombie Gilligan’s Island? Fear the Walking Dead returns winter 2016.