Judging from the above iconic gif from the legendary Ron Burgundy, Episode Two of Fear the Walking Dead picked up in a hurry. Titled “So Close, Yet So Far,” Episode Two began with a great mix of the original Walking Dead with this new series. The episode began with Principal Art on the radio making sure that the hallways were totally cleared of everyone. The next shot cut to Alicia walking down the empty streets outside of the school. The first couple of minutes really gave you a throwback feel to the emptiness that embodies The Walking Dead. That feeling quickly vanished as students raced around Alicia to get home, reminding us that this series has its own identity.
We come to find that Alicia’s chief concern was getting to her boyfriend Matt’s house. Upon arrival, she discovered him on the floor. Alicia’s family drove over to Matt’s house to bring her home, knowing full well that not all is right in Los Angeles after their encounter with Calvin. Travis discovered Alicia laying over Matt, trying to nurse him back from a horrible fever. Being skeptic of the illness, Travis discovered a bite on Matt’s neck and quickly cleared the family out of the house.
The next major portion of the episode involved two unique arcs. First, Travis’s son Chris still is still in full rebellion mode and ignoring all phone calls from his dad. After finding his way on a bus on the road to nowhere, the bus comes to a stop after an incident involving a police officer shooting a homeless man. Chris then goes all son from War of the Worlds and decides to get in the heart of the action with his camera. Travis makes his way to his ex-wife’s house to bring the son home, and they succeed in locating him in the middle of a riot. Unfortunately, the streets of Los Angeles entered full Marshall law mode and forced the family unit to take shelter in a barber shop.
The other arc involved Madison going to the empty school to find medicine for her son Nick, going through total withdrawal mode. Of course, Madison discovered the young man who knows way more than everyone else, Tobias. Tobias asked for his knife back that was confiscated on the previous episode and led Madison to the food cabinet in which he loaded a cart. The two raced down the hallways, only to discover the now-walker, Principal Art. For some strange reason, Madison tried to talk to him and reason with him. Tobias ended up in a scramble with the principal and both tumbled down a main flight of stairs. Thinking with the quickness of a small tortoise, Madison grabbed a fire extinguisher and eliminated the principal. She would later break down over the incident. The episode ended with neighbor on neighbor violence and lights going out everywhere.
Some thoughts about this episode:
-Debnam-Carey’s portrayal of Alicia Clark took a large step back tonight. In the pilot, I was too busy trying to pay attention to everything at once and did not focus so much on individual performance. Sadly, Alicia’s character is dry, wooden, and has absolutely no facial recognition to the emotions happening on the scene. When she told her brother Nick “I hate you,” I cringed. Nothing behind it at all. Madison and Nick meanwhile had strong performances from their respective actors.
-The whole “Police vs Public” angle does not fit anything that is happening in the series. In my opinion, this is a weak attempt to match the happenings with current real-life issues. Do people have trouble combining the weird virus and stumbling people with police shooting these sick individuals? Not one person in the riots raises an eyebrow to connect everything?
-How in the holy hell did Madison not understand what was happening with Principal Art? About a few hours previous, she witnessed Calvin coming back from the dead and stumbling at her.
-Can’t Travis just send his son Chris a text message after he keeps getting hung up on? “Hey son, it’s your dad. Please call me, there are zombies everywhere.” In the world of instant connect-ability, the people in this show really have trouble getting a hold of others.
-I LOVED the way this episode ended. The tension mirrored what I feel with The Walking Dead. The desperation is starting to set in.
-Nitpicks aside, a pretty solid episode.
Here’s a cat gif to cleanse your palette of the zombies:
