Title: Fear the Walking Dead “Blood in the Streets”
Network: AMC
Air Date: May 1st, 2016
Genre: Serial Drama, Horror
Attention…Attention. Would Rick Grimes please report to the Abigail on Fear the Walking Dead? Rick Grimes, you are needed on the Abigail at once. Even with Rick Grimes, not present, why would you let those people on the boat? I don’t want to sound too critical of the decision to let those people aboard because I myself said this is one of those frustrating decisions that would have Walking Dead veterans shaking their heads. Aside from that moment, a fairly interesting episode developed where we finally see the face that goes with Alycia’s “Jack.” The mysterious shroud around Strand was also peeled back a bit more and that twist at the end took me off guard. I had recently read an opinion piece about a potential romance between Alycia and Ofelia and how it could change the show, so I was a little surprised when it is Strand in fact who is gay. I was wondering who was on the other end of that satellite phone he was calling from. It now appears we have a much better idea of who it was.
This week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead was a pretty solid episode…minus that one frustrating decision which the whole episode ended up pretty much revolving around. Never the less, it was nice to see Nick using the guise trick again to keep himself masked from the infected. Despite how gross it must be, this is an incredibly useful tool that characters on the Walking Dead barely took advantage of. I mean when it comes to being eaten alive or covering yourself in gross guts, I’ll take the gross guts. I feel like caution should be used here though because I can see one of our survivors being mistaken for one of the infected, getting themselves shot or killed somehow.
We finally get to see Alycia’s “Jack” from the radio who we heard in the premiere episode of Fear the Walking Dead. Now Jack as it turns out works for another individual named Conner who we see only briefly. Now Jack does say he can convince Conner to do what he wants but that is not the impression that we get. At the end of the episode we saw Conner take both Alycia and Travis and despite agreeing to have the others dropped on shore, I feel like if Daniel didn’t get free along with Nick arriving in…the nick of time, everyone would have been killed. For the first time, this season we have two main characters completely cut off from the rest of the group.
I was disappointed to see Strand essentially abandon everyone in an attempt to escape the group that boarded. Initially, he did try and snag his machine gun but I really wonder if it was to help everyone or just himself. If he was able to escape, I’d be really curious to know if he would have gone back to save the rest of the group and retake the Abigail. We did finally get some decent back story on Strand with this episode and with a romantic link teased all the way up to the confirmation at the end of the episode. Strand is a smart businessman but he certainly has a “cheat to win” personality. When we saw a flashback of him in New Orleans, we find out that he lost everything in the wake of Katrina while speaking to a man at a bar. Strand ends up robbing this man who is played by Dougray Scott and eventually turns out to be the love interest of Strand. Even though Strand initially gets away, when he is again confronted by this man about the stolen property, Strand informs him he planned on paying him back with interest. Now it is possible that Strand did plan to do that. However, I think it’s more of something he said because he had been caught.
In Fear the Walking Dead last week we really saw Chris begin to come into his own a little. This week, however, he seems like a bit of a doofus, particularly when the other party boards the boat. Loudly asking Ofelia of all people, “Do I shoot them?” as they board the boat. One of these men that eventually take over the boat blatantly explains to him later, “If it’s a question you have to ask, someone should already be dead.” Madison did awesome here getting under the pregnant woman’s skin in an attempt to distract her from Daniel trying to get free. Daniel trying to get free was a frustrating thing to watch. I feel like, in the better part of 40 minutes he made no progress, we just see him keep twisting his hands in his restraints. Madison running that guy through with the crowbar was wicked and she had the most stone cold face. I was a bit weary of Madison at first but now I’m beginning to think she is going to become much more ruthless when it comes to dealing with outsiders.
Fear the Walking Dead came back from stumbling last week with a nice stride by the end of “Blood in the Streets.” It’ll be interesting to see how the group deals with Strand abandoning them and also the fact that Strand’s associate only had plans to get two people into Mexico…something Strand failed to mention to anyone. Oh, and what about the chopper in the beginning? Where did that come from? I am also very curious to see how much of a villain this Conner turns out to be. Will he be like a Governor spanning several seasons or out of the picture in just a few episodes? We can’t tell just yet but the boat he arrived on was certainly not the one that was chasing the Abigail before. So either someone else is out there or Conner has a much larger vessel out there at his command.
- Characters: Several new characters are introduced including a potential season-long villain
- Cinematography: Eerie shots of the abandoned tent city, vessels on the water and Nick covering himself in the intestines of the undead
- Story: Strand sends Nick on a secret mission and a potential villain emerges.
- Acting: Nice performances by Colman Domingo as Strand and Kim Dickens as Madison
[review]
