Cody reviewed every episode of Fear the Walking Dead season 3.
Season 3, Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
PLOT: The Clark family finds themselves at the mercy of a military group that is conducting twisted experiments to figure out the zombie plague.
REVIEW: I find AMC's Fear the Walking Dead to be so consistently frustrating that tuning in to watch a new episode could almost be seen as a masochistic act. I see potential in it, but it has repeatedly refused to reach that potential, pulling back as its main characters make terrible decisions and act like villains again and again, all while promising storylines falter and crumble around them. Yet I remain optimistic. Someday Fear the Walking Dead could start making choices that will make its episodes more enjoyable and its characters more likeable. Maybe season three is when it will all get turned around.
It's episodes like the season three premiere, Eye of the Beholder, that keep me hanging on to hope. I found the premise of this one to be exceptionally interesting: having botched all of their chances at living peacefully in Mexico, the Clark family, consisting of mom Madison (Kim Dickens), daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), and son Nick (Frank Dillane), along with Madison's boyfriend Travis (Cliff Curtis) and Nick's girlfriend Luciana (Danay Garcia), have taken their search for safety back across the U.S. border. Instead of safety, they have only found another horrible situation, as they are taken captive by a military group.
Anyone who has read my reviews of Fear the Walking Dead or The Walking Dead episodes will know that these shows find their way to my heart by featuring things that remind me of George A. Romero's classic DEAD films, and such is the case with Eye of the Beholder, which has a group of murderous soldiers conducting twisted experiments in an attempt to figure out the dead. Murderous soldiers plus twisted experiments equals a DAY OF THE DEAD nod in my mind, so this episode quickly had me on its side, rooting for it.
The experiments in question involve the soldiers killing everyone they capture, one-by-one or sometimes two-by-two. They kill people of all sizes and ages and then time how long it takes for each one to become one of the walking dead. This doesn't seem like the most important information they could be figuring out, I would assume that the times would vary too much from person to person for them to truly be able to come up with a reliable resurrection time prediction system, and they certainly shouldn't be killing people for this, but they don't seem to mind doing it. They even take bets on times to make it more fun for themselves.
While Nick, Travis, and Luciana are in line to get "experimented on", Madison and Alicia are being held in a different part of the compound, where they're visited by a young man named Troy Otto. Played by Daniel Sharman, Troy was a character that really intrigued me, because he seems nice but at the same time there's something off-balance about him, and we know his cohorts are up to some nasty things. His true nature emerges as the episode goes on and he makes it clear that he wants to become the new man of the house for the Clark women. Madison doesn't let him down easy.
Eye of the Beholder had some really interesting stuff going on, and that built up to some cool action beats - which isn't something you see a whole lot of on Fear the Walking Dead. Often this show will milk situations that should be passed by quickly and will move quickly through the more promising situations, and there is a bit of that to this episode. Characters escape predicaments and move on much faster than I would have expected. We'll see if that will pay off in the long run, but in the short term it made this episode an entertaining one. Season three got off to a good start.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: Punished for attempting to escape the military compound, Travis is dropped into a pit full of zombies and proceeds to kick all sorts of walker ass. There were a surprising amount of zombie moments to choose from in this episode, but that was the coolest in my book.
GORY GLORY: I was all set to hand this category over to a particularly gnarly shot of a spoon being stuck in the corner of a character's eyeball, but then near the end of the episode a zombie and a flood of rats came bursting through a wall to put an ugly end to one of the soldiers.
FAVORITE SCENE: While that "rats in the wall" moment was great, as was what followed, it doesn't get better than Travis tearing through those zombies in that pit.
Season 3, Episode 2: The New Frontier
PLOT: A hero falls while the Clarks are introduced to the mysterious leader of a militia.
REVIEW: Fear the Walking Dead has shocked me, and I'm not sure how I feel about this shock. I don't know if it's good or bad. Do I commend the show for doing something totally unexpected, or do I lament that they have dropped (literally) a really cool cast member?
The season three premiere had just featured the character Travis (Cliff Curtis) being a heroic, zombie-killing badass... and then, within the first four minutes of the season's second episode, they kill him off. Out of nowhere. In a completely random moment. It's so shocking that I immediately began wondering if there was someway they could bring Travis back from what happened. Was he really going to die from his wounds? Could he have survived the fall that followed? But once the episode had ended, I saw an interview with showrunner Dave Erickson in which he confirmed that Travis is gone. The writing was on the wall, but I missed it. I don't pay much attention to announcements regarding James Cameron's epic AVATAR sequel endeavor, so I didn't give any thought to last month's report that Curtis had been cast in a major role in those four movies. Yeah, Curtis is going to be busy for a while. Too busy to kill any more zombies. It's a shame to see Travis go just when he had reached his peak.
Fear's companion series The Walking Dead sometimes draws criticism for only following one character (or grouping of characters) per episode, and that's something that The New Frontier can definitely not be criticized for. This episode is split between three groups in three different locations, and I was intrigued by what was going on with all three.
We have Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) dealing with the loss of her father figure Travis and getting to know mysterious militia member Jake Otto (Sam Underwood), who doesn't seem to be a cold-blooded murderer like some of the militia members we met in the previous episode. It's his brother Troy (Daniel Sharman) who's the dangerous one. Of course, Jake could just be luring Alicia and the viewer into developing a false sense of security.
Then there's Alicia's mother Madison (Kim Dickens) and brother Nick (Frank Dillane), who arrive at the compound of the man who has assembled this militia, mostly filling it out with his own family members. I would not be joining up with this bunch, and would be reacting to the situation just like Nick does - by reiterating that these people are killers and wanting to get the hell out of there.
The leader of the militia is Jeremiah Otto, played by veteran character actor Dayton Callie. You may not realize it, but we've seen this guy before. He crossed paths with a different character back in season two. That's a character we haven't seen since, so I'm wondering what exactly he did with that person. I don't know what Jeremiah's game is. He seems nice, but I wouldn't trust him as far as Travis could have thrown him.
Finally, we look in on what's going on with our old buddy Strand (Colman Domingo) at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, a location I thought the show should have stayed at for a while anyway. This was the least interesting part of the episode for me, but I still like the concept of zombie apocalypse survivors living in a high-rise hotel, and would rather watch episodes set there than on a ranch that serves as a militia base. This show tends to switch settings quite frequently, though, so I'm not expecting to spend too much time at the Otto place.
After the action of the premiere, episode two was a comedown. Action and zombie hordes were replaced by character moments as we got acquainted with the Ottos. It's important to start getting an idea of who these people are, or who they present themselves as being, so I'm not too upset that this episode slowed the pace down a bit. This one was establishing things, now we'll need to keep watching to see what the pay-off is.
And to find out where Ofelia is.
The death of Travis aside, there wasn't anything big about The New Frontier. It was just a serviceable stepping stone episode.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: There were much less of them here than there were in the previous episode, but the scene where Jake comes across a feasting zombie in the dark countryside was a nice moment.
GORY GLORY: Nothing too awe-inspiring, but there was some blood, including a painful surgical procedure.
FAVORITE SCENE: Well... the death of Travis. You got me, Fear the Walking Dead. Nice job.
Season 3, Episode 3: TEOTWAWKI
PLOT: The Clark family settles in at a survivalist camp while Strand has a bad meeting with an old friend.
REVIEW: Last week, the two premiere night episodes of Fear the Walking Dead featured a good amount of action and the death of a major character, so if you're familiar with this series and its companion series The Walking Dead you probably knew what sort of episode to expect tonight. After the death of Travis, the second episode slowed things down a bit, and TEOTWAWKI continues the slow-down in the name of establishing characters, fleshing them out, and building the world of the show some more.
TEOTWAWKI stands for The End Of The World As We Know It, something Jeremiah Otto (Dayton Callie) has been preparing for for a long time. The Clark family - mother Madison (Kim Dickens), daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), son Nick (Frank Dillane) - now find themselves guests in the Otto survivalist compound, which means we need to continue finding out more about how Jeremiah operates, and the characters need to come to some kind of conclusion about how they're going to handle being around Jeremiah's loose cannon son Troy (Daniel Sharman).
And that's what this episode was mostly about. The Clarks settling in at this new home while getting to know Jeremiah and trying to solve the Troy problem. These are important things to cover, but they didn't make for the most thrilling 44 minutes in Fear the Walking Dead history. Thankfully, Dayton Callie and Daniel Sharman are both excellent additions to the show's cast. I enjoy watching their performances, and I'm intrigued to see where things are going to go with them. I'm fairly certain this is all going to end up in death and tragedy, I don't trust Jeremiah and really don't trust Troy, but we'll see how it plays out.
TEOTWAWKI had some highlights, starting with the scene in which Madison barges into Jeremiah's office and demands that the man get his son under control, using some harsh language that was jarring to see spoken in the presence of an old man who presents himself as being such a devoted Christian. At least, it didn't seem like language that should be spoken in his presence until later, when we saw him getting pissy in an old video.
Another highlight was a night scene where Nick and Troy play a game of cat and mouse while we wonder if they're going to work out their problems by killing each other. The death of Troy would probably be a good thing for everyone else on this show, but this wouldn't be the wisest time for Nick to take him out. So they bond over the fact that they're both bugnuts crazy.
While everyone else is being serious, Alicia has some fun at the most unusual Bible study get-together I've ever been witness to, with one of the guests being a severed, still animated zombie head. I'm really not sure about severed zombie heads still being able to function, but it has been established as something that happens in the Walking Dead world, so I'll just go along with it. Personally, unless the living dead has been brought back by some of Herbert West's serum, I think a decapitation should put an end to them.
This episode also gave us a couple scenes with Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), once the most interesting character on the show. He has taken a tumble since those days, but I still like him, and don't like that he gets himself into a predicament. However, that predicament does allow for us to get the absolute best moment of the episode, a moment we've been waiting more than a year for.
Not seen since season two's mid-season finale, Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) has returned! I've missed this guy, and I'm already excited to watch next week's episode, where hopefully we'll be catching up with him. Daniel needs to let us know where he's been, then he needs to head over to the Otto camp and find out where his daughter is.
TEOTWAWKI isn't the sort of episode any casual viewer is going to want to sit through, but if you're invested in following these characters it was a good dramatic chapter in the story.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: A character falls from a great height and I figure he's going to have a messy landing on the ground, perhaps surrounded by the mangled bodies of other unfortunate people. The guy does land on other bodies, but I didn't expect those corpses to be a pile of hungry zombies.
GORY GLORY: There wasn't much gore on display, but that unlucky fellow who landed on that pile of zombies became a buffet.
FAVORITE SCENE: Madison confronting Jeremiah about Troy. Kim Dickens rocked that scene.
Season 3, Episode 4: 100
PLOT: Having survived the season two mid-season finale, Daniel Salazar seeks water and forgiveness.
REVIEW: There is no question, there is no close competition. 100 was, without a doubt, my favorite episode of Fear the Walking Dead that has aired to date.
None of the issues I usually have with this show were present in this episode. I didn't feel frustrated or annoyed by the characters. There was no sense that things were moving too slowly, no sense of wasted time, nor was there a feeling that promising storylines were being rushed through or tossed aside. 100 did everything just right - and it helped that most of the regular characters were absent this week. There were no pesky Clarks or Manawas (well, there won't be Manawas anymore anyway). Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) shows up toward the end, but our lead was a person we haven't seen since the season two mid-season finale, which aired on AMC more than a year ago. It's a character who has been presumed dead, although the showrunner spoiled the fact that he would be returning as soon as that mid-season finale had ended. He also happens to be the best character this show has to offer. 100 was highly anticipated, and it didn't disappoint. This episode marked the triumphant return of Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades), our man with 96 confirmed kills.
We haven't seen Daniel since he appeared to go up in flames while torching a structure full of zombies, but he escaped that scenario, and this episode follows Daniel's struggle to continue surviving in Mexico after being separated from the other characters. It catches us up on where he's been while the last 11 episodes played out, and I found Daniel's story - which was told almost entirely in Spanish, a bold choice - to be utterly captivating.
Daniel has always been troubled by his violent past, and his decision to burn up those zombies is another act of violence he has come to regret, as he doesn't know if his daughter Ofelia was able to escape the blaze. (She did, although we haven't seen her yet in season 3.) He seeks forgiveness... and water.
The first person to provide Daniel with some precious agua is a fascinating new addition to the show, Jesse Borrego as Efrain Morales. This character quickly won his way into my heart, not just with his personality, but also with his chosen manner of dispatching zombies - blessing them and then hammering a spike into their heads. When writing about Fear the Walking Dead or The Walking Dead episodes, I'll often point out how much I like it when I spot some kind of nod to George A. Romero's zombie classics. Efrain's hammer and nails style reminded me of previous zombie stories, but not Romero's. In his novel RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (which is nothing like the movie), Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD co-writer John A. Russo had religious people hammering spikes into the heads of dead folks, so 100 did make me think of that. But even more than that, it made me think of a lesser known favorite, THE STINK OF FLESH. That 2005 film features a character who prefers to kill zombies by hammering spikes into their heads, and as soon as I saw Fear the Walking Dead emulating THE STINK OF FLESH, a big smile spread across my face. I really hope that STINK nod was intentional. That would make me very happy.
Through Efrain, Daniel meets some other helpful people, but ends up going off on his own... Only to find himself at a location where he'll cross paths with them again.
At the center of Daniel's journey in this episode is an idea that had never occurred to me, but should have been one of the first things to ever cross my mind when contemplating a zombie apocalypse. It was very clever of Fear the Walking Dead to explore this idea - the idea of how important being able to get clean drinking water would be in the post-apocalypse, and the fact that some unscrupulous types could take control of water supplies and use the water to rule over the other people in the area. Here Daniel ends up working at Gonzalez Dam, which has been taken over by Dante Esquivel (Jason Manuel Olazabal), an unfriendly acquaintance of Strand's.
Esquivel has taken complete control of the dam. He decides how much water flows while people beg for drinks at the gates. If someone steals water, he has them hunted down and killed. By controlling this dam, Esquivel may have made himself the most powerful man in Mexico; certainly the most powerful man in this part of Mexico. I thought this was a brilliant concept, and had never seen water presented an issue in this way in any other zombie movie or show.
Into this brilliant set-up strides Daniel. Badass. Conflicted. Dangerous. Willing to go to extreme lengths to keep allies safe, even if that means beating an ally to death for the good of the others. Daniel is an awesome character. Fear the Walking Dead benefits greatly from his presence, and it's really good to have him back.
By focusing on a long lost character and keeping the regulars out of the action, 100 felt like a standalone story, and it was the best story Fear the Walking Dead has ever told.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: Approached by a zombie while lightning flashes in the sky, Daniel drops to his knees and offers himself up as a tasty meal. Then he's saved by a higher power when a bolt of lightning strikes the flesh-eater in the head.
GORY GLORY: There was some good splatter in this episode, but no other display of gore was as cringe-inducing as the shot of Daniel's leg wound being scraped clean.
FAVORITE SCENE: Daniel provides several options to choose from. The moment in which he stabs one of Dante's goons in the hand for messing with his Spam is a contender, but I have to go with a quieter moment - Daniel confessing his deadly sins to Efrain and asking him for forgiveness. Which Efrain cannot give.
Season 3, Episode 5: Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
PLOT: While Daniel searches for Ofelia, the Clarks continue to adjust to life at Broke Jaw Ranch.
REVIEW: The Clark family, the morally ambiguous lead characters on AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, have a Walker problem - and I'm not talking about the zombies that populate the post-apocalyptic world the series is set in. Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame introduces an intriguing new antagonist into the story: a Native American character named Qualetaqa Walker and played by Michael Greyeyes. Walker is the leader of a group of Native Americans who are seeking to reclaim the land that was stolen from them long ago. The land that Broke Jaw Ranch, the place the Clarks are currently calling home, now sits on.
The fact that the land once belonged to the Native Americans is certainly not lost on the Ottos, who own the ranch. Over the course of this episode, patriarch Jeremiah Otto (Dayton Callie) and his son Jake (Sam Underwood) both mention the previous owners. Which establishes that Walker has some right to want it back - however, his methods are not pleasant. Killing a whole group of people and setting their bodies on fire, cracking a guy's head open so crows can feast on his brain while he's still alive, that's not cool. Blindly firing on an Otto family helicopter, causing the death of Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) back in the second episode of this season, that really wasn't cool. We'll surely see more of Walker in upcoming episodes, as it's said that he and his people are advancing on the ranch, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where that conflict is going to go.
Other than the introduction of Walker, this episode was really about different members of the Clark family bonding with different members of the Otto family. When a fiery walker incident (the zombie type) leaves a structure on the ranch up for grabs, Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) sees a chance to play house with his girlfriend Luciana (Danay Garcia), and while he takes on the task of fixing up the place he has some talks with Jeremiah, its original occupant. Meanwhile, Nick's sister Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is pursuing something of a romantic relationship with Jake... And while the dramatic aspect of these bonding moments holds my attention, as I am interested in learning more about the Ottos, I'm also hesitant to even attempt to care about the Ottos, because I do not trust these people. At all.
The least trustable Otto is Jeremiah's mentally unhinged son Troy (Daniel Sharman), and it's Clark mother Madison (Kim Dickens) who makes some progress with him while out on the excursion that brings them into contact with Walker. Sure, Troy holds a knife to Madison's throat at one point, but he doesn't slit her throat. When he takes the knife from her throat, that's the closest you get to a heartwarming moment with this guy.
Walker, you have my permission to give Troy that "crow eating brain" treatment any time. I won't hold it against you.
While all that's going on around Broke Jaw Ranch, Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) and Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) are on what Strand knows to be a pointless mission to find Daniel's long lost daughter Ofelia at the Rosarito Beach Hotel. This was a very dumb decision on Strand's part, as he should know that Daniel is not a person you should be lying to.
The Strand / Daniel plot basically serves just to show something that I found very disappointing. The Rosarito Beach Hotel has fallen and is now overtaken by zombies. My imagination ran wild with the concept of people seeking shelter in an abandoned hotel during the zombie apocalypse; it seemed like it would be a very cool setting. A story about hiding from the dead in a hotel has "DAWN OF THE DEAD meets THE SHINING" potential, but that's potential Fear the Walking Dead was never very interested in going for, and now the hotel idea has been tossed aside. That's unfortunate. But at least there's some engaging stuff going on at the ranch now.
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame served to set up a few things for future episodes while also delivering some solid entertainment within its 42 minutes. It wasn't a standout episode, but it was a good one.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: Coming across a crashed prison bus, Madison, Troy, and their cohorts made quick work of the zombie officers and prisoners. Brains were speared, limbs were hacked off, there were arrows in heads, and it was a wonderful sequence of violence.
GORY GLORY: There was some great stuff in that zombie battle, but the best display of gore came when Madison slowly inserted a knife into the brain of the man who had been a crow's lunch.
FAVORITE SCENE: My favorite scene of this episode was the opening scene, in which an elderly man wakes up to find that his wife has become a zombie in the night. She's unable to bite him since she had her dentures out, allowing him to take time to say goodbye before ending things.
Season 3, Episode 6: Red Dirt
PLOT: Things get tense between residents of Broke Jaw Ranch as they prepare to be invaded by outside forces.
REVIEW: Six episodes into the show's third season, I realized that Fear the Walking Dead is repeating itself with this storyline of Jeremiah Otto (Dayton Callie) struggling to rein in his homicidal son Troy (Daniel Sharman). That's exactly the problem they had Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) dealing with last season. It's no wonder they shockingly killed Travis off back at the start of this season's second episode, before he could make it to Broke Jaw Ranch; if he had been witness to the scenario playing out between Jeremiah and Troy, he would have had a major sense of déjà vu.
Even though the show has done a version of this same idea before, Troy's weak grasp on sanity does add an interesting wrinkle to the tense situation at the ranch. While the characters are worrying about an outside threat, he is the inside threat, liable to snap and kill anyone unlucky enough to be on his bad side (except maybe his family members) at any moment. He is a danger, but he is also protective and loyal - if someone could pull him in close and direct his homicidal urges in the right direction, he could be a hell of an ally. That seems to be exactly what Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) is doing by constantly having her little chats with him.
Making this even more interesting is the fact that Madison's daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is building up (and sleeping with) Troy's brother / Jeremiah's golden child Jake (Sam Underwood) at the same time. I'm becoming more intrigued by this brewing Otto power struggle with each episode.
Troy does some more very bad things in Red Dirt, which is largely a build-up episode. It was established in the previous episode that Native American Qualetaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) and his people aim to drive the Ottos and their people off of the ranch property, believing that it rightfully belongs to them. But wait, there are still a couple episodes to go before the mid-season finale, so we can't get to the ranch invasion action just yet. We have to drag things out a little bit. Red Dirt effectively kills some time, while also having a palpable sense of dread and unease to it at times. The people of Broke Jaw Ranch know there's trouble coming... But when? And when it arrives, how will things go down?
The ranch residents are so scared that some of them decide to bail. This makes those who remain even more nervous, as the defense is weakened by the loss of each person who leaves. It's understandable that they would be scared - when a man who kills whole patrols and bashes a man's head open so crows can eat his brain while he's still alive is setting fires along the edge of your property, you start to worry a bit.
Jeremiah Otto is so concerned by what's coming down the line that he even falls off the wagon and starts drinking again, allowing for a great dramatic scene when he goes to visit Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) while drunk. I only trust Jeremiah slightly more than I trust Troy, but the show is starting to make me like the old guy.
Red Dirt mostly consists of chit-chat and spinning wheels, but things do take a violent turn, and I was surprised and somewhat disappointed when one of the Broke Jaw characters we had come to know this season was removed from the show in a scene of gut munching and headshots. Gretchen Trimbol (Rae Gray) may not have had a whole lot to offer, but she was a fun character and I thought we'd be seeing more of her throughout this season.
As this episode comes to an end, people at the ranch start to assume the roles they'll be playing in the battle ahead, and we're one episode closer to the fight Walker will be bringing to them. Until we reach the pay-off of that battle and whatever's going to occur between the Ottos we won't really know if the build-up of this episode was worth it, but there was still enough happening in here to hold my attention while the episode on. It was serviceable.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: There was only one zombie moment in this episode, but it was a good one, featuring the loss of a likeable character and a feast on horse meat that was reminiscent of the first episode of The Walking Dead.
GORY GLORY: A family of zombies tear into the guts of an unfortunate horse before getting their brains blown out in glorious explosions of blood.
FAVORITE SCENE: It would have been better if it had been followed up by some action, but my favorite scene in Red Dirt was when the residents of Broke Jaw Ranch realize that Walker's people have set fires along the land's perimeter. The fire is first seen as a reflection in a bottle of booze former alcoholic Jeremiah Otto is considering drinking. Artsy!
Season 3, Episode 7: The Unveiling
PLOT: Some Broke Jaw Ranch residents try to avoid going to war with the Black Hat Reservation while the actions of others threaten to start the war.
REVIEW: The Unveiling may be the most monumental episode in Fear the Walking Dead history. The episode isn't important because a long lost character returns to the screen - Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason) does show up for the first time this season, but her return can't compare to the return of her father Daniel (Ruben Blades) in the episode called 100 earlier this season. Nor will it be memorable because of a character death - people do die, but it's nothing huge.
No, The Unveiling is an important chapter in the Fear the Walking Dead saga because of something Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) does. This will always be remembered as "The Episode Where Nick Cut His Hair".
Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating the importance of this moment, but the haircut was certainly the most jaw-dropping part of the episode as far as I was concerned. Otherwise it just consisted of the characters killing time in the build-up to the mid-season finale. While the character motivations make sense, anyone watching the show knows that most of what they're doing is entirely pointless.
The Native American residents of the Black Hat Reservation are threatening to raid the Broke Jaw Ranch, feeling that the land is rightfully theirs, so sure, Jake Otto (Sam Underwood) and Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) of Broke Jaw absolutely should go over to the Black Hat Reservation and talk to tribe leader Qaletqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) before the situation crosses the point of no return. Parley, try to find a peaceful resolution to their differences. But we viewers know this has to be a waste of time, because we need the dramatic satisfaction of some kind of mid-season confrontation. If Jake and Walker just shake hands and agree to be best buds, it's going to be a disappointment.
Walker nearly scalping Jake, now that's more like it.
The attempt to keep the peace may be fruitless, but it does allow for some interesting scenes in which we get to know more about Walker as a character. This guy has done some heinous stuff, you can't just excuse him for bashing someone's head open so ravens can eat their brain while they're still alive, but you do get to hear his side of the story and Greyeyes' performance almost makes Walker come off as likeable. When he was talking about having to desecrate his ancestor's grave before someone else disturbed it, and of reading Native American prophecies of apocalypse / "a great unveiling" / "the dawn of a new age", I was fascinated.
Of course, if there was ever even a slight chance of there being any kind of peace, Clark family matriarch Madison (Kim Dickens) manages to blow it by using her influence on Jake Otto's off-balance brother Troy (Daniel Sharman) to break deals and cause violence. Remember those theories of how the Clark family are the real villains of the show? Madison stirs those accusations up again here. She can't just chill and wait for things to play out, she has to manipulate the situation and send out her homicidal new lap dog.
I wasn't too enthused when I heard that Fear the Walking Dead would be airing two episodes back-to-back on both premiere night and mid-season finale night, because I'd rather a show just air one episode a week. However, The Unveiling benefited from the fact that it was paired with another episode, because it would not have held up well at all if it had been put out into the world by itself. It has some good character moments, but as a standalone episode it is quite bland overall. That said, when it comes to episodes about trying to avoid war between two communities, I would choose this one over The Walking Dead's Arrow on the Doorpost.
Action starts to kick in as The Unveiling reaches its final moments, with the battle for Broke Jaw Ranch getting off to quite a surprising start on a wonderfully photographed dark and foggy night. When things finally started to fall apart, I didn't expect it to begin with people becoming violently ill. As the episodes comes to an end, it looks like the action is ready to begin.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: The climactic zombie outbreak on Broke Jaw Ranch property is the only zombie moment there is to choose from.
GORY GLORY: Jake's near-scalping was a cringeworthy sight.
FAVORITE SCENE: Nick cuts his hair! No, my favorite scene was actually Walker talking about sideshow trailer travesty and cave painting prophecies.
Season 3, Episode 8: Children of Wrath
PLOT: With the Broke Jaw Ranch militia ailing from anthrax, the Black Hat Reservation tribe prepares to attack.
REVIEW: Episode 14 of Fear the Walking Dead's second season was called Wrath, and that episode was the last time we saw Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason) before she made her return in episode 7 of the third season, The Unveiling. In Wrath, Ofelia crossed the U.S. / Mexico border and was welcomed into the states by a gun-wielding mystery man... who we would come to find out was Jeremiah Otto (Dayton Callie), head of the Broke Jaw Ranch.
For nine months of real world time and seven episodes of Fear the Walking Dead time we were left to wonder what happened to Ofelia. I imagined a nightmarish scenario in which she was being held captive somewhere on the ranch property, hidden away from the world by Jeremiah. But then in The Unveiling she turned up free and well, in a relationship with Qaletqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) of the Black Hat Reservation, leader of a tribe that felt Broke Jaw was rightfully theirs. For nine months I have been interested in finding out where Ofelia had been... But you know when that interest fades? When we have reached a mid-season finale and I'm ready to see an exciting conclusion to the Broke Jaw / Black Hat drama. So while I appreciate that the show has finally told us all we needed to know about the time we lost with Ofelia, I didn't really appreciate that several minutes of the mid-season finale was taken up by the story of her being ditched in the desert by Jeremiah, who felt the ranch had no use for her due to her skin tone, and later found by Walker. Great. I would have liked that sequence better if it had come an episode earlier.
Fear has always seemed like the sort of show that could strike out at tee-ball. It does great work at setting things up, but when it comes to the pay-off it often whiffs it. Such was the case with Children of Wrath, which may have been the least exciting mid-season finale to ever come out of the Walking Dead world. The one word that comes to mind to describe it is plodding.
The ending of The Unveiling had made it seem like the following episode would be delivering some good action, but that wasn't the case. There are some zombies and gunfire, but it's nothing like I was expecting or wanting. I thought negotiations to stop the war between Broke Jaw and Black Hat from happening were a waste of time because we needed the satisfaction of some kind of battle, but as it turns out we were never going to get that satisfaction anyway. Not in the mid-season finale, at least.
What we get is a confirmation of something we've strongly suspected all along: Jeremiah Otto is a scumbag who should have never been trusted. There are also some strong character moments between the members of the Clark family; mother Madison (Kim Dickens) and teenage children Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). While this dramatic work is appreciated, it contributed to the slow pace of the finale overall and it got tough to sit through all this chit-chat when I was hoping to see things actually happen.
It's strange to say, when I was hoping for an episode that would be full of mayhem and death galore, but the best thing about this mid-season finale was a scene in which Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) manages to make radio contact with a cosmonaut drifting in orbit around the planet. The concept of this was quite intriguing, because the fate of people in orbit, left to die while floating in space, is something that is rarely acknowledged in apocalyptic fiction. Through their conversation Strand is also able to learn that the zombie outbreak wasn't just confined to North America. The entire world has gone dark. That's the sort of news that would be unimaginably horrifying to hear, that you're one of the last living souls in a world overrun by flesh-eating ghouls.
Children of Wrath does wrap up with some violence, just not on the scale I was hoping for. Given that Jeremiah Otto was introduced (even though we didn't learn his name at that time) in an episode called Wrath, it seems quite fitting that his story is wrapped up in an episode called Children of Wrath. Callie did an excellent job bringing his character to life, but I can't say I'm going to miss ol' Jeremiah Otto.
Although the mid-season finale didn't deliver anything I expected it to, I am left very intrigued to see where the story will take the characters next. This show keeps me on the hook even when it lets me down.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: Strand gets on board his old boat the Abigail to find that it's infested with zombies. So he takes care of that problem.
GORY GLORY: There was a more meaningful headshot and decapitation later in the episode, but I liked the moment when a zombie gets a speargun fired into its head, the spear sticking its body to a wall.
FAVORITE SCENE: Although they're separated by many miles, Strand has a drink with a cosmonaut.
Season 3, Episode 9: Minotaur
PLOT: The peace between the two groups occupying Broke Jaw Ranch is threatened when some residents hold on to grudges.
REVIEW: Fear the Walking Dead's season 3 mid-season finale Children of Wrath took a carton of eggs and smacked it right into my face. In my write-up on the previous episode, The Unveiling, I had gone on about how the peace talks between the residents of the Broke Jaw Ranch and the Native American tribe who wanted to reclaim the land were pointless because there was no way a war between the two groups could be avoided. Violence on a massive scale had to happen, because that was the only dramatically satisfying path for the show to take. But, as it turned out, peace could be achieved. Tribe leader Qaletaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) just wanted the death of Broken Jaw leader Jeremiah Otto (Dayton Callie), and Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) literally delivered the man's head to him.
So now that Walker has gotten the head he wanted and viewers didn't get the action that many of them (including myself) wanted to see, where does Fear the Walking Dead go from there? In the first episode of the season's second half, it gives us a small sample of what we missed out on when Madison and Walker made nice. War was avoided, but there's still a battle to be fought.
The residents of Broke Jaw Ranch, led officially by Jeremiah's son Jake (Sam Underwood) but with Madison covertly pulling the strings, are giving up a lot in the name of peace, allowing Walker and his people to just move onto the ranch land with them. You don't typically see this sort of "let bygones be bygones" move in the Walking Dead world, and it makes sense that not everyone at Broke Jaw is comfortable with their new neighbors. Walker and his people poisoned the Broke Jaw militia with anthrax. They killed residents. They killed Travis! One poor sap got his head smashed open so birds could eat his brain while he was still alive. That's a lot to forgive and forget.
Jake's brother Troy (Daniel Sharman) isn't ready to live happily ever after with the Native Americans, even though he's responsible for some of the murders they're blamed for. When the misguided vengeful actions of one Broke Jaw resident causes Jake and Madison to hand over control of the weapons on the land to Walker, which a stunning concession that shows Madison really is willing to give up almost anything to make this peace work, that's a step too far for Troy. He holds on to his weapons, leading to a shootout with some of Walker's people. Finally. I thought there would be a lot more people involved when the shit went down between members of these two groups on ranch land, but I'll take what I can get. When the bullets start flying, I finally get a bit of satisfaction.
While tension is building between the two groups, we also see that the water supply is starting to run low at the ranch, which will surely lead to a reunion between Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason) and her father Daniel (Ruben Blades), who is currently living at a dam in Mexico and helping supply survivors there with water. A noble endeavor that comes with dangers of its own when people get greedy. Daniel is desperately hoping to see his daughter again, and a moment when he thinks he spots her in the distance was quite touching, thanks to Blades' performance and the expressions on his face. This show needs a lot more Daniel Salazar. 100, the episode that was entirely dedicated to his story, is the best Fear the Walking Dead has ever gotten.
There were some nice character beats in this episode, like talk of the guilt Ofelia and Nick (Frank Dillane) feel over the things they've done during the apocalypse, and Nick and Troy bonding over lost fathers. What happens with Troy is particularly intriguing, since he manages to survive his act of resistance and walks away from it knowing the truth about his father's death. Still, the main thing I enjoyed about Minotaur - which, unfortunately, doesn't actually feature a minotaur creature - was the shootout. I really needed that, after months of feeling burned by the mid-season finale.
There wasn't a whole lot to the episode overall, but the gunfire made it worth it.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: Zombies weren't really a factor in this episode, but a herd of them do get taken care of early on.
GORY GLORY: This episode was all about the Troy action. When that crazy bastard impales his own hand on the blade of a person's knife so he can then jam the knife stuck to his hand into its owner, that's as "Gory Glory" as it gets.
FAVORITE SCENE: The shootout! The residents of Broke Jaw and the members of Walker's tribe should all be shooting at each other!
Season 3, Episode 10: The Diviner
PLOT: The survivors of the zombie apocalypse struggle with a water shortage.
REVIEW: Being set much earlier in the days of the zombie apocalypse than its sister series The Walking Dead allows Fear the Walking Dead to show us a lot more people trying to survive, since there are a lot more people still alive. The characters on this show can never travel too far without running into large groups of other survivors. That wasn't the case on The Walking Dead, at least not until recently when Rick Grimes and his cohorts came to realize they're surrounded by other communities. Characters on that show would travel for months without running into other groups.
The larger population of the world during Fear's time period becomes apparent once again in this episode, when Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and Qaletaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) head out into the world in search of a solution to the water shortage Broke Jaw Ranch has been hit with. Seeking 10,000 gallons of water, the pair soon reach a stadium that has been converted into a marketplace - and this place is packed with survivors stocking up on supplies and bidding on things, like a motorcycle. It's good when this show can take advantage of its prequel nature and show us things that The Walking Dead is unable to since it's set so deep in the apocalypse timeline.
Despite there being more people around, Fear's characters still manage to find each other incredibly easily whenever they're split up. Sure, Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) and his daughter Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) haven't seen each other since season 2's mid-season finale, but they're destined to be reunited any time now. Everyone else has crossed paths again in a surprisingly short amount of time. It took Morgan Jones the better part of three seasons to see Rick Grimes again, yet here we have Madison and Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) ending up at the same marketplace just ten episodes after parting company.
They're brought together by coincidence, but it is nice to see Strand and Madison interacting again, and this episode reminded me why I liked Strand so much in the first place. The guy is in trouble once again, and as he faces the punishment of being chained to a fence as zombie bait he drops the line "My mother named me Victor because she knew I'd always win." Yeah, Victor Strand is awesome.
Another very clever thing that Fear the Walking Dead is doing this season is exploring an aspect of surviving in the zombie apocalypse that hasn't really been touched upon, at least not in the mainstream zombie entertainment I have consumed. Beyond avoiding zombie bites, beyond dealing with dangerous fellow survivors, beyond finding a safe place to live, people in this dystopian world would need a supply of fresh water. What do you do when the well runs dry in a lawless land overrun with the flesh-hungry walking dead? The characters on this show have an easy answer, they need to go visit Daniel at Gonzalez Dam, but it was quite smart of this show to address the issue at all.
Before Gonzalez Dam can be reached, the water shortage is already threatening to cause a lot of trouble of Broke Jaw Ranch. Things are already tense enough there, with the established residents not being too comfortable with Walker's people, their former enemies, moving in with them, and suddenly having to deal with rationed water doesn't help. It's interesting that it's Madison's son Nick (Frank Dillane) who finds himself at the center of the brewing conflict. He killed a man to bring peace between the two groups, and now he might be the one who breaks the peace.
I'm all for breaking the peace in the name of getting some more action into the show, and The Diviner teased me with the possibility of war breaking out at Broke Jaw Ranch, much like the episodes building up to this year's mid-season finale did. Well, I'm not going to fall for that again. Maybe these people will fight each other at some point and maybe they won't, but I don't have any expectations of violence anymore.
By taking advantage of its time period and exploring ideas that I haven't seen other zombie fiction cover, The Diviner stood out as a solid episode of this series.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: The best zombie moment here was when Strand was chained to the stadium fence and had to protect himself from the walkers that came for a snack.
GORY GLORY: There wasn't really any glorious gore in here. Strand kills some zombies, but the CG blood splatter from their head wounds didn't do much for me. Madison and Walker did witness a bloody mess outside the stadium fence when they first arrived, that was slightly better.
FAVORITE SCENE: Strand talking to Madison, telling her that the zombie outbreak was global. And, of course, speaking that line about why his mom named him Victor.
Season 3, Episode 11: La Serpiente
PLOT: Representatives of Broke Jaw Ranch try to negotiate a water deal at Gonzalez Dam.
REVIEW: One of the greatest and most memorable zombies in the history of AMC's The Walking Dead is the waterlogged ghoul discovered in a farm well back in the show's second season. Not only was that zombie disgusting to look at from the start, but things got even worse, and more gross, when the characters tried to pull it out of the well. Its saturated body wasn't up to the strain and it ended up splitting in half. In this third season episode of The Walking Dead's companion series, Fear the Walking Dead has matched that zombie and taken things a step further.
The story of the water shortage at Broke Jaw Ranch continued this week, with Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and Qaletaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) having Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) take them to Gonzalez Dam, which is already supplying water to survivors in the immediate area. To infiltrate the dam, Strand leads Madison and Walker into the sewer system... or attempts to. He's not a very good leader. Eventually the group finds that a pipe they'll need to traverse has been blocked by a bloated, rotting, waterlogged zombie who has gotten stuck in the pipe. Killing the zombie isn't enough to take care of the problem, they still need to get through that pipe, and the thing is tightly wedged in there. And so Madison has to start hacking into the corpse with her hatchet, removing it piece-by-piece until the water is able to start flowing again.
The Walking Dead fans remember the well zombie all these years later, and the sewer zombie is likely to remain just as memorable for viewers of Fear the Walking Dead.
Once the trio reaches the dam, we get another reunion of characters who have been on separate paths for a long time, this time it's Madison and Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades). This isn't as momentous as seeing Madison and Strand together again in the previous episode, and the great chemistry Madison and Strand have is again on display here, but it's just good to see the show's characters interacting once more.
Learning that his daughter Ofelia is still alive and living on Broke Jaw Ranch, Daniel is surprisingly ambivalent about whether or not he should go see her, as he's concerned about the well-being of Gonzalez Dam leader Lola Guerrero (Lisandra Tena). It's a noble thing Lola is doing, providing survivors around the dam with water, but things are starting to fall apart there. It makes sense - while the people are lucky they have this water supply, they resent someone else having control of it, and they'll always want more than they're given.
I like the Lola character a lot, and the same goes for fellow dam higher-up Efrain (Jesse Borrego). To this point, their story has had nothing to do with the storyline Madison and Walker have been going through, so it's interesting to see these worlds collide, to watch Madison and Lola talk and get to know things about each other.
Past the first 15 minutes, La Serpiente was quite a dialogue heavy episode, as most of it concerns attempts at negotiating a water deal with the Gonzalez Dam people and Daniel discussing the Ofelia situation, but that didn't bother me much because the early minutes had plenty of zombies. Plus, I was intrigued by the conversations being had at the dam. Besides, once you reach the heights of something like the sewer zombie scene, you have to come down for a little while after.
It is just a little while, as things picked up again at the end. A super gross zombie, an explosion, zombies walking while on fire, and solid dialogue exchanges all in one episode? La Serpiente was a winner.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: The sight of burning walkers is pretty cool, but this honor has got to go to the zombie found stuck in the sewer pipe. That's not just the best zombie moment of the episode, that's up there among the best zombie moments of the entire series.
GORY GLORY: Again, the sewer zombie. Madison chopping its head off and then hacking into the rest of its body.
FAVORITE SCENE: The answer to that is probably obvious at this point.
Season 3, Episode 12: Brother's Keeper
PLOT: Troy Otto is on a mission to destroy the ranch he used to call home, and he's going to use a horde of zombies to do it.
REVIEW: If you're up on your Biblical phrases, the title of Fear the Walking Dead's latest episode might have given it all away. "Brother's Keeper" indicates that the story will center on two brothers, and who else could that be but Jake and Troy Otto? The brothers in the Biblical story were Cain and Abel, and "Am I my brother's keeper?" was Cain's answer when asked where his brother Abel was. Cain knew where Able was; he was just trying to hide the fact that he had murdered his own brother. Two brothers, the black sheep causing the death of the golden child. The title lets you know, it's time to say goodbye to Jake (played by Sam Underwood).
Otto black sheep Troy (Daniel Sharman) was aiming to bring something Biblical down on Broke Jaw Ranch after his exile, and he accomplished it. It just wasn't the exact passage he might have had in mind.
Of course, I can't give Troy all of the credit for Jake's death. He did get an accidental assist from Nick Clark (Frank Dillane), who just couldn't let Jake do the world a favor and put his insane brother out of our misery. He had to interfere, and that interference gives him some responsibility for the death that followed.
Clarks royally screwing things up for other characters is nothing new for this show, that's what that family does, but what was new for Fear the Walking Dead was the dropping of the "f*ck" bomb that came in the middle of the episode. That's not just a first for Fear, as far as I can recall that's the first time AMC had ever let that particular F-word make it to air on a Walking Dead show. Rick did say it in an alternate take of the last moment of Walking Dead's season 4 finale, but that's not the take they went with. The Negan character throws "f*ck"s left and right in the comic book source material, but I don't think he has even let one slip on The Walking Dead. If Nick can say "F*ck" on Fear the Walking Dead, Negan better be "f*ck"ing around in season 8 of this show's companion series.
Certainly, the occasion called for some strong language. Left to wander the desert with only one bullet in his gun, Troy found a way to cause a whole lot of trouble with that one bullet, drawing the attention of a huge horde of zombies toward the ranch. The way the movement of this horde is presented as it advances toward the ranch was really cool - that many zombies managed to kick up a lot of dirt.
As entertaining as it was to watch the zombies bust through the barriers and enter Broke Jaw Ranch, I was also watching that sequence with some trepidation. Not because I was worried about any of the ranch residents, there aren't many characters on this show that I care about, but because I was concerned that this action was going to render the last few episodes completely pointless. The show has been dealing with a water shortage on the ranch. If the ranch is overrun and destroyed, they're not going to need any water there. I wouldn't put it past Fear the Walking Dead to render a storyline pointless, either. This show loves to subvert expectations... and if I wanted to be harsher, I would say that it's not afraid to waste time, either.
If the story of the water shortage doesn't turn out to be important because of these zombies now on ranch land, I'm going to be upset. But that's an issue for a future episode. Judging Brother's Keeper only on what occurs within its running time, this was a good episode. Crazy Troy, a whole lot of zombies, the death of a somewhat important but expendable character. I enjoyed it.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: The zombies have to do much to impress me in this episode, my favorite moments were the shots of them walking through the desert, kicking up a dust storm.
GORY GLORY: Jake's bitten arm getting hacked off with a machete was not only a well executed gore effect, it was also a nice nod to a similar moment in George A. Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD.
FAVORITE SCENE: If Nick had let Jake shoot Troy in the face when he wanted to, that would have been my favorite scene. Instead I'll have to go with Nick spotting the advancing horde and saying, "F*ck."
Season 3, Episode 13: This Land Is Your Land
PLOT: While Nick and Troy struggle to deal with the zombie horde that Troy led to Broke Jaw Ranch, Alicia and the others are trapped in the pantry with a dwindling air supply.
REVIEW: This Land Is Your Land is one of those episodes of Fear the Walking Dead that I frequently hope for, but which we rarely get. One with a substantial amount of zombies. I know we can't have zombie mayhem every episode, but it's good to get an episode like this one from time to time. Beyond the action, there was also some good character work and nice dramatic scenes... and yet I'm still having trouble seeing the episode in a positive light.
This show has a habit of abandoning interesting ideas and locations very quickly, and as the Broke Jaw Ranch story comes to a conclusion, I'm not sure how to feel about it. I sort of feel like ditching this location at this point has made much of the season a waste of time. The show wanted us to become invested in the characters getting set up on this ranch. We had the tension between the ranch residents and the tribe of Native Americans led by Qaletaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) that needed to be resolved. It looked like there was going to be a war over the land. That was avoided. So then we were given the idea of the established residents and the Native Americans sharing the land, and there was still an air of tension. Would these two groups be able to live together, or would there be a war after all? More trouble was added into the mix - the ranch was running out of water, so Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and Walker had to go over to the Gonzalez Dam to make a deal for more water.
Before Madison and Walker can even get a truckload of water back to the ranch, all of the fighting and the deal-making is rendered absolutely pointless by Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) and the horde of zombies he led to the ranch, getting revenge for being exiled because he's a psycho. It's a given when you're watching a zombie show that no location is going to be safe for very long (although Fear's sister show The Walking Dead is really making Alexandria last), but there's a balance to find. If the characters are in a place for a good amount of time, you're ready to move on. When a show just devoted the majority of a season to making things work at a location and then decides to toss it aside when the characters are still trying to put all the pieces together, it feels like this has happened too soon. Why did I have to sit through all the bickering over the land and the worrying about the water supply? By the end of episode 13, none of it means anything.
For a while, when there's still some hope, This Land Is Your Land does present some interesting ideas. Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and the rest of the Broke Jaw residents being trapped in the pantry, where the only air vent is blocked and the horde of zombies are roaming the land outside, was a good set-up for some harrowing scenes, some emotional ones as characters start running out of air, and intense ones, as bitten residents have to be put down both for the safety of the others and to help make the air supply last longer. That's some dark and clever stuff.
Outside the pantry, Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) and Troy struggle to deal with the zombie problem, which seems to be impossible with the equipment they have at their disposal and the sheer number of the walking dead now populating the ranch land. If only they had been more successful at their objectives, I would be feeling better about the episode. Or if only Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason) had solved the blocked air vent issue sooner.
This episode was definitely a great showcase for Alyica Debnam-Carey, though. The Alicia character is growing to become stronger and more interesting, gaining depth. She has to take a bit of a leadership role here, and it's not an enviable position to be in when the leader has to ask people to volunteer to be killed with a combo of morphine and a knife to the brain. The breakdown Alicia has after the first killing was a wonderful moment for Debnam-Carey, as was a later scene where she bonds with a woman while they both run out of air.
Fear the Walking Dead is moving on to a different location now, and this is for sure: I'm never going to give another damn over whether or not the characters are going to be able to settle at any one location. Never again will I become invested in their attempts to secure a place. By moving on from Broke Jaw Ranch already, the creative team has given me a reason not to care about certain aspects of their show.
It's also highly annoying that they have chosen to split characters up again just when everyone was starting to be reunited. Alicia, just go to the dam.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: This may seem like cheating, but I would say the best zombie moment actually involved people who were bitten but hadn't yet turned into full-fledged zombies: the euthanasia sequence, people volunteering to die rather than become zombies.
GORY GLORY: While trapped in a helicopter by the zombie horde, Nick switches on the rotors and the spinning tail rotor catches a couple zombies, splattering blood on the chopper and removing one zombie's face.
FAVORITE SCENE: I really loved seeing Alicia's intense emotional reaction after the first person was euthanized.
Season 3, Episode 14: El Matadero
PLOT: Madison tries to get Daniel's daughter back to him, while her own daughter struggles to survive on her own.
REVIEW: Some viewers say that AMC's The Walking Dead has gotten too predictable, that you know nothing major is going to happen outside of the season premieres, the mid-season finales, and the season finales. Fear the Walking Dead is clearly doing its best not to be predictable, and in fact the only thing that is becoming predictable about it for me is that the show is going to subvert my expectations. Every time I think I know where it's going and/or where it should go, it branches off into a different direction. Season three's mid-season finale didn't play out like I expected, the living situation at Broke Jaw Ranch fell apart much quicker than I anticipated, and now the show has gone and removed another fairly major character just when I thought everyone was going to be happily reunited.
Before we get to the loss of a charater, we also have the introduction of a new character - and we're sort of in need of those, when the show keeps dropping leads and has drastically whittled down the supporting cast that was established this season. While Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) distances herself from the others and tries to make it on her own, she comes across fellow survivor Diana, played by Edwina Findley. Sporting a pick axe and collecting zombie teeth and fingers for sale and trade, Diana is a road-hardened survivor who could be a nice addition to the show if she sticks around long enough... And the skills she displays when Alicia first sees her are so badass, she deserves to be around for a while.
Diana also seems like someone who would be right at home on Fear's companion series; Fear doesn't often embrace the franchise's comic book roots like The Walking Dead does, and Diana's collecting habits and signature weapon make her a slightly more comic booky character than the average person on this show.
While Alicia is off scavenging and making friends with Diana, her mother Madison (Kim Dickens) is going through a rough time with somebody else's daughter. It is revealed early on in the episode that Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason) was bitten by a zombie during the events of the previous episode, and is now desperately trying to cling to life long enough to meet up with her father, Daniel (Ruben Blades).
Ofelia is the character we lose this episode, and even though I don't have any strong feelings about her leaving the show, I did find her death to be heartbreaking simply because I wanted her to be reunited with her father for Daniel's sake. That guy has had a nightmarish life, and he deserves some happiness. He's my favorite character on the show, and he deserved to be with his daughter again. Ofelia makes it so far into the episode, then succumbs to her bite just seconds before Daniel can see her. It was devastating.
Kudos to El Matadero for the expert emotional manipulation. The fact that such a large portion of the episode dealt with a character dying from a zombie bite also reminded me of What Happened and What's Going On, a season five episode of The Walking Dead that dealt with the character Tyreese dying from a zombie bite. I certainly enjoyed El Matadero more than I enjoyed What Happened and What's Going On, which ranks as one of my least favorite Walking Dead episodes.
Tyreese's bite caused him to have hallucinations. We're not privy to any hallucinations Ofelia has, but she's not the only character who's tripping out of their minds in this episode. Former drug addict Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) goes off the wagon and takes Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) with him. Not only is this a bad idea for Nick himself, but Troy is also a very bad choice of a drug buddy. Someone who's already crazy is probably not the best person to be popping pills and chewing brain stems with. Nick going back to the drugs and drink was a disappointing turn of events, mainly because I really don't want to see the show spend more time on his addictions. For the sake of my own entertainment, I hope Nick climbs back on the wagon real quick.
With new showrunners taking over Fear the Walking Dead next season, I assumed that one of the reasons why the show had everyone ditch Broke Jaw Ranch and head for Daniel's place at Gonzalez Dam would be so that all of the main characters would be together in one place, after being scattered around for this whole season (and longer). That would sort of give the new showrunners a clean slate to work with. That may still happen by the end of the season three finale, but for right now the show is still working to keep them apart, whether that means killing them off or sending them out on their own.
I'm still looking forward to all of the main characters ending up at the same place, but it's a shame that Daniel won't have his daughter with him when they do all gather together.
El Matadero did things I didn't like, but it didn't lose me when it did them. I could appreciate the drama of it all and am eager to see where things are going.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: The best zombie moment was the best Diana moment. She comes into a place where there are several zombies hanging out and proceeds to take them all down with her pick axe within seconds. Then she starts cutting off fingers and pulling teeth.
GORY GLORY: Zombie heads are smashed, brains are stabbed, and fingers are snipped off, but things get the bloodiest when Nick shows Troy his old trick of covering himself with zombie blood so they can walk among the dead. This trick used to be majorly overused on this show, but I kind of liked this callback to the days when I would watch and think, "I can't believe they're doing this again."
FAVORITE SCENE: The introduction of Diana.
Season 3, Episode 15: Things Bad Begun
PLOT: Before Madison Clark can settle in at Gonzalez Dam, news arrives that the place is about to be raided by another group of survivors.
REVIEW: The "Proctor John" part of Fear the Walking Dead season 3's overall story has been bothering me ever since Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) and Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) were reunited at El Bazar back in the episode The Diviner. Strand has said that he ran into trouble with the leader of the place, Proctor John, but it has never been made clear what that trouble was. Showrunner Dave Erickson has said that there's sort of a "missing Strand episode" they had intended to shoot as a web series, and it has never sat well with me that this whole thing happened without us seeing it. That doesn't feel like very good storytelling. But whatever, Strand is in trouble with Proctor John, so much trouble that he has betrayed his cohorts and pointed the Bazar owner in the direction of Gonzalez Dam. And so Things Bad Begun is a countdown to the moment when Proctor John's people will be invading the dam.
Fear the Walking Dead's companion series The Walking Dead has been rooted in the same location for multiple seasons now, but Fear clearly has no intention of settling down. These characters just can't keep still. Broke Jaw Ranch seemed like a place to stay at for a while, but now it's in the rear view mirror, and before Madison can even get set up at Gonzalez Dam this place is already in trouble.
But before we get to that action, we need to find out some more about this Proctor John fellow, and we do so when Madison's wandering daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) meets him. I wasn't thrilled with the way this meeting came about, with Alicia seeking help for her newfound friend Diana (Edwina Findley) after her leg is broken by scavengers. We just met this character as an awesome badass in the previous episode, and now she's been sidelined with a badly broken leg. That's not cool at all, although it was cool to see Diana and Alicia fighting their attackers before she received that injury.
Played by veteran character actor Ray McKinnon, Proctor John has a likeable screen presence when we're introduced to him. He reveals his intentions to build a trade route that will span from the Gulf Coast of Texas to San Diego, which seems like a good idea in the post-apocalypse. That should help people out. He just doesn't happen to mention that raiding the dam where Alicia's mother now lives will be part of the plan. It does become clear that he is dangerous, though, when he recruits Alicia to assist in the spinal surgery that will save him from paralysis and mentions that she and the surgeon will be shot dead if they mess up the procedure. Incentive.
It was good to see McKinnon joining the show, especially in a role that could become so prominent and troublesome, and I was even happier to see that his doctor was played by James Le Gros of PHANTASM 2 and 118 other projects. Those actors are two great additions to the cast.
Our newly introduced villain needing surgery delays the raid for a little while, but luckily there are other issues to deal with at Gonzalez Dam while we wait. Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) has been able to deduce that someone was responsible for the zombie invasion of Broke Jaw Ranch that caused the death of his daughter Ofelia, and even though he doesn't get the truth from Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) when he questions him about it, that truth - that Troy Otto (Daniel Sharman) was responsible - is revealed to someone who didn't know it. And Troy pays for all the deaths he has caused.
For drama, Troy has been a great character to have around all season. This guy has caused all sorts of bad stuff to happen. But logically, there's no way the characters should still be keeping him around at this point, no matter how much Nick has somehow grown to like him, and even if he has been passing as sane lately. Troy is a wild card, he's not safe to be around, and since exiling him didn't work, other measures have to be taken... My favorite moment of the entire episode came when Madison found out that Troy led the zombie horde to Broke Jaw Ranch. Her reaction to that news is quick and absolutely perfect.
Aired back-to-back with the final episode of the season, Things Bad Begun isn't very satisfying in itself, but at least it brought Ray McKinnon and James Le Gros onto the show, and the whole running time is worth it just for that certain scene shared by Madison, Troy, and Nick.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: There's only one zombie moment to choose from. The flesh-eating ghouls were not a threat in this episode, and were only around to get hacked up at the beginning.
GORY GLORY: There are some gnarly face and head wounds on display in this episode, but I especially liked the zombie decapitations at the beginning, which were followed by the heads being split in half to get to those yummy brain stems.
FAVORITE SCENE: Troy gets a very matter-of-fact and long overdue comeuppance.
Season 3, Episode 16: Sleigh Ride
PLOT: The Clark family tries to survive the raid of Gonzalez Dam while Madison dreams of Christmas.
REVIEW: A shocking event occurred in the previous episode of Fear the Walking Dead, Things Bad Begun. While Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) and the traitorous Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) struggled over a gun, the gun went off and shot Daniel in the face. Strand describes that event as the "worst moment of his life" in this episode. It probably wasn't a highlight of Daniel's, either. But if that shot had killed Daniel, it would have been the worst moment in Fear the Walking Dead history, no question. Daniel is a very important part of this show. It may focus more heavily on the Clark family, but Daniel is the best character the show has, and Fear the Walking Dead needs him moving forward. I know my interest in the show would drop substantially if he were to be removed from it.
Thankfully, Daniel is a badass for the ages, and a shot that appears to have gone into his chin and exited through his cheek proves to be a minor inconvenience for him that doesn't keep him out of the action in this episode, in which Proctor John (Ray McKinnon) and his followers conduct a deadly raid at Gonzalez Dam.
While I was glad to see Daniel continuing his fight, there were some disappointments regarding the fates of other characters, namely Lola Guerrero (Lisandra Tena) and Efraín Morales (Jesse Borrego), Daniel's companions at the dam. I liked those characters and wanted more from them, but unfortunately it's not to be. Just like this show doesn't like to stay in one location for too long, it also doesn't like to keep supporting characters around for too long. Efraín was such a good character when he was introduced back in 100, but the show never did much with him after that, and now 100 will always be his peak. It's a shame.
Sleigh Ride contains a good deal of action, with lots of shots being fired and a bunch of people dying. That action is broken up with a strange nightmare sequence focusing on Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) having a very twisted Christmas dinner. This was an unexpected element; when I sat down to watch this season three finale I did not think I was going to be watching an episode called Sleigh Ride and featuring Christmas decorations. I really could have done without the whole Christmas dream thing, but it added a touch of weirdness to the episode overall.
Season finales should usually have a big climax, and this one has a climax so spectacular that the budget was barely enough to pull off the required special effects. It begins with shootouts on the dam, Lola and Daniel whittling down the number of Proctor John's followers, soon aided in that endeavor by Qaletaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) and his sniper buddy "Crazy Dog" (Justin Rain), and it ends with Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) detonating the C4 the dam has been wired with. CGI crumbling and flooding ensues, and it was a bit odd in some shots but convincing enough.
As season three reaches its end, the fates of some characters are left up in the air. Daniel and Nick probably get away from the dam, Walker and "Crazy Dog" are heading north, we know Madison is okay. But where are Strand and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey)? We'll have to wait until season four rolls around next year to find out.
When Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC, it will have new showrunners. Dave Erickson, the showrunner up to this point, is stepping down to focus on developing other projects. It will be interesting to see what the show will be like under new leadership. I have had a lot of issues with these first three seasons, so I'm open to seeing how others will handle the story and characters. However, I do have to say that Erickson is going out on top - season three was by far the strongest season Fear the Walking Dead has had to date. Friends of mine were majorly put off by the episodes they saw of seasons one and two, and I couldn't really defend the show when they would bash it. This season, though, I've had to tell them, "Fear the Walking Dead has actually been pretty good lately."
Hopefully it will be staying this good, and getting even better, with season four.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: There were no members of the "walking dead" to speak of in this episode, just arms rising from a grave in a nightmare sequence.
GORY GLORY: That nightmare sequence also provided the standout gore, with a severed head taking the place of Christmas dinner and the head's owner leaking blood all over the table.
FAVORITE SCENE: "Crazy Dog" sniping Proctor John's men, followed by Nick setting off the C4 and destroying Gonzalez Dam.
No comments:
Post a Comment