Season One Final Thoughts

As I write my final thoughts on Season One of Fear the Walking Dead, we are already at the third episode of the second season (episode nine, overall).  I was having trouble writing summaries of episodes that I watched a while back (but I took detailed notes!), but also without giving too much away on what was going on currently with the show. 

I'm going to try to be better with the whole element of surprise thing, since that's the main draw of Fear, in my opinion.  I'm going to try to bang out the next three write ups before episode 10 hits on Sunday.  I hope I can, anyway.  Life, and all. 

But the element of surprise is something.  Because right now, on the parent show The Walking Dead, we heard for months and months that Negan Negan Negan, "your property now belongs to Negan," etc.  I've made no secret that I am not a fan of the parent show.  I have to keep it in context of the existing story of this show, since the plan is, apparently, to get the tribes to meet at one point.  Anyway, we heard so much about Negan that it was almost a killjoy when he finally came on.  We fucking knew already, not just because it was the worst kept secret, like, ever, but that *surprise!* he's in the fucking comic. 

In addition, I became a huge fan of Negan, in hopes that he would just fucking kill everyone I disliked (or even remotely liked, like Michonne or Daryl) and then the show would be "Negan."  Now, **that** I can get behind.

 (I really don't like the characters on the parent show, can I just move on, please?)

With Fear, there is an element of surprise.  It seems as though most of the families are "main characters," and if we get attached to certain characters, it would be harder to see them go.  Yet, we know they will eventually.  Since this is all new writing though, and there is no comic that the story has to be beholden to, in my opinion this makes Fear superior to TWD. 

So far, we have met the Manawa/Clark families, with Travis and Madison ("Maddie") as the couple -- I was under the impression they were just "together" and not married, but in some scenes, they refer to Maddie as Travis' wife.  Maddie has two children, Nick, a heroin addict who is shocked into sobriety by seeing one of his friends turn, and Alicia, a sullen little princess who is addicted to creature comforts like iPods and smartphones.  We don't know much about her first husband and her kids' parents, but we do know he died suddenly.

Travis' ex wife, Liza, was raising their son, Chris.  Chris still seems to harbor some anger towards Travis, especially, for breaking up the family.  Liza seems to give her son a lot of rope, that he will come around eventually.  Chris also seems to be an aspiring videographer.  The family was brought together again when Chris went missing in the middle of the riots that broke out in the middle of the outbreak.  Liza, eventually, is "mercy killed" by Travis, after she is bitten by one of the infected at the military hospital. 

Travis and Maddie were teachers before the world fell apart.  One of Maddie's students, Tobias, is dismissed as having conspiracy theories, but turns out he was right all along with predicting the outbreak and decline of civilization.  Maddie also loses a coworker, Principal Artie "Obama" (he looks just like the President), due to infection. 

While seeking shelter from the riots, the reunited Manawas shack up with the Salazars, patriarch Daniel, mother/wife Griselda and daughter Ofelia.  Reluctantly, they band together when Griselda gets injured, and the Salazars themselves need shelter.  Griselda ultimately succumbs to her injuries and dies at the military hospital.  The doctors on staff there know that once you die, you become infected and need to suffer a traumatic brain injury to fully pass.

Nick, considered a "threat" to the new world order due to his addictions, is taken away to lock up on the grounds of the military triage.  There he meets Victor Strand, a mysterious yet cool fellow whom we don't know much about.  He sees that Nick has gifts which will actually work in this new world, and "obligates" him (and the rest of the family, when they break out of the lock up) in keeping him as a resource.

When the combined families make their escape with Strand, they head "west" to the ocean, where Strand has a house with supplies.  He then alludes they will not be staying long, and they plan to head to the water. 

It seems as though the writing is grooming Travis Manawa to be the "Rick Grimes" of the group.  While he has been characterized as the leader of the group, with the kids and even adults looking to him for guidance in season one episodes, it's evident that Daniel Salazar has a better handle to disconnect from the realities of the world and his emotions.  Since it was revealed that he had participating in torturing in El Salvador, if this was a "civilized" society, we'd judge his actions as horrific and unjust.  Yet, in this new world order, where no sense makes sense, his skills are almost an asset.  I guess if Travis is the de facto leader, Daniel would be the second in command with his skill set, maybe a Michonne or Daryl type. 

But as I was discussing this tribe with my husband, who is a huge TWD fan, I stopped myself and asked out loud, "Why does this group have to be like the others on the main show?"

Just because Travis is seen as a governor type (not "The" Governor, but a governor type leader), with maybe Madison being second in command that the rest of the group looks up to, the group is still brand new, just weeks into the apocalypse.  The group will eventually grow and fracture off, but there will be others who just become leaders who have seen more shit than they have, and will be able to learn from it better.  Each member will find what strengths they play to, and as Strand said, Nick has skills he will need on the outside world.  Nick has already scavenged and lived in a surreal world.  Outside of Daniel, who had to do unspeakable things to survive civil war, Nick is probably best equipped for handling the new world.  As he said, he's been living this, the rest of the world finally caught up with him.

For tribes that stayed behind (we see more of this in the parent show), we see how colonies like Alexandria and Woodbury that had fenced in areas, functioning systems and pecking orders.  The military basically left these people behind, and they had to fend for themselves.  What's eerie here is that this tribe has been on the move since it all started.  The Salazars especially who had to leave everything they had in an instant and lost a family member right off the bat.  (Meanwhile, I'm like, if I was separated from my cats and not able to go home one last time to get them, I'd be like that guy Doug in the lock up). 

Few things to think about before heading into season two...

Some people in forums and social media have criticized that the show is slow, or has continuity issues.  What we have to remember is when the first show debuted, things weren't as crystal either back then.  Remember, Rick had to kind of learn what was going on in this new world from scratch.  He was also in Atlanta, and if the outbreak began on the west coast and made its way cross country, then communications and power grids have been lost from the major cities. 

Also.  IT IS A FUCKING ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.  We've literally never had anything like this happen before.  Fuck continuity.  If we continue to compare/contrast the two shows, we'll never get past these differences.   That's why I didn't like TWD.  I felt like there were way too many questions I had that weren't being answered.  I suppose if you like zombie shit (which, admittedly, I don't), then it's cool to wait it out to see blood and guts and brains and shit.  I wanted to know what happened.  When we meet TWD characters, they've already been beaten by it, and are now in full on survival mode.  Fear is just figuring that shit out.  That's what I find compelling.  I also find the characters and seeing what their old lives were like first hand more interesting.

We do not know ANYTHING about Strand.  We know he was in the lock up with Nick.  We know he has access to this mansion on the water.  We know he has a boat with supplies.  That is IT.  I have a feeling when we find out WHY he was in the lock up with Nick, it will be a doozy.

I love that there is still an element of hope here, that somehow this will all stop, and they will be able to pick up the pieces of their lives.  The audience knows they are far off from that happening.  

Lastly, in the third episode, Nick sees a plane making a descent into LAX (presumably), but appears to be making a crash landing the way it is coming in.  The flight is presumed to be Flight 462, the short that played minute clips during each episode of Fear and TWD last season.

My initial complaint was that the apocalypse kind of just *happened*, like someone was infected and three days later, the world fucking fell apart.  However, as Tobias said in the second episode, "When civilization ends, it ends fast."  Someone always has a great fucking quote in these episodes.  Anyway, that's exactly the point.  If I were a writer on the show, I'd probably have more neighbors like Susan turning, and then having people slowly figure out that shit is about to go down.  Let it grow that way. 

But I'm not a writer on the show.  I'm just sitting at my desk, writing stupid write ups that maybe two people are gonna read.  If you're gonna end civilization, you do it right and have it end quickly.  There's no time stamp on that. 

Main Characters:

Travis Manawa
Madison "Maddie" Clark
Nick Clark
Alicia Clark
Chris Manawa
Liza Ortiz Manawa (QPD)
Daniel Salazar
Griselda Salazar (QPD)
Ofelia Salazar
Victor Strand

Supporting characters:
Principal Artie "Obama" (QPD)
Tobias
Matt, Alicia's boyfriend (QPD)
Dr. Exnor (We *think* she's QPD)
Corporal Andy Adams (left for dead, but probably still alive)