Episode 15 Synopsis: Los Muertos

"The dead are returning.  And when they go, this world will be as new."  - Luciana

Fear the Walking Dead started off in Los Angeles.  Now we have "Los Muertos."  From the Angels to the Dead.  Except what I've noticed in Mexico is that there really is a fine line between the angels and the dead.  In Latin American culture, and especially Mexico, honoring the dead is a common practice.  As Alejandro, the pharmacist and town "doctor" in the village where Nick is, death isn't to be feared, but is not to be pursued. 

Except if you find yourself so sick that you give yourself to the dead, or the "wall" as the townspeople have come to call them, then death is to be pursued.  The dead walk among us, that is what they are told and believe in.  When you are beyond saving in this life, Luciana and Alejandro are instrumental in having them give themselves up.

It's kind of fucked up.  Especially when Nick opens the episode, he awakens in the infirmary, where he has found a bed and is recovering from a dog bite wound.  He notices the village is very quiet, and he heads down towards the fences, where the wall of infected are.  He sees a little girl crying, saying, "My papa!"  It's then Nick notices that a man, presumed to be the little girl's father, enters the wall -- which is a fenced in area, and the only way the living can enter is through a school bus that has blocked the infected from getting to the uninfected area. 

As he enters, the townspeople chant, "From death we come, and we give ourselves to death."

Kind of fuckin creepy.  Papa sacrifices himself.   Nick tries to shield the little girl, but she runs away.

As opposed to the first episode of the second half, which just focused on Nick and his survival, we are finally brought back to the rest of the group, which as we now know has fractured off. 

Madison, Alicia, and Ofelia have left the Abigail ranch with Victor Strand.  Madison and Alicia are the only people from the original Manawa/Clark tribe.  Ofelia has presumably lost her father, Daniel.  And Strand has lost Thomas, his lover.  However, Strand knows he can trust Madison.  Which is kind of a 180 degree difference from the beginning.  Travis didn't trust Strand, yet he's helped them when he probably shouldn't have.  Madison realizes he's all they have, but they have a mutual respect for one another.  They are both pragmatic and smart.  Although Maddie still believes she can find Travis (who the audience knows has tried to help his son Chris) and Nick (who though near-death has found a new tribe who is just a little too comfortable with death), Alicia and Strand tell they are going back to the boat.  They know they have supplies there.  Tired of scavenging. 

However, they make it to the landing where Abigail is...or was.  It's gone, probably taken by military for its supplies and size (remember, they were being followed in earlier episodes).  Madison's last hope was to meet up with Travis, Chris and Nick.  Nick "always comes home."  Alicia tells her that it's just "you and me now."  They had noticed a large hotel resort not too far.  They will go, but not before writing "ABIGAIL LOST HEAD NORTH," in the sand as a last resort to be reunited with their tribe.

While plotting their move, they case the establishment.  Ofelia thinks it has to be crawling.  The rest say they haven't seen anything move the entire time.  Alicia makes the move, says they are better in than out.  Deliberately making noise, they are not met by anyone else, alive or dead.  Oh, and Ofelia has left one of the front doors open, that were originally locked down.  Because of course. 

The hotel looks to have been evacuated at the outset of virus.  The reception hall suggests there was a wedding on the last day before the world changed.  What was odd is that Ofelia has started to let the crew in, a little, as to her past.  We've been led to believe that she's an obedient daughter, taking care of her parents, but she's also very quiet, subdued.  Doesn't rock the boat much.  She starts to talk about how the wedding was supposed to be the best day of someone's life.  She was almost married, once, to a man named William.  He wanted to move to New Mexico, which he did.  She stayed behind to care for her parents.  It's clear that she's still tied to the past, as Strand tells her, "The past will drive you nuts."

Meanwhile back at the "Colonia," where Nick is staying, Luciana seeks him out to help with errands.  They cover themselves with dead blood as camouflage.  Nick wanted to know why she chose him.  She says that no one will miss him.  Then an interesting turn as she says, "The only who will miss me is already missing."  Suggesting that she's already lost some people.  I wonder if it was the guy who sacrificed himself to the wall.  Or we will find out.  Anyway, it's obvious that she has very little to lose. 

They head to a mega store to get supplies, while on the way she tells Nick that Alejandro, the pharmacist, survived a bite from the infected.  Nick believes that he's lying, yet she claims to have seen it herself.

That part I thought was interesting, because while it's possible he may just tell people he was bitten (and in a struggle, he could have easily gotten blood on him, and thought he was bitten)...or, is Alejandro one of the few who may have a natural immunity to this disease?

It's an interesting concept.  I mean, prior to vaccines, there are people who never had the chicken pox, even if they were exposed.  Who's to say that someone just wouldn't turn?  So somehow, Alejandro is someone the colonia people trust but believe he is somehow empowered by this new world.

At this mega store, the henchmen there say that they are no longer entitled to two carts of supplies, just one.  While Nick and she are "shopping," there is a tent city where he notices one of the people coming down from a heroin withdrawal and is being comforted by one of the henchmen.  He tries to put a package of snack cakes in the cart, while Luci tells him no way, only what they need: water, vitamins, bandages.  They leave the premises with their items, and someone noticed that Nick took the cakes anyway.  As they try to chop off his hands (eye for an eye vigilante law), he begs Luci to speak to them in Spanish, that he knows that the woman inside is his sister, and that she needs Oxy.  Well, they have Oxy.  And they want another cart if these folks want more Oxy.

They get another cart, and Luci said the one thing she needed him to do was keep quiet.  These henchmen don't know where their colony is, they've never followed her before.  Yet, I think she's impressed with how Nick was able to talk himself out of trouble.  I'm like 100% certain that he will be used for this and kept around in this colony.

Back the hotel, the four enter the bar area.  Alicia and Ofelia volunteer to look in some of the guest rooms for clothes, supplies, water, food.  Alicia tells them they will be back by sundown.  Madison doesn't want her to go.  Alicia goes anyway.  Strand pulls up a seat, and starts pouring drinks. 

Lots of backstory is revealed in this episode, especially regarding Madison's relationship with her children's father, Steven, and Ofelia.  Ofelia had been seen, to me, as an extra body who didn't have much to do (especially since she'd been shot by her lover).  She seemed to have some skills and was underestimated.  As she and Alicia rifle through the guest rooms, they notice that some of the dead have been herded into the rooms with "Do Not Disturb" signs.  They found a master key, and find a room had been emptied out, but there is a man who had hung himself in the shower.  He is now infected, but can't get out of the restraint. 

They find another room, and Alicia starts going through their things.  Ofelia notices there is still hot water available.  She sits down and talks about why the man might have given up.  Alicia said she'd try to find a way out, that she wouldn't give up hope.  Ofelia, on the other hand, says he was probably tired of surviving.  "We're not going to make it," she says, deflated.  Alicia tells her that they will find a way, and that they now have each other.  For what it's worth. 

Downstairs, Maddie and Strand drink.  And drink and drink.  She talks about Nick and her husband, Steven, who we learned in the last episode had died in a car accident.  She tells Strand that Nick had been born lost, that he had been slipping through her fingers since the day he was born.  As for their father, she tells Strand he was leaving a work site and got into an accident late at night.  Strand asked if he fell asleep at the wheel.  Maddie says, "That's what I told the kids." 

Interesting parallel story line there.  We've determined that Steven was either clinically depressed or had a chronic illness.  She implied here that he was "tired of surviving" and he may have intentionally driven into traffic.  Same with Ofelia.  She lost her mother and presumably has lost her father at this point (we really don't know...but we need Daniel back).  Alicia reassures her.  But all Ofelia sees is running and never really being safe.  Or saved, for that matter. 

Which leads me to the theme of this episode, and possibly this season.  We're seeing the Five Stages of Grief.  Remember when we learned that in health class, by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross?

1) Denial
2) Anger
3) Bargaining
4) Depression
5) Acceptance

We've seen all those stages of death and grieving in this episode.  Possibly with each character come to think of it.  Nick is bargaining, with his own life and wanting to walk among the dead, unnoticed.  Alicia has acceptance, but is working with it.  Ofelia, depression.  Travis is so fully in the denial camp, not realizing his son is beyond help and thinking that an end is going to come soon (maybe he doesn't watch The Walking Dead parent show...).

Anyway, in the midst of all the tension between Madison and Strand, they start breaking down as Madison divulges pieces of her life.  She is a Southern belle, from Alabama (leading us to wonder what her link is to the main show...I saw someone post a pic of Andrea and please do not have Madison related to that horrible awful woman).   She and Strand let loose, he starts playing piano, and she starts breaking glasses.  It's like a Greek wedding celebration gone bad.

Alicia, meanwhile, has finished her hot shower.  Getting dressed, Ofelia is nowhere to be found.  We see bodies flying off the upper floors, taking Alicia (and all of us) by surprise.  Alicia goes to the balcony, and sees that infected are getting out of their rooms, falling off the balconies, but walking towards the hotel.  Another store's glass windows break and here come more infectado.  All towards where Madison and Strand are partying.  Strand notices, grabs Maddie, and they are held hostage behind the bar as the infected come in from all over. 

Alicia screams for Ofelia, runs towards the emergency exit they came up, and now they are infested with infected.

Fab.

On the "bargaining" side, Nick is in the colonia.  He seeks the little girl whose father just died.  He hands her the snack cakes.  Luci sees this, that Nick is not a bad person.  Still, Alejandro asks him why he was willing to start a war over cake.  He says that the little girl needed comfort. 

"The dead are walking towards their final resting place.  The faithful will remain."  Alejandro tells Nick that he is welcome to stay, but he will be fed to the wall if he puts his people in danger again.

"From death we come," Alejandro tells the congregation at the colonia, "but never will we leave."

Shit is getting very real up in here.