"Surviving feels like eating shit." - Nick Clark
This week, we are back to Nick and the Colonia, with Alejandro and Luciana, who are clearly the leaders of the group there. We also see that Madison and Alicia are reunited, along with Strand and the managers of the resort, Elena and Hector. Their adversaries are not only the infected, but the remaining wedding guests who took residence at the resort, and have it in for Elena.
We find out what happened between the time when Alicia and Ofelia had separated from Maddie and Strand, along with them getting hammered at the hotel bar. The infected started to surround them, and Maddie escapes to a back room, where she takes out an infected. She covers herself in infected blood, and encourages Strand to do the same (which provided some comic relief, as Strand always seems to be this "put together" guy, and is grossed out by this concept). They make their escape quietly, lock the doors, which is what we saw with Alicia and Elena and they came across the other group.
During the whole hubbub in the bar, Maddie heard Alicia cry for help from the balcony as she saw infected falling onto the ground. Strand and Maddie leave the premises, see that the truck is missing. Victor assumes that the girls took the truck. Maddie believes that Alicia wouldn't just leave. Strand is a little more accepting of it. If they took the truck, they needed a way out. Maddie and Victor climb some scaffolding to a safe area, lock themselves in a guest area, and find supplies, and wait things out.
After cleaning themselves of the infected blood, that's when they hear the banging on the door, which we know now is Alicia, with Elena and Hector in tow. When the three of them come in, Strand asks in Spanish, "Who the hell are you?"
Back at the resort, Maddie and Strand discuss Ofelia. Maddie felt personally responsible for Ofelia, since she promised Daniel she'd look after her. Strand is ready to cut that part of their life off, she did what she could. Alicia backs up Strand, remarking her last chat with Ofelia was about hope, and that Ofelia had been losing it (hope, that is). Ofelia chose to leave, Alicia says.
Elena says that there are canned goods in storage for months on the resort grounds. But the other family wants her at best, gone, at worst, dead. Madison decides to negotiate, saying to Strand that she's tired of running. Oscar appears to be the spokesperson of the remaining wedding party, yet I can tell just as an observer that the three remaining guests are not only in mourning, they are scared, and have no real plans. Their immediate plans are to scavenge for what they need.
Madison tells them that outside the walls, they've been there and seen bad things. They can all live at the hotel, safely and comfortably for now (let's be fair -- we've seen that these safe havens NEVER last in this world, but they can at least try for now and live safely for the time being). She has clear plans, concise goals: harvest water, grow food, fortify the walls. But first they need to remove the dead.
Mrs. Stone is still upset about losing her daughter. The three want "her" (meaning: Elena) gone. Madison knows that she is valuable to the team: no one knows the resort better than her. Madison says that Elena is remorseful about the incident. Elena didn't kill her daughter, though. The sickness did.
Maddie has been beyond the walls, she explains. The next tribe that comes, they won't be as nice, they WILL take. She plans on removing the dead, but she needs their help, and it will be easier if they worked together.
Oscar agrees, and hands her the keys to the guest rooms.
Funny, up to this point, Strand and Maddie had butted heads, both being alphas. However, Strand felt he was negotiating on his turf (the Abigail yacht and ranch), now he sees Madison didn't need his help. They're becoming BFFs.
The theme of this episode is "negotiation." Though Maddie and Nick are far apart now, it's evident that they have their skills together. Back at Colonia, Nick tries to make good on a promise he made to Alejandro. He knows he screwed up at the superstore by putting the Colonia in danger, where he promised Oxy to the heroin addicts there. Nick instead cuts into their supply and increases it by putting more byproducts into it. "You're a pharmacist, I'm a junkie, trust me," Nick tells Alejandro.
Alejandro is impressed with Nick's skillz, with a Z. With this, Nick is able to buy the Colonia more time, more hope. "Gets you more than a Gansito," referring to the snack cakes Nick took from the superstore.
Nick starts to ask questions about Alejandro, namely to ask about what Luciana has told him about how Alejandro survived a bite. Nick flat out says that no one survives a bite. Alejandro tells him how there was an addict, a boy just like him, who was mistaken for an infectado, and thrown into the wall. Alejandro tried to save him but was bitten instead. He prepared for death that never came.
Alejandro tells Nick he wants him to do the exchange later. Be brave, but careful. As Luci plays soccer with little kids and Nick, she notices a man approaching Alejandro. Overhearing the conversation, she hears that someone was found dead. She says it's Pablo, who we find out is her brother.
Luciana goes to the exchange with Nick. Nick asks her about Pablo, and they have a connection. After they embrace, I could see a mile away that they are sweet on each other. Most of all, I think they have a mutual respect for each other. Willing to put themselves out there for the Colonia, and have each others backs.
As a thank you back at Colonia, Nick gets his own residence. Alejandro thanks him for buying them time, but they need his bed as more are getting sick.
Back at the hotel, Alicia is leading the clean sweep of the infected. They are going one by one to remove them, but outside Alicia sees that they can lead the infected off a short pier to take a long walk off it (see what I did there?). Each group leads the infected to a common area, as Madison leads them out. I really loved the awesome display of teamwork that they had together at this moment, even Oscar and his brother helped out (not Mrs. Stone, who is still shellshocked by what happened).
Hector and Alicia take a boat out to the end of the pier, where Madison dives into the water and takes the boat back safely to shore, infected falling off the pier one by one.
Speaking of teamwork, we see our favorite tandem of Nick and Luciana together. Luciana visits him in his new abode, "too tired to sleep" as she says. They talk about his family as he reads a Spanish to English encyclopedia (his sister took Spanish, he mentions). Luciana seems surprised, it's "hard to imagine you with family."
It's tough to imagine it now. All Nick wanted was to be left alone, but his story is similar to Chris in the previous episode where he said that the new group looked at him differently. Nick was pigeonholed into being a junkie. He was always coddled. Even when Madison knew better, she still did that. Nick in this new world adapted quickly. He didn't care about dying. That's a valuable tool to have.
Luciana falls asleep, and says she will go back since "people will talk shit." Nick says that earlier on, Alejandro said that you test people. You're testing me. They give big besos to each other. Who didn't see that one come a mile away?
After the infected removal, the new group at the hotel share a meal together. Madison asks if they should wait for Oscar. His brother says that he's not ready.
Apparently, that meant two things. He's not ready to eat dinner, but he's also holding onto a piece of the past: his bride, Jessica, who is still in one of the honeymoon suites. Strand goes to talk to him. He empathizes with him. "I've lost a loved one too." Oscar says that it's not fair, he tells the story of how they met, and now this is all he has.
Strand says that it isn't fair to him. It's also not fair to Jessica. That is not her in there. Strand would like to help her. Oscar hands the keys, Strand enters the honeymoon suite and presumably takes out Jessica, in a last sweep of the rooms in an effort of teamwork.
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