Check out Josh’s recap of the fourth episode of Fear the Walking Dead. The episode, titled Not Fade Away, ramps up with tensions building between the civilians and the military who is occupying their neighborhood. Check out how it plays out this week after the jump, followed by both Josh’s and Violet’s thoughts about the episode!
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Episode Recap of Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 4: Not Fade Away
This episode of Fear the Walking Dead begins with a music montage showing Nick lounging in a filthy pool on a raft, while Travis is out for a jog, and Griselda gets her foot attended to. Meanwhile, Chris seems to be “documenting” the event with his camcorder, and discusses their current military occupation. While filming, he sees a building outside the fence, quite a bit out, with lights flashing periodically.
After the intro to the show, Madison tells Alicia that they need to put a coat of paint on the walls of one of the rooms. Alicia doesn’t seem to see the reason to, and Madison says, “I can still see the stains!”
Travis comes home from his run. Madison goes off on Travis, complaining that Liza isn’t around to help, and Travis is out. This elicits a response from Alicia telling them to quit acting like this situation is all normal. Travis then heads outside and tells Chris to help Madison out. Chris tells Travis about the room he saw, but Travis doesn’t really want to get into it with him though. Later in the episode, Chris shows Madison, and she isn’t buying it either, until she sees the video. Then she seems to have a glint of wonder at the very least.
Back to the pool-lounging Nick, he is offered his “ration” of Oxy to keep him from going to withdrawals, but he says he doesn’t need it. Madison doesn’t buy it at first, but leaves him alone eventually.
Travis then attends a meeting where the military has an announcement, and the crowd isn’t too happy with what the military has to say. The military tells the crowd to calm down because they are the “lucky ones” in one of the twelve safe zones in the area. Ofelia Salazar, meanwhile, mingles with one of the military guys. This comes up later. After the meeting, the commanding officer tells Travis one of the neighbors won’t submit to health screenings. Travis says he doesn’t really know the guy, but the military guy says that he will have to use force if Travis can’t talk him down.
At the house, the man, named Doug, is having a mental break, not feeling he can handle this situation. Travis seems to be able to talk him down some.
Moving over to Alicia, she has decided to break into the neighbors where the wife was turned and husband nearly got bit until the military showed up. She seems to be lamenting, realizing her boyfriend has probably turned. She looks at the faded drawing “tattoo” he had given her before this all went down. She breaks into tears, seemingly having the same hopelessness that Doug is having back with Travis.
Moving on to Liza, she is making her rounds. There is a patient who is on an IV drip of morphine. Back with Nick, he is spying on this neighbor who Liza is taking care of, and sees Liza leave, and the man’s wife outside. Then we see why Nick is doing so well. He is lying underneath the comatose man, stealing the morphine for himself as he lays high underneath the man’s bed.
Remember how Ofelia was getting friendly with a soldier? Well she got even more friendly as they make out in one of the military hum-vees. The soldier gets a little too frisky for her though, and she asks him to slow down. She then asks the soldier about meds for her mother. Apparently this might not be love, but a way for Ofelia to get some medicine. But the soldier says he hasn’t gotten it yet. He then decides to get back to his real job, and continue his patrol.
Later in the evening, Travis and Madison get frisky in their car. I guess that’s the most private place for them now. But after they’re done, Madison seems to want to get back to work, and Travis asks her what is going on. She seems concerned that Travis isn’t helping enough. They seem to get on the same page though, until Madison brings up the video Chris filmed. Travis still isn’t buying it, and Madison then goes off on the military situation, wondering why things aren’t getting better. They are interrupted though by Doug’s wife, who says Doug has gone missing, and his car is gone. Travis says he will find him.
In the morning, Madison grabs a flashlight, sits on her roof and flashes the light towards the building in the video. I assume she is thinking it might be morse code coming from the building? Meanwhile, Travis looks for Doug, and finds Doug’s car. It has been ran into a fence and seemingly Doug has taken off. Travis heads to the leader military guy, and he is driving some golf balls outside the fence. Travis asks to send a patrol to find him, but the military guy says he has already been found, and is being taken care of. Travis tells him that he should have at least notified his wife, but the military guy says that’s not his job. Travis also mentions what his son saw, but the military guy dismisses it.
Back home, the sick neighbor gets a visit from a doctor sent by the military. Liza gets nervous it seems, and we find out why. She isn’t really a nurse, and has been treating people medically. The doctor calls her out, and Liza admits to lying about it. Oddly enough this doctor asks her to lie for a bit longer…
The doctor and Liza look at Griselda’s wound, and the doctor says that she needs to see a surgeon at the military base. The husband is concerned about this place, and demands to go with. The doctor sees no problem with that. Moving on to Nick, Liza apparently told the doctor that Nick needs methadone for his addiction. The doctor seems to be wondering if Nick is really sobering up, and Nick tries to play it off.
Alicia has still been hanging out in the neighbor’s house, and she has decided to carve the marker tattoo into her skin. Ouch.
Back with Madison, she has decided to go on a walk–outside the fence. She sneaks out, and walks down the street, seeing the chaos and emptiness outside their area. There is a huge wall of missing persons she walks by. Apparently the area smells terrible, as we see her covering her nose. Then she starts seeing the carnage–people dead everywhere, one looking like suicide, with a gun next to a man’s head. As she continues walking, she is forced to hide, as she sees a squad of soldiers walking down the street.
When she returns, Mr. Salazar asks Madison what she saw outside the fence. She tells him about the carnage and such, and then about the man who seemed to have killed himself. Mr. Salazar seems to indicate he thinks there is going to be some bad stuff coming down soon. He warns her to be ready, and to look after Ofelia if he and Griselda do not return. Madison then realizes what is going on with Nick, who has been desperately trying to find some spare morphine. Madison slaps the sense out of Nick.
Later on, Alicia tries to talk to Nick who seems to just want to be alone. They chit chat, and Alicia tries to comfort him, but doesn’t seem to know exactly what is going on. Madison meanwhile seems to be having a drink in her car. The military then rolls up in a vehicle, taking Griselda in. Mr. Salazar tries to go with, but they decided to not let him go. Turns out the military is also there for Nick. Nick makes a run for it, but he gets taken down. The family freaks out, but they aren’t able to do anything about it. Liza then asks the doctor from earlier what’s going on. She tells Liza that if she wants to help she should get in the truck. Liza seems stuck as to what to do, but ends up going with the doctor.
Everyone in the house is as expected, very upset. Madison blames Liza for Nick being taken. Travis seems bewildered. The episode ends with Alicia reading a letter that appears to have been a suicide note that Susan had left for Patrick. The letter essentially says that the world has been doomed for a while and it was due. Meanwhile, Travis heads to the roof, sees the lights coming from the building that Chris and Madison saw, and it seems these lights might be gunfire—executions likely….
Josh’s Thoughts: Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 4: Not Fade Away
I thought this episode of Fear the Walking Dead was a lot better than the previous ones. I guess that makes sense as things continue to ramp up, but I had less issues with characters’ decisions this time around.
I am really glad that Nick got slapped around. It is pretty low for him to be siphoning off morphine from someone who is in pain. I have had it with him about as much as Madison has! I am a little over this plot point being used, but expected it when it was first introduced. The odd thing about Nick for me, is that he seems almost borderline mentally-handicapped. Maybe he is just high all of the time, but he never seems “all there”.
I understand Madison’s feelings toward Liza. She seemed a little too easily swayed by this military doctor. Having your town occupied by the military would cause me to distrust them, no matter how much help they were providing. There is a reason martial law isn’t popular.
As for the military, I wonder how much leadership is left beyond this group guarding their “zone.” It sounds like not much, as they don’t seem to have a way to communicate with them. But it looks like these guys are rounding up people and killing them with little reason. I guess they might be worried that the infection might spread? I don’t really understand the logic of rounding up Nick, unless this was more of a criminal arrest than a way to get him help.
I also wonder about this doctor lady. She seems to be working with the military, but I also wondered that when she was talking to Liza, was she trying to hint that Nick and Griselda would be in danger, and that Liza might be able to help if she comes along? I could be reading into it too much, but that’s what it seemed like to me
Next episode hopefully will be good, as I have to imagine that somehow Madison and the family will make an attempt to get to Nick and Griselda, or that Liza will try to rescue them. So, here’s hoping tonight’s episode turns out good!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 4 of Fear the Walking Dead: Not Fade Away
I’m liking the direction Fear the Walking Dead is heading, as things are starting to get more interesting. The military sure came in and set up the barricades around the area pretty quick. However, I am suspicious of what they’re really up to. At the beginning of this episode, we see them bringing healthy people in, which suggests that they go out and make rounds to find people out there who need help and are virus-free. But by the end of the episode, it seems like the military is going around and killing anyone that they find. When Madison goes out on her little adventure, she seems to think that she saw people who had been shot that hadn’t been sick (though I’m not sure how you can really tell), and then at the end, the military seems to have hunted down the people that Chris and Madison had seen flashing the lights at them, and killed them.
You might argue that they were sick, and that’s why the military killed them. I guess that is possible, as I’m not sure how long it takes for someone to turn, as we have been seeing conflicting things on the show so far. Matt seemed like he was sick, yet coherent, for a good amount of time, while Susan seemed to have turned within the same day. So it’s hard to say. Hopefully we’ll get the details cleared up about the virus and turning into a walker, because it is really bothering me.
The so-called “hospital” that the military is bringing Griselda, Nick, and Liza to also seems suspicious. Are they just rounding up people without the virus, but who are in need of medical attention, to get rid of them so that they’re not a drain on resources, since it seems like they will eventually turn anyway? Are they using these people to experiment on to figure out how the virus works? Something tells me this isn’t just a legitimate hospital that will help them out the way that they need to be helped, especially if they’re not letting family come with them. It was odd how the doctor said it was fine for Daniel to go with Griselda, but then the military shows up and forcibly takes them. Very weird. I am curious to see what is really going on there.
Only 2 episodes left for this season! I’m guessing we will see a quick decline of this temporary semblance of civilization…
Scenes from Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 5: Cobalt
Here are scenes from the next episode of Fear the Walking Dead, titled Cobalt:
My favorite character from the beginning has been Madison. It was about time she slapped some sense into her son. Based off the sister’s attitude toward him this is like his umpteenth time he’s done something stupid like this.
They are definitely sowing the seeds of distrust and paranoia toward the military. My coworkers and I have theorized they aren’t protecting the civilian community but using them has human lab mice. The fenced community is just a giant mouse cage. When the real crap hits the fan the military will just leave them to die.