AMC released the first episode of a new Walking Dead spinoff series last night called Fear the Walking Dead. The new series conveniently plays a new episode each week for the next 6 weeks, holding us over until Walking Dead season 6, which begins the following week. Is the new series worth watching? I invite you to read the recap and decide for yourself.
He finally finds Gloria, huddled over another man. Nick says, “We gotta go!” Gloria turns her head and we see that her eyes aren’t right and her mouth is covered in blood. She’s eating the man’s face. When she stands, we see that she’s been stabbed in the heart. Nick runs for it, with Gloria stumbling along behind him slowly. Nick is barefoot, but leaves the church and runs like a maniac for the road where he is almost clipped by a motorcycle. When he turns to look, he is suddenly struck by a vehicle. People surround him and we hear sirens.
In the next scene, Nick’s mother, Maddie, is trying to get his sister, Alecia, moving faster to get ready for school. Maddie’s live-in boyfriend, the local high school English teacher, Travis, is fixing a leaky sink. It seems like a normal household until the phone rings. They all seem reluctant to answer. Turns out Nick has been missing and they’re afraid it’s bad news. Once they answer the phone call from the hospital, they all head straight there to see Nick.
The doctor tells Maddie that her son is physically lucky. When she asks about his toxicology, the doctor tell her that they can’t reveal what he took because he’s over 18. The doctor also mentions that he couldn’t tell the cops who are questioning Nick in his room. When Maddie finds them there, she asks if Nick is under arrest. When they tell her no, she says, “Then get out. Thank you. Leave.” With mild protest, they do.
Maddie asks Nick what happened. He’s in restraints. He won’t give her a straight answer, but assures her it was an accident. She says she’s going to call rehab for a bed, but Nick refuses to go, telling them all to leave him alone. Travis tries to step in to convince him, but both Nick and his sister tell Travis that it’s none of his business anyway. Travis tells everyone to take a breath and then answers his ringing phone.
On the phone is his ex, Eliza. He confirms with her that they found Nick. She asks if he can still take his son, Christopher, for the weekend. Chris immediately pipes up in the background that he doesn’t want to go. Travis talks to Chris saying that they’re all building a family and supporting Nick isn’t the worst thing. Chris complains that Nick is neither his friend nor his brother. Travis tells Chris that Nick would be there for him and Chris says he wouldn’t have to be. Rather than forcing him, Travis tells Eliza to keep Chris for the weekend.
When Travis enters the hospital room again, Maddie says that she has to be at work, but she doesn’t want to leave Nick alone. She wants to find a rehab facility for him. She’s a guidance counselor and her kids need help with college applications, etc., so Travis volunteers to stay with Nick. After protesting mildly, she and Alecia leave for school. Alecia is pessimistic about Nick, telling her mother that she should just cut him off. Maddie refuses.
When they arrive at the school, the principal, Artie, stops Maddie asking if she’s alright. She tells him that they found Nick, but he’s in the hospital. Suddenly the metal detector goes off as a student tries to push his way through. Maddie stops him and checks his pockets, pulling out a handful of change to show Artie. Maddie tells the student, Tobias, that she hasn’t seen him in a while and suggests a chat, pulling him to her office.
Once in her office, Maddie tells him to give her the knife in his right-hand pocket. He does. She asks if he’s being bullied and he says no, but won’t open up about what the knife is for. Maddie says she can expel him for bringing it to school, to which he pleads with her not to – that he’s safer in numbers. Maddie asks, “Safer from what?” but he’s silent. She tells him not to screw himself; that he’s on track to go to college. Tobias says no one is going to college. He asks for his knife back, but she locks it in her desk drawer. He starts rattling off about reports in 5 states, not knowing if it’s a virus or microbe; it’s spreading, people are killing. Maddie tries to reassure him by telling him he spends too much time on online and that authorities would tell them if there was a problem. He politely asks to go back to class and she lets him.
The next scene is a short one where we’re introduced to Alecia’s boyfriend, Matt. He’s painting a mural for the senior project. She’s skipped Spanish class to meet him. She invites him to take off with her, but he insists he needs to be there, so she hugs him and leaves.
The scene cuts to the hospital. Nick wakes from a nightmare. Travis tries to explain to him that what he saw at the church was a nightmare – a hallucination brought on by the drugs. Nick believes he’s losing his mind. He breaks down and tells Travis exactly what he saw.
Nick is so worried about going insane, that Travis decides to check out the church. He sneaks in that night through a bathroom window. With a flashlight, he searches the church. The first thing he finds is a man hiding behind a door, screaming for him not to hurt him. The man takes off running. When Travis follows, he finds a lot of blood, but no bodies. After slipping in a pool of blood, he takes off running out of the church.
The next day at the hospital, Travis takes Maddie aside and tells her what he found. She says lots of bad things happen there and that they shouldn’t enable Nick. While they’re outside, Alecia helps Nick with his food and he swears that he’s going to get clean. A few minutes later, he tells Travis the same thing.
In another quick scene, Alecia and Matt plan on meeting up at the beach later to watch the sunset, while Maddie hears Travis teaching his students about Jack London’s man vs. nature. A little foreshadowing.
Next, we’re back in Nick’s hospital room. The nurse brings him a bedpan. He convinces her to untie one of his hands and give him some privacy. When she leaves, he unties his other hand, but in his hurry he drops the bedpan. At that exact moment, his roommate goes into code blue. The nurses and doctors rush into the room preoccupied with the roommate and rush the man out of the room. Once they’re gone, Nick wastes no time in putting on the old man’s clothes and sneakers, and creeping his way out of the hospital. When Travis and Maddie find out, they confront the nurse who tells them to call the cops. Instead, Maddie asks Travis to bring her to the abandoned church.
They end up exploring the church together, but still chalk the blood up to it being a violent place. Maddie finds one of Nick’s books, but it’s full of drug paraphernalia. She collapses in tears and Travis brings her back to the truck.
They’re not done looking for Nick. Maddie has Travis bring her to Calvin’s, an old friend of Nick’s. They tell Calvin that Nick was in an accident and that the cops picked him up. They ask if he knows where he would go. He says no, but invites them in while he makes some calls. “Anything for Nick.”
Later in the day, we see Nick using a disposable cell phone to call someone asking for help. We also see Alecia waiting for Matt at the beach. She texts Matt asking where he is, but there’s no answer. Eventually, she gives up and texts, “I’m leaving.”
After dark, Maddie and Travis are heading home. They get caught in traffic. There’s helicopters and police and then they hear gun shots. They decide to go around it by taking an exit.
At school the next morning, most of the kids are apparently out with “the flu.” Artie finds the teachers gathered and watching a video of the incident from the night before – where Maddie and Travis had gotten stuck in traffic. A man who is supposed to be dead, bites an EMT and attacks the police. They shoot him numerous times, but he doesn’t die. Travis and Maddie realize how close this is to what Nick had described at the church and decide to call the police to find him. In the meantime, we see Nick on the phone again to the same person he called before.
Alecia and her friends are caught watching the same video in class on their phones. The man only dies when he’s shot in the head. Alecia remarks that Matt still hasn’t texted her. The district makes an announcement on the loudspeaker that they’re being given a half day. Maddie comes into Alecia’s class and tells her to take the bus home to wait for Nick.
In the next scene, Nick goes into a restaurant. He finds Calvin sitting at a table by himself and we find out this is who he’s been calling. We also find out that Cal is his drug dealer. Calvin asks Nick if he told his mother who he is. Nick assures him that he did not. He asks Cal if the drug he gave him was laced. Calvin takes offense to that, asking Nick who told him that. Nick is scared and tells Cal about what happened at the church. Cal doesn’t believe him and Nick tries to leave, but Cal pulls him back to the table and puts his arm around him. Cal assures him that things will turn out alright and asks him how long it’s been since he’s had the drug. He then drives Nick to the train yard to get high.
When they arrive at the train yard, Cal tells Nick to relax, that it’s safe there. Nick sits in the front seat while Calvin goes around to the trunk. When he comes around to Nick’s door and asks him to get out, Nick sees that he has a gun. He starts to get out of the car, then lunges for the gun. In the struggle, the gun goes off and kills Calvin. Nick takes off running.
Nick apparently calls Travis. Travis and Maddie show up and Nick tells them what happened. Maddie blames herself because she told Calvin that Nick was picked up by police. They drive to the train yard to decide what to do, but Cal’s body isn’t there. Nick has a breakdown, collapsing into Maddie’s arms in violent tears.
They all get back in the truck and start backing away, but Travis sees Calvin walking up behind the truck. He and Maddie get out to try to confront him, but he tries to fight them off and bite them. Seeing that Calvin has turned into the same thing Gloria did, Nick backs over him with the truck. Calvin gets back up, so Nick hits him with the truck going forward and Calvin is thrown off the hood when Nick stops suddenly. Nick, Maddie, and Travis think Calvin is finally dead, his body at broken angles, but he turns his head and tries to get up. Maddie asks, “What the hell is happening?” Travis says he has no idea and the show ends.
While the plot is moving slowly so far, I think it’s building a foundation for a good story. I’m anxious to watch next week’s show and see how everything progresses.
Photo courtesy of INFphoto.com