Walking Dead thread

spoilers/recap

opening scene finds Francisco jumping ship, attempting to escape La Colonia by leading his wife and child through the moat of walkers to seek out a rumored settlement elsewhere. They make it through the walkers only to be intercepted by Los Hermanos on the other side and taken prisoner.

Ofelia, meanwhile, has procured a pickup truck after leaving the rest of the group at the Rosarito Beach Hotel to revisit a site from her past, the Poco Cielo, a restaurant where her fiancee Will first proposed to her.

The group at the Rosarito Beach begins to set up home at the hotel, fortifying the structure and planting crops. Hector and Alicia bond over a surfing lesson.

At La Colonia, Reynaldo interrupts Luciana and Nick to report Francisco's dissertion. Without Francisco, Nick suggests he and Luciana take his and Reynaldo's turn at making a water run.

At the hotel, the group makes plans for the future. They are interrupted by a knock at the door, Strand answers and is immediately stabbed by Ilene, as retribution for killing her zombie daughter. Oscar and Andres are summoned and Andres (a former med student) tends Strands stab wound while Oscar tries to make excuses for Ilene.

Luciana reports Francisco's dissertion to Alejandro and they confer.

After a meeting, the group decides not to expel Ilene, but instead to lock her up. Madison further says that if anybody does violence against another member of the group again, they're out. Oscar and the others agree.

Alejandro addresses La Colonia about Francisco, appearing feverish during his speech. Afterward, he refuses to allow Nick and Luciana to make their water run, saying that no one will leave La Colonia until he says otherwise.

Madison leaves Strand in the care of Andres and Alicia as she, Oscar and Elena make a run for meds. Before departing, Hector and Elena Argue about Hector's brother Antonio, Elena suggesting that they see him on the med run and attempt to convince him to return with them to Rosarito Beach. Hector refuses, and stays behind.

Nick and Luciana argue about Alenjandro. Nick thinks they should still make the trade.

Turns out that Antonio works for Marco. Elena and Madison go in to try to bargain for meds while Oscar is forced to wait outside.

Back at La Colonia, Nick makes another attempt to sway Alejandro.

Madison and Elena talk to Antonio, who goes away to bargain with Marco on their behalf. The two can hear that Francisco is being interrogated nearby. Elena translates what's going on to Madison. Marco has separated Francisco from his daughter, and is trying to use her as a bargaining chip to get the location of La Colonia out of him. When Nick enters the conversation, Madison abandons her holding pattern and heads toward the interrogation. Madison barges into the interrogation and chaos ensues. Finally Marco ejects Elena and Madison from the premises. On the way out, Elena makes a final plea to Antonio to join them. Antonio tells her not to come back, because Marco and his group will be moving soon.

Nick talks Reynaldo into making a night water run with him later.

Andres and Alicia tend Strand, whose blood loss is placing his survival in doubt.

From the walls of La Colonia, nick spots Marco and his men off in the distance doing recon on the camp.

Ofelia continues on her way, recalling memories of her mother Griselda and a conversation about her feelings toward her father Daniel Salazar. After consulting her map, she sets off to cross the border into the US.

Upon the return to the Rosarito Beach Hotel, Oscar rushes the medical supplies to Andres, as Elena tells Hector about Antonio's refusal to come with them. Madison slips away and activates the generator, lighting up the hotel so that anyone from miles away could see it in a mad attempt to signal Nick. Alicia and Madison argue at the generator. Off in the distance, a lone straggler sees the lit up hotel in the night. I was wondering "Is it Nick? Is it Marco? Alejandro?" Turns out to be Travis.

He makes his way toward the light.

talking dead had exec producer Dave Alpert, actor Dillon Sprayberry and Mercedes Mason (Ofelia) plus set interviews with Strand and Alicia.

Fear the Walking Dead 213: Date of Death

spoilers follow (cuz it is recap)

We open in the aftermath of Madison's little light show from last week, with refugees massing outside the hotel gates. The scene - I get the idea of it. But - eh. There's this throng of people outside this fairly flimsy gate that's not that tall with not too many people on the other side going "sorry we can't let you in" and it's just not - doesn't realistically gel in my mind as I'm watching it. It's hard to shut off my brain and accept the premise of the scene. Could have/should have been better staged or presented in such a way as to help with that particular element. Through the crowd, Madison spies Travis. He makes his way through them to the gate where the two finally touch hands.

Flashing back, we return to the scene where Chris shot and killed Suarez. As Brandon, Derek and James freak out, Travis takes charge and looks at James' wound. After a quick search of the house for supplies, Travis returns to treat the wound.

After it's done, Travis buries the dead farmer (Suarez) with his family.

That night, Brandon, Derek and Chris kill and cook some of the chickens. James tries to appear tough as Travis tries to figure out how he's doing. He further suggests that they shouldn't be killing chickens, instead eating the eggs they lay. Travis takes Chris outside to talk to him about the situation.

It's clear that Chris has no remorse for killing Suarez and that his loyalties like with Brandon and his crew.

back in present day, the Rosarito Beach Hotel group manages to squeeze Travis in through the gate. .... somehow. but - okay. the whole gate sequence is annoying poorly conceived.

Upstairs, Madison tries to find out what happened to Chris and Travis.

flashing back, Brandon and Derek decide it's time to go after eating all the chickens. Travis protests, but James says he is ready to go and feels no pain. Travis doesn't believe him. But the rest gang up on him, including Chris and make the decision to leave for San Diego, a city that Travis has seen was destroyed.

Before leaving, Travis visits the Suarez' graves once more and looks through the photos of their family on the walls inside the house. Searching the house, he finally finds the farmer's drivers license and returns to carve the man's name into the empty cross that marks his grave. Elias Suarez. Chris comes to fetch Travis to leave and Travis still hasn't carved a death date onto the cross. He asks Chris what the date is.

As they move James into the pickup, it's clear that he isn't doing well. As the truck drives along, it's clear that every movement is agony and they probably shouldn't have moved him. AS James lapses, Travis yells at Brandon to stop the truck. he finally does. They return to the barn.

Brandon and Derek are talking about going on without James. Travis argues to simply wait like the should have for him to get stronger, and then go. When it appears that Brandon and Derek want to "mercy" kill James and move on, Travis grabs the gun away from Chris, Brandon pulls his and there is a standoff.

James awakes later alone in the barn except for Travis, who is standing guard over him with Chris' gun. James tells Travis the story of Troy, a 4th member of their group that had been bitten and, afraid of turning, made his friends promise to end his life. When the time came, Brandon couldn't do it. Troy changed his mind and begged for his life. Turns out James was the one that ended up putting Troy down.

Chris ends up betraying Travis in the worst possible way, making it clear to him that he understands, and then incapacitating him while Brandon and Derek burst into the barn. Brandon levels a shotgun at James while he and an incapacitated Travis plead for James' life. Brandon pulls the trigger and kills James.

eh. This feels like just - bad writing to me again. There's not enough there to lead me to just why this is all going on. Not enough in terms of character details or plot or anything else. It just feels like random, bad fanfiction writing kinda. Meanwhile Chris just kinda stands around like an asshole. Like literally nothing in the first season happened and he had no character at all until they decided to do this with him. And yet another "chris can we talk for a second" scene. Another annoying thing about this episode. How many times are we going to be subjected to - not only the same unsatisfying plot device over and over, but even the same dialogue over and over to accompany that?

After an inexplicable goodbye scene, Chris departs with badly fleshed out characters Brandon and Derek, leaving Travis alone on the Suarez farm. After burying James, Travis sets off on his on on foot.

bits of this were nicely handled. the overall character of Chris though is an utter creative mess. And really inexcusably so.

This episode so far really highlights what the second season has grown into, which is a crazy uneven series. With really sharp moments of drama and interesting sequences counterbalanced by utterly random seeming bouts of sheer stupidity. Some characters seem very strong and anchored, and others seem random and meaningless, supplied with character traits based more on a writers whim than organics of character and situation.

Madison and Travis talk at the hotel about Chris and what went down. The conversation hits home for Madison, who decides to seek out Alicia.

Andres, in the meantime, has broken down and let the refugees into the hotel grounds. Setting up an area for them, and beginning to treat those that are sick and determine the health status of the 43 new hotel denizens. Madison finds Alicia in one of the medical tents helping one of the refugees. After the exam is completed, Madison takes Alicia out to the boardwalk to talk.

On the boardwalk, Madison finally confides in Alicia that her father's car crash wasn't an accident, that he'd left a suicide note before doing it. And explains that she was always afraid of Nick going the same route, since he was so like his father. So she always hovered over him. And ended up not giving Alicia the attention she should have.

That night at the gates of the Rosarito Beach Motel some more folks arrive at the gate. Among them are Brandon and Derek.

But Chris does not appear to be with them.

Overall entertaining experience. It's frustrating for me because I feel that bits of the show are so good as to put it up a notch above normal fair, but then it stumbles right back down again with a poorly handled scene, character, or plot thread. I would love to see them tighten things up a bit and be more "on point" more of the time. But as things stand, still a pretty decent show.

On Talking Dead: guests included Drew Scott, Elizabeth Rodriguez (Liza from season 1) and Lorenzo James Henrie (Chris), set interviews with Travis, Madison, Elena and Alicia.

214: Wrath (season finale part 1)

recap first so spoilers:


episode opens with Ofelia trekking north in search of her ex-finace William. She is attacked by infected after forced to pull off the road because of engine trouble at the US/Mexican border. She kills several, but leaves on foot once she realizes there are more coming.

at la Colonia, Nick and Luciana sleep in his trailer. He sneaks out to meet Reynaldo for their unsanctioned late night supply/trade run. After stealing the required drugs from la pharmacia, they move on through the gate.

at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, Travis wakes to find Madison sitting vigil beside his bed. They talk about Chris and Travis having left him with the other group.

Nick and Reynaldo arrive to make the trade to find Marco's people packing up. They are met by Antonio, who ushers them to Marco.

back at the hotel, Alicia brings Travis some food. The two talk, each apologizing to the other.

Meanwhile Antonio waits while Nick and Reynaldo attempt to barter with Marco. Marco refuses to deal, instead ushering the two to a side room where Francisco, his wife Ana and daughter Laura appear to be lying dead. He tells Nick to return to La Colonia with the message that if they don't leave, he will kill them.

at the hotel, Madison meets with Hector and Oscar about the refugees. Alicia is also there helping, tells Madison that Andres hasn't slept. She takes note of Brandon and Derek, who are acting like jerks among the refugees. When she moves to confront the two and get their story, they reveal that they were in a car accident caused when their friend, who didn't have a drivers license and was only 16 was driving. Madison, having heard Travis' story only the night before, begins to connect the dots as to who Derek and Brandon actually are.

Madison takes her suspicions to Strand and the two talk about what to do next.

Nick and Reynaldo return to La Colonia to be immediately confronted by Luciana. He tells her the truth and they both go to Alejandro. As the three plan what to do next, they don't notice that one of Alejandro's patients has died and turned. It attacks them, in the ensuing melee, the infected man bites Alejandro, another patient and one of Alejandro's nurses.

At the border fence, Ofelia continues to walk until she finally finds a breech. She crosses the border into the US.

At La Colonia, the bitten survivors of the infected attack join the barrier outside the city, voluntarily becoming part of the undead army that protects the colony.

At the hotel, Andres finally gets around to Brandon's dislocated shoulder. As Madison attempts to spirit the two away, the refugees begin to question why the two American jerks are being taken inside and they are being left outside in the parking garage. As the refugees grow more rancorous, Madison and Andres, along with Alicia, Hector and Elena, usher Brandon and Derek out.

Inside the hotel, Travis hears the disturbance and leaves his room to check it out. Through a window, he sees the angry crowd on the heels of Madison and crew as they escort Brandon and Derek to the gate to eject them from the hotel grounds. When Travis recognizes the two, Strand tries to stop him, but can't, he runs down to the scene. Travis catches up to the throng just as Elena and Madison are about to shove them out the gate. He stops everything and demands to know where Chris is.

At La Colonia, Alejandro has decided to make a stand. Nick immediately begins to pack to leave. He tries to convince Luciana to go with him when Alejandro interrupts them. The three argue and eventually Alejandro confesses to Luciana that he isn't immune to the infection, which means he will soon become one of the infected.

Meanwhile, Ofelia is trekking through the desert when someone starts shooting at her. She takes cover by a small twisted tree, but the shooter pinpoints her and stalks toward her, taking her knife at gunpoint. "Buenos Dias Senorita" he says "Welcome to America".

At the hotel, Oscar and Andres help Madison and Travis escort Brandon and Derek into the bar where Brandon pleads with them to fix his arm. Andres relocates Brandon's shoulder, Travis demands to know where Chris is, using the injury to get it out of them. They demand to be let go with a car in exchange for the information. Madison agrees. They tell Travis about the crash, that Chris was driving and died. Travis doesn't take it well. Derek and Brandon exchange shifty glances. Just as they are leaving, Travis stops to ask where the body is. Derek stumbles on their earlier story, giving contradicting details that Travis ceases upon. Travis locks Madison and the others outside the bar. Travis starts beating the holy crap out of Derek and Brandon to find out what really happened to Chris. Under duress, Brandon confesses to shooting Chris after the accident because he was too wounded to walk (as they did with James). Travis proceeds to beat both of the to death as Madison and the others frantically try to get back into the bar. Before it's done, Travis literally stomps Brandon's head in as Madison watches from outside pleading with him to stop.

Talking Dead had Coleman Domingo (Victor Strand), TWD creator Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo James Henrie (Chris) and Alicia Debnam-Carey (Alicia) with set interviews with Travis, Madison, Ofelia and Alejandro.

oh it was Alicia that killed Andres.

see - that's why I HAVE To see Talking Dead, especially with Fear, because the scenes aren't always clear or particularly well shot. Also hearing a bit of creative perspective from the people involved help me not be quite so cynical about the poorer moments of an episode.