You are about to read a Thug review of Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1. In doing so, you agree to be spoiled like you’ve never been spoiled before….enjoy.
Coming down from the roller coaster ride that was The Walking Dead and now stepping onto the ride known as Fear The Walking Dead. Well, if The Walking Dead is a roller coaster then Fear The Walking Dead is that little train ride you take your infant on that slowly winds its way around the park. That’s how season one was – even though the last episode of the first season did give some hope of what may possibly be expected from season two.
Did it pick up where it left off? Well let’s cut the chit chat and dive on in and swim to Abigail along with Travis (Cliff Curtis), Madison (Kim Dickens), Alicia (Alycia Debnam), Nick (Frank Dillane), Ofelia (Mercedes Masohn), Daniel (Reuben Blades), Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) and Strand (Colman Domingo).
The episode titled “Monster” kicks off with a bang as the serene beach scene we ended with last year has now turned into a burning, walker infested battleground. Strand and Nick are on a small motorized boat getting Daniel, Ofelia and Alicia to Abigail (Strand’s yacht) while Travis and Madison are fighting off the beach zombies. Chris is refusing to leave the body of his mother Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez) whom Travis had to shoot in the finale last season. She was bitten and requested for Travis to be the one to end her before she turned. After barely fighting off some walkers, Travis grabs Liza’s body and heads to the water where Nick has come back for them with the motor boat. They all get in and are faced with our first water zombie that Nick dispatches with the motor boat’s engine in the old “blade to the face” routine which by the way was nicely done.
Not a bad start: already better than last season. Does it hold up?
NOPE!
The rest of the episode is dull and slow as the gang is learning to cope with each other within the luxurious confines of Abigail. The only story line that showed some promise is the person known only as “Jack” that Alicia ends up talking to over the radio. Apparently Jack, his brother and sister in law are in port somewhere in parts unknown. They converse throughout the episode and during one conversation there is a lot of frantic behavior taking place. A concerned Alicia is yelling over the mic for Jack who finally responds and says they are leaving port due to an infestation. Throughout the conversations Alicia is giving updates as to where they are. When she tells Strand about Jack needing their help he is not to happy and questions her as to what she has told him. They happen upon a recent boat “wreckage” that was shot up and looted and is now filled with swimmers (I’m calling them that because they are not on land so they can’t be walkers, and yes I am claiming all rights to that as well). Strand fears it was Jack and his crew that did that and I think he may be right because when Alicia tell him they cannot help him; he says he understands and ends with “see you soon Alicia”.
Other “things” that happened include Chris still hating Travis (his dad) and even punching him in the face. I give mad props to Chris because I wanted to punch Travis in the face all throughout season one, nice job buddy. Daniel is still cryptic whenever he talks, Madison still has bigger balls than Travis, Chris goes for a swim after angrily dumping his mom’s body overboard, Nick joins him as he thought he was trying to kill himself. They survive an attack by swimmers and Nick recovers the blown apart ship’s log. The only character that I hate to admit I liked in this episode was Nick. Nick seems to be acquiring some worth in this episode as he was very helpful in getting everyone to the yacht, saving Chris from the swimmers and recovering the ship’s log; he also found time to hit on Ofelia, you go Nick! Hopefully he stays off the smack and his character is developed into something interesting and worthwhile.
The show ends with an upset Strand as he finds a boat headed their way at 25 knots and fears it is the Alicia’s friend Jack coming to do the same thing to Abigail as they did to the other ship.
“Monster” is directed by Adam Davidson and written by Dave Erickson. The Walking Dead, this is not. There are glimmers of hope in this episode that suggest Fear the Walking Dead may lead to some interesting storylines during the season….I hope so. For the most part, this episode is almost as dull as most of season one. Here’s to hoping things pick up.
Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1 
(1.5 / 5) on the Thug Meter
