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Fear the Walking Dead- Episode 209 Review

By Will Romine, Age 32

Hi everyone!  Remember last week when I told you that I got a peek of the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead?  Well, this week is no different.  I got a good look at tomorrow's episode and I have to say, Fear is packing a lot of storytelling into the back half of season 2.

Last episode focused almost exclusively on Nick (Frank Dillane) and this episode picks up right where we left him.  He is in a makeshift hospital recovering from his wounds and explores the larger world of post-outbreak Mexico.  What he sees is a society far more prepared for this new world order than the U.S. was.  So far, we've seen the Walking Dead universe in the global North, where the first world infrastructure and rule of law that was the envy of the world topples down.  Now, we get to see the global South.  Ironically, South of the Border seems to be faring much better post-outbreak.  Trade and stable societies, something that took Fear's parent series six seasons to build, are the norm in Mexico.  Makeshift bazaars which once sold assorted brick-a-brack still sell the same.  Cartels who controlled the flow of drugs now traffick in food, water, and other basics.  Because these border communities leaned less on the institutions of the "developed" world, the fallout of the outbreak disrupts their lives less.  It's not an ideal existence.  The men with guns are still a bigger threat than the dead.  But unlike their neighbors to the North, these men keep the social fabric intact by trading instead of raiding.

We also learn a lot more about Luciana (Danay Garcia) and Alejandro (Paul Calderon), two characters that were introduced in the previous episode.  Luciana and Alejandro are both residents in a small village, known as La Colonia.  Alejandro is a pharmacist, which is a pretty ho-hum profession until society crumbles and you become the only guy with life saving medicine.  Though the show doesn't offer much in a back story, I assume he parlayed this position into leader/spiritual advisor to the village.  He fills his people with the belief that the walkers are a purifying force.  Like a wave, the dead will cleanse the Earth, and his followers will survive.  His followers also believe that Alejandro has been bitten, and has survived.  I'm interested to see how this plays out in future episodes.

Luciana is no damsel in distress.  Though I hate to draw parallels between the characters of the two Walking Dead series, I have to say that I'm picking up a strong Daryl vibe from Luciana.  They are both pragmatic characters who must remain hard in an unforgiving world.   That type of character is unavoidable in genre fiction, but this archetype gets stale if we don't get some genuine, human moments.  Daryl has given us plenty, and Luciana gives us a hint of humanity very end of the episode.  The key to maintaining interest in this character is to keep those moments coming.

We also get to catch up with Madison (Kim Dickens), Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Strand (Coleman Domingo), and Ofelia (Mercedes Mason).  They continue on with the search for Nick.  Both Strand and Nick are the two most resourceful characters on the show, but that resourcefulness manifests itself in different ways.  Strand was a businessman and his resourcefulness is informed by that background.  He knows how to plan for a long game.  He can see 10 moves down the line and align the intermediate steps necessary to achieve success.  Nick was a junkie who couldn't see past his next hit.  His resourcefulness is rooted in spontaneity, such as when, cut off from his usual drug supply, he siphoned off a terminally ill old man's morphine in Season One.  As demonstrated by their stations in life, Strand's meticulous planning brought him greater success than Nick's pursuit of the next high.

However, this was before the social institutions that rewarded long term planning crumbled.  In this episode, the group loses the Abigail, and with it, Strand's long term planning amounts to naught.  Strand is a character that uses his material advantages to "obligate" people.  In the absence of those resources and the influence they provide, he is forced to endear himself to others.  He did it with Thomas Abigail, and now it seems like he's doing it with Madison.  Strand is a man who started at the bottom, won it all, lost it all, and rebuilt himself through thorough understanding of the rules of upward mobility.  Those rules don't apply anymore.  The Abigail blinded Strand to that reality, and its absence will potentially unravel a once confident and charismatic character.

Nick's shortsighted resourcefulness, while harmful in the old world, is an asset in the new.  Heroin addicts typically aren't the best long term planners.  Though heroin is their raison d'etre,  the urgency to find the next high only exists when the old one wears off.  As a junkie, Nick had to quickly process the personalities, circumstances, and data around him to find his next high.  Heroin withdrawal is no picnic.  This episode demonstrated Nick quick thinking skills when he turned a potentially lethal interaction with a local gang into a profitable one.  Where Strand is a chess grandmaster, Nick is a foosball champion.

Fear is rounding out its second season well.  The cast, crew, and writers are giving us dynamic characters and novel settings to really give us a new taste of The Walking Dead universe.  I encourage you all to watch.  Episode 209 airs on Sunday, August 27 at 9:00.

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