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| ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 2 Premiere Recap: Smoke on the Water | ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 2 Premiere Recap: Smoke on the Water |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Los Angeles is burning. | Los Angeles is burning. |
| When we last saw this group, it was making its way to the coast as civilization collapsed all around. The audience knows the world is unraveling, of course, but only the especially savvy characters understand what they’re seeing. Who could blame those who assume that somehow, some time, order will be restored? It’s only because of that other show that we know this world is irrevocably broken. | When we last saw this group, it was making its way to the coast as civilization collapsed all around. The audience knows the world is unraveling, of course, but only the especially savvy characters understand what they’re seeing. Who could blame those who assume that somehow, some time, order will be restored? It’s only because of that other show that we know this world is irrevocably broken. |
| If we were in their shoes, would we know? What would we do? These questions are at the root of why actual history and imagined futures fascinate us, or at least those of us who find a perverse sort of joy in forcing ourselves to imagine dreadful scenarios. If there was a horrible earthquake, would you share water with your patently unfriendly neighbor? If “Mayday” were to come over your ship’s radio, would you answer the call? | |
| Season 1 of “Fear the Walking Dead” was stymied by a sluggish pace and the burden of introducing new characters and landscapes, even one as recognizable as Los Angeles, to a rabid audience already familiar with this world where the dead walk and the plot moves at breakneck speed. | Season 1 of “Fear the Walking Dead” was stymied by a sluggish pace and the burden of introducing new characters and landscapes, even one as recognizable as Los Angeles, to a rabid audience already familiar with this world where the dead walk and the plot moves at breakneck speed. |
| A quick refresher in case you’re fuzzy on some of the details: | A quick refresher in case you’re fuzzy on some of the details: |
| Maddie and Travis are at the center of the family, surrounded by children from previous marriages. Maddie has a teenage daughter, Alicia, and a son, Nick, whose unoriginal addiction story line (is there any other kind?) clogged up much of Season 1. Travis’s son, Chris, meanwhile, has been inconsolable since his mother, Liza, was bit and ordered Travis to shoot her in the head rather than let the infection turn her. | Maddie and Travis are at the center of the family, surrounded by children from previous marriages. Maddie has a teenage daughter, Alicia, and a son, Nick, whose unoriginal addiction story line (is there any other kind?) clogged up much of Season 1. Travis’s son, Chris, meanwhile, has been inconsolable since his mother, Liza, was bit and ordered Travis to shoot her in the head rather than let the infection turn her. |
| Daniel and Ofelia, the father and daughter who sheltered Travis’s family as riots kicked off, later lost their own matriarch. Ofelia, by the way, is still dealing with the gunshot wound she received from her soldier love interest — her father tortured him for information so he shot her in retribution. So much for dating during the apocalypse. | Daniel and Ofelia, the father and daughter who sheltered Travis’s family as riots kicked off, later lost their own matriarch. Ofelia, by the way, is still dealing with the gunshot wound she received from her soldier love interest — her father tortured him for information so he shot her in retribution. So much for dating during the apocalypse. |
| Strand, who rounds out the group, is a man with a lot of money and dubious intentions, but little interest in taking anyone else under his wing. | Strand, who rounds out the group, is a man with a lot of money and dubious intentions, but little interest in taking anyone else under his wing. |
| It’s on Strand’s tastefully extravagant yacht, the Abigail, that the season opens. Headed to San Diego, the families discover that life on the sea offers no more safety than on land — at least from the living. | It’s on Strand’s tastefully extravagant yacht, the Abigail, that the season opens. Headed to San Diego, the families discover that life on the sea offers no more safety than on land — at least from the living. |
| It seems odd to say that the basic plot of the episode is, essentially, “They get on the boat, and it’s terrifying,” but … it is. | It seems odd to say that the basic plot of the episode is, essentially, “They get on the boat, and it’s terrifying,” but … it is. |
| There are moments that should tug at your heartstrings, like when Chris dumps his mother’s body into the water with pain masked as petulance, but those of us who are viewers of that other show must remember young Carl Grimes putting a bullet in his mother’s head and marching on resolutely. Of course Chris has every right to be upset: He’s been in a room with his mother’s body for hours. But we want Chris to be more like Carl. We want him to understand all the new rules of his world already. | There are moments that should tug at your heartstrings, like when Chris dumps his mother’s body into the water with pain masked as petulance, but those of us who are viewers of that other show must remember young Carl Grimes putting a bullet in his mother’s head and marching on resolutely. Of course Chris has every right to be upset: He’s been in a room with his mother’s body for hours. But we want Chris to be more like Carl. We want him to understand all the new rules of his world already. |
| A common, and fitting, criticism of the “Walking Dead” universe is that its viewers can get jaded or bored by the depictions of violence. After all, the zombies we take such delight in seeing pulverized in new, gruesome ways — this episode included a run-in with propeller blades — were once people. But while it might seem inevitable that viewers would become immune to that sort of gore, it doesn’t have to be. | A common, and fitting, criticism of the “Walking Dead” universe is that its viewers can get jaded or bored by the depictions of violence. After all, the zombies we take such delight in seeing pulverized in new, gruesome ways — this episode included a run-in with propeller blades — were once people. But while it might seem inevitable that viewers would become immune to that sort of gore, it doesn’t have to be. |
| The propeller incident aside, Sunday’s season premiere demonstrates that a zombie, er, “walker” story doesn’t need to be a blood bath in order to be tense. The majority of “Monster” was about establishing the parameters of the new world at sea, which, from a security standpoint, doesn’t seem to be much better than the one the survivors left behind. The walkers might be mostly limited to land, but the dog-eat-dog morality of the apocalypse has clearly followed them onto the water. | The propeller incident aside, Sunday’s season premiere demonstrates that a zombie, er, “walker” story doesn’t need to be a blood bath in order to be tense. The majority of “Monster” was about establishing the parameters of the new world at sea, which, from a security standpoint, doesn’t seem to be much better than the one the survivors left behind. The walkers might be mostly limited to land, but the dog-eat-dog morality of the apocalypse has clearly followed them onto the water. |
| How would you react to slowly passing a sinking vessel, one close enough for you to hear panicked pleas for help? Before you judge Strand or Travis too harshly for their hard-line refusal to stop, ask yourself how you felt as Alicia blindly volunteered the Abigail’s location to “Jack,” over the radio. | How would you react to slowly passing a sinking vessel, one close enough for you to hear panicked pleas for help? Before you judge Strand or Travis too harshly for their hard-line refusal to stop, ask yourself how you felt as Alicia blindly volunteered the Abigail’s location to “Jack,” over the radio. |
| Perhaps she could be forgiven; who wouldn’t be swayed by someone sending out David Bowie’s confoundingly appropriate “Five Years”? | Perhaps she could be forgiven; who wouldn’t be swayed by someone sending out David Bowie’s confoundingly appropriate “Five Years”? |
| Whoever “Jack” is — though I doubt he’s a nice guy with just two other people on a failing ship — he’s on his way, and the Abigail is already using more fuel than it can afford to if it’s going to make it to the naval base in San Diego. | Whoever “Jack” is — though I doubt he’s a nice guy with just two other people on a failing ship — he’s on his way, and the Abigail is already using more fuel than it can afford to if it’s going to make it to the naval base in San Diego. |
| These characters don’t yet comprehend the world they’re living in, and the real horror is thinking about what it will take for them to understand. | These characters don’t yet comprehend the world they’re living in, and the real horror is thinking about what it will take for them to understand. |
| What would it take for you? | What would it take for you? |