1.4 – Not Fade Away Things seem to be going on fairly normally in Nick Clark’s neighborhood. His stepfather Travis is out for a run, waving at neighbours and getting up a good sweat. His stepbrother Chris is perched on the roof making videos of the slow death of the world around them. Meanwhile, he’s floating in a pool, soaking up a little sun and enjoying the feeling of stolen morphine in his veins. However, the more perceptive in the Clark household aren’t as settled. Madison is staring angrily at a clock, waiting for the restoration of electricity. As it turns out, life during the zombie apocalypse isn’t exactly great, as the people trapped within the quarantine zone are being both protected by and controlled by the National Guardsmen who keep the fences up and the rations coming, and Travis has the all-important position as mayor of Vichy France via San Angeles. When there’s a problem, Travis is sent in to try and solve it, like when he needs to talk a panicking neighbour into taking a health screening courtesy of the guards and their new physician, Dr. Exner (Sandrine Holt). In exchange for their cooperation, the suburb is rewarded with a few hours of electricity, no phone service, a curfew, and the systematic culling of the weak, injured, or sick from within the community. It started with the ‘exposed’ last week, and this week if you’re a little mentally unstable? You’re gone, because you need treatment. Break your leg? You’re gone, because you need surgery. Have a drug addiction? Yup, you’re gone, too. Now LA is a ghost town where everyone’s apparently been “evacuated” and there’s a “6 mile zone free of danger” that popped up in nine days we didn’t see on camera. At least, that’s the official word. Clearing out Los Angeles and its surrounding areas would be like clearing out London, but without the mass transit systems. The scuttlebutt is a major refugee camp that was set up in Barstow, which is like moving everyone from London to Manchester, except Manchester is now a veritable ghost town in the middle of the desert. It doesn’t make sense; that’s why Maddie cuts a hole in the fence and sneaks out, to see what’s going on for herself. What happens to Maddie is one of the better moments of the episode, because she gets to see the military not as harmless, lazy incompetents, but as killers projecting the image of harmlessness. The piles of bodies she encounters suggest a real danger, and it’s a well-crafted suspense scene from director Kari Skogland. Maddie skulks past the patrols in the fence, then has to hide from the armed men going through the neighbourhood, looking for survivors to shoot. Sound familiar, Travis? Of course it does, because the episode essentially ends in that exact manner. The trusted government friends of Travis come to the house and not only take away Griselda, but also take away Nick. They take away Liza, too, but she’ll be volunteering (no doubt at the end of a gun) at the hospital while the rest of them… well… this episode makes it pretty clear that these folks aren’t going to come back without going through some sort of chaos or escape scenario. Maybe that’ll be the downfall of society thing, just on a much smaller scale than might be expected given that Fear The Walking Dead takes place in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. US Correspondent Ron Hogan is very disappointed by this leap forward in time, even if it does come with some pretty good acting moments. Still, don’t promise chaotic downfall and not give the viewer what you promised! Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi. You can read Ron’s review of the previous episode, The Dog, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
