Fear the Walking Dead Captive review S2, Ep5
Fear the Walking Dead continues to rely on character stupidity as a crutch, which ultimately capsized a promising setup for our crew at sea.
Travis and Alicia were abducted by Connor the friendly chef and his crew while Madison and Daniel attempted to get some info from Connor’s brother, Reed, who they were holding captive. The plan was simple — Travis and Alicia for Connor. Madison definitely was undervaluing Alicia as that’s not exactly a fair trade. But with Alicia somehow ridiculously still conflicted over Jack, the same guy that lured her family into a trap, it probably balanced out. And for some reason the pregnant girl was mad at Alicia for … something?
The closest we got to a series’ shakeup was more breadcrumbs on the Chris is going crazy trail. It’s ironic that Madison continues to baby Nick when Chris is clearly the one who needs closer observing and attention. Daniel allowing Chris to watch Reed alone was a terrible decision. Chris is unhinged and Reed knows how to push all kinds of buttons or did after Chris shot him claiming he was about to turn. C’mon Abigail crew. Chris is a loose cannon who’s going to get somebody killed!! Wake up!
Daniel at least temporarily returned to his senses and didn’t kill walker Reed right away figuring they could bind him and still honor the trade … to a degree.
On Connor’s boat, Travis reunited with Alex, who said she offered Travis and the Abigail up to Connor after she was forced to kill Jake once the water ran out. This ultimately didn’t result in anything though beyond revealing Alex’s misplaced anger. After all, it was Strand, not Travis, who cut the cord linking their raft to Abigail.
Granted, Travis banning them to the raft wouldn’t merit a Christmas card, but can Alex really hold a grudge for someone being overly cautious? So in the end her killing everyone who questioned the logic of keeping Jake alive really didn’t matter, huh? With Alex surviving the great escape it’ll be interesting to see if she continues seeking retribution against the Abigail crew.[irp]
It’s early in Season 2, but Captive really needed to have some unexpected tragedy occur for Madison and company. That the episode ended with everything status quo doesn’t help offer that sense that anything can happen at any point, not just the season finale. Not that I’m rooting for character deaths just yet, but it was really hard to believe that hostage exchange worked so seamlessly.
How in the world did Madison get walker Reed to hush up long enough to pull the swap? And why did no one have any guns? That doesn’t gibe at all with how Connor handled situations previously. You’d think he would have his goon squad armed and ready for any shenanigans yet he and his two man entourage all got bit by Reed. And Alicia slid from the top of Connor’s ship into the ocean right by Madison’s raft. That plan couldn’t have gone smoother if they tried despite the seemingly major monkey wrench of the other hostage being turned into a walker.
Also, this Destination: Mexico plan seems needlessly complicated. As we’ve seen with Rick’s crew, there’s all kinds of drama and danger on land. On Abigail, Madison and crew can land for quick supply runs, get back on the water and hardly ever have to worry about any walkers. The occasional pirate will be a problem and everyone’s gonna eventually get sick of fish, sure, but otherwise being at sea doesn’t seem all that bad.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Chris helpfully tried to make a bad situation worse, but in the end it didn’t matter because the sinister pirates suddenly lost all common sense. There was a lot that could have made this episode great, but the goofy character decisions again let down a strong premise.