Night Three has been completed and I am still not ready to leave yet. One of the things that I like about coming up to this hotel is that you never know what you are going to find, or who you are going to run into. With plenty of locals that make their way up the hill, there are so many people that come to the Stanley Hotel from out of state and from across the world, it truly is a beautiful destination. It is like going into a time machine when you step into the hotel and that is one of my favorite things about the Stanley. 

Every day while up here, I have been keep keeping track of what has been going on around the hotel. Like I said in my first post, winter really takes its toll on the old building and from afar you would not see this, but when up close, you see how much maintenance it really takes. With it being overcast the past couple of days, there was not a lot of work on the main building, but the gardens that surround the property have been getting a ton of attention.  While some of the flowers are starting to bloom, the rest are waiting for the weather to be just right. 

One of the other things that I have been keeping up on is all of the new construction that is taking place up here. If you have not heard yet, last year it was announced that there will be a Horror Movie History Museum on the Stanley Hotel’s property within the next couple of years and with all of the construction going on, it is going to make this place more of a destination than ever before.  Although I cannot get a firm answer to where it will be going up, there are plenty of locations that it could take over and I cannot wait to see how the building will look.  There is a building being completed across from the entrance form the hotel that has the same paint job and after checking it out, it is going to be for overflow from the hotel and will be open much sooner. I have always loved coming up here and it appears that this little secret in the mountains has been let loose on the world and it will be next to impossible to keep the new guests out.

Well, on to night three. I am saddened to report that nothing out of the ordinary happened this night. I was hoping for the weather to change and get some lightning storms to take place since that really helps the hotel to come to life as I have found out in the past, but we only had a couple minutes of Thunder Hail, which was cool, but not enough.  I did walk with a couple of girls through the hall that were looking for something spooky. Once again, I went through the list of things I know about, but then I ran into the Sensitive that I met during my last trip and she was having some good feelings about the catching something during the night.  It was fun to see how the two girls thought that the woman was crazy, but then started to open up when orbs started to show up on their pictures. I have not had a chance to review mine yet, but I will let you know if I find anything out of the ordinary. 

So, another trip to the Stanley Hotel has been put in the books and I am already starting to plan my trip for next year. I wish I had more to report about spooky stuff happening to me up here, but you can’t make them show up every time. There is one thing that the staff called out to me about my room, every time they tried to come in, the lock was engaged. I am not sure how that happened since you cannot push the button when you are out of the room, but as I just tried to push it in, it will not stay, so not sure what that is all about, but it is something strange.  Well until next year, hopefully not that long as I would love to stay up here year round, but alas, I cannot stay too far away from the real word since I have so much to catch up on now.  Until next time, Stay Scared.

Night Two has been completed at the fantastic Stanley Hotel and I am just as giddy as the first time that I have stayed here. Even though we are still technically in the off-season, even if just for the night since Memorial Day weekend starts today, the hotel is still alive with so much activity.  People from all over the world arrived yesterday to take in the sights and all seemed impressed that even with the heavy cloud overcast, it only rained once. I am still waiting for the lightning storm to hit, that really gets the spirits going crazy up here, and since it did not happen last night, it had better happen today.

Yesterday I was taking in the sights from the hotel since the main street is not ready for me yet. Watching as the clouds moved over the surrounding mountains, it was apparent that the weather would be making a change for the worse, although it did not. It just got cold and I was forced to break down and get my jacket to counter it. Also when walking around the grounds, there are so many things happening. If you have ever stayed at the Stanley Hotel, you might have found yourself parked on a pretty steep hill, well that is no longer happening as the main parking lot has been completely leveled out. There are also a couple new parking spots that have been added in front of the Lodge building. There is a lot of moving and shaking going around the area, but I am waiting to finally hear where the movie museum will be placed, since that is what is leading to the changes. 
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Ok, so I have put it off too long, everyone wants to know what happened during the night. First, I met a nice couple from Omaha that just got in their car and headed west. After a brief chat with them at lunch, they decided to try and get a room and luckily they were able to stay. Asking if I would show them around and give them the stories from my past experiences, I was happy to give them the haunted journey that I have spent five years compiling. 

We went thought my local haunts on the fourth floor and it was still early enough that some of the guests were still making their ways up to the rooms. We poked our head into room 407 where one time when I stayed there I swore someone was sitting on the edge of my bed, stopped by room 401 and told them about the closet experience, then to 428 where they were lucky enough to be staying. I told them about the cowboy in the room, along with the kids that run across to the closet. Making sure that they got the Ghost Radar app on their phone to talk with the ghosts, just in case, I made sure they listened to a small bit of our podcast from that room a couple years ago. They started asking some questions and were getting responses, pretty quickly. I then took them down to room 217 where I have not yet been able to stay yet, but when they walked under the original doorway, they both felt freaked out and needed to make their way back up to their room to rest.

They seemed to have a good time and I look forward to chatting with them before they leave and see if anything else happened in the room after I returned to mine. I did hear the kids running and giggling down the halls last night, twice, so I put my voice recorder in the hallway for a couple hours to see if it caught anything else. That is the hard thing about catching those kids, they never appear when you are ready for them. The group across the hall from me is really into the ghost hunt and only seem to make appearances in the middle of the night since they have the do not disturb hanging on the door during the day. 
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It appears that most of the guests are having a great time up at the hotel and I am staying out of my shell and talking to more and more as they arrive in droves every day. Since this is the first trip for many of these people to the hotel, they seem to appreciate someone that is a seasoned veteran to give them hints and tricks about what to do to enhance their experience. One more night up here for me and even though I have not had anything crazy happen to me yet, I would not trade this time for anything in the world. It is a good area to get away from the world for a couple days, as I keep telling everyone that I meet, this is one of the best things to cross off your bucket list.    ​

With all of the things that have been going on at my day job this year, I decided to take my Stanley Trip early this year and have once again arrived. Now, this being the end of May, I figured that the hotel would be up and kicking and it is in a way as guests are still lining up for tours and personal ghost hunts. The official start of the season is Memorial Day weekend, so the staff have a couple more days to get everything ready for the ever popular weekend and I wish them the best at doing this. 

One of the things I noticed when I got here this year is how hard the cold winters are on the hotel, with maintenance groups running around and doing touchups all around the hotel main floor, but there is much more to do on the upper floors. I never thought that a matter of months could make this much of a difference when it came to paint these days, but The Shining films weren't kidding around, the winters are brutal up in the mountains and now I fully understand this. I have no doubts that all of the touchups will be completed by the end of June to bring the external of the hotel back to its yearly glory.

Enough with that, let’s get into what happened on my first night in the hotel, since that is what everyone likes to know. I am staying in room 414 for this trip, not a reported haunted room, but I will still keep my eyes and ears open for anything crazy that may happen. The only reason that I did not get a haunted room for this trip was my late request to stay through Saturday, but you know what, it is about the experience and I am far from upset. The start of the night was used to reconnect with some of my favorite staff members who were very surprised to see me coming up near the end of the off season, not the beginning. They are a really good group and make you feel like family, especially when you become a known guest.

When walking through the halls to go and get some ice, I ran into a couple from Houston that were preparing to start their ghost hunt for the night. Since I am a bit of a veteran in this hotel, I gave them some notes on where to use their EMF detectors when walking by rooms. Then I started to talk to them about our team experience in room 428 and come to find out that they are staying in room 426 and have heard the water running in the room when it was not. That falls back to the little kids story about them running across the floor in 428 and ducking into the closest, since 426’s bathroom is on the other side of the closet and now some of the stories are starting to tie together. 

I also ran into another group from Milwaukee that was ready to start their ghost hunt as well. They had a bit more advanced EMF detector in hand and some more goodies that they were ready to put to the test. As we started talking, we were approached by another couple that has stayed in the hotel as well and we all exchanged stories about what and where things have happened to us in the hotel. Talking with the Houston couple before they joined forces with the Milwaukee team, we chatted a couple seconds while walking to my room and their EMF detector went off at my door. Since I still have Ghost Radar on my phone, I turned it on and the signal was pointing at the door and then it started talking, a lot. The first thing it said was Texas, which freaked out the couple since that is where home is. We chatted with the ghost for a couple minutes until the energy appeared to disperse on the app and EMF detector. Although the couple was a little freaked out, they were ready to continue their hunt and set off with the couple from Milwaukee on their own ghostly adventure.

I have not heard what they have found as of yet, but they were going to cover the entire hotel, so I made sure to give them all of the tips of hot spot areas that I could think of. Now it was pretty noisy in the hotel last night and I do not see that changing for tonight, so the chatting with the Ghost Radar was the only kind of ghostly experience that I can vouch for. The weather report has a lightning storm coming in tonight and that seems to excite the spirits more than anything else, at least that is what I have noticed when being in the middle of such storms out here. With so much changing around the grounds this year, there may be some more crazy events happening, but you never know for sure what will get the spirits attention. Well, onto the next night and I cannot wait to chat with some new people and drop some knowledge once again.  Until next time, Stay Scared.

It's only been a few weeks since the season six finale of The Walking Dead completely and utterly rocked our worlds with the controversial decision to not reveal who died at Negan's hands and since that time, the rancor and disdain from the fan base has not cooled over the matter in the slightest. The fury that came out of it prompted a breakdown and explanation of said decision by showrunner Scott M. Gimple himself but even that did not appease since Robert Kirkman took the time to apologize for the whole thing in issue #154 of the comic recently.

Clearly the fans are angry and that fury isn't going to fade anytime soon. There was a high expectation for this finale to deliver something that we've never seen before on television and instead the show fell back upon an everyday trope for television, the cliffhanger, and the constant explanation and apologizing from the powers that be means they know that they ticked off the legions of fans that tune in weekly. But words can only go so far, everyone that loves this show is expecting something more when it returns this fall and the question on all of our minds is a simple one, how will the series make everything right again?

After all, the decision to do all of this, along with what happened with Glenn earlier in the season has given the show a reputation; one where it looks like it wants to simply screw with the audience for shock value over giving us an awesome story. Whether the folks behind the scenes want to acknowledge it or not, this move will cost the show some of its fanbase, and those that remain will either be at peace with everything that went down or feel slighted and raise their expectations in the process, which means the show will have to act fast in season seven to satisfy the millions of folks that tune in weekly. 

In order to do that, the first real olive branch the show can extend our way is simple, give us a quick and powerful resolution as to who died. Don't play any games with the aftermath of who passed away and how life has changed since their unfortunate loss, take us right back into the moment. Give us back the fear and tension we all experienced in the last fifteen minutes of the season six finale and let us suffer with the rest of the group because that's exactly what we missed in those final moments. But outside of resolving that matter, the fans still need assurances that the series is back on track and done messing with the audience. 

Which means the series has to return to its roots; and that means providing us with intense stories that bring back a sense of danger, which also means...more of the characters have to die. While that may sound sadistic, it's an element of the show's design that we have come to expect and we debate who will go for that matter and it's something that hasn't happened in quite some time to be honest. This is a series about the end of the world and the horrors that come with it and that means we need to say goodbye to some of the cast from time to time and by giving us back that sense of danger, where no one is safe, we will find ourselves glued to our seats once again, compelled to know how the story ends. Either way, whether you were good with the finale or not, the message from the fans has made its way straight the top and it's in the hands of folks behind the scenes to make it up to everyone.

It's been quite the downward spiral psychologically on Fear the Walking Dead this season and well, that's a good thing. Far too often the zombie genre is filled with predictable tropes where the characters are able to flip on a switch and become super survivors without having to deal with all the messy stuff that happens emotionally to a human when they realize what they have done in order to survive another day. 

The  long term effects of doing what must be done is a concept we have witnessed on the sister show for this series, but even then The Walking Dead doesn't always have to focus on it in depth because every single moment is about survival and the people on that show know what is at stake if they don't keep moving. But in Madison and Travis' world, the life they knew is only a few weeks removed and adjusting to full survival mode has never been easy and last night's midseason finale; "Shiva", decided to explore another fresh element of the early days of the end of the world...what happens to people when they truly realize there is no help coming, and that nothing remains of the world they left behind.

It turns out that in those precarious days when that reality settles in, the people of this world can find themselves completely and utterly lost and for proof of that, we need not look any further than Chris and his complete and utter breakdown this week after grabbing the knife and inadvertently threatening Madison and Alicia in the middle of the night. The reality of his actions, and the consequences that come with it all were simply too much to bear and we spent a good chunk of the episode watching Travis chase down his beloved son in the hopes of being able to reach him from the dark place that he has now slid within.

For Chris, this was the apex of his journey for the first half of the season. After losing his mother, and truly understanding the reality of the world and death now surrounding him, there is no hope in his heart or belief that life is worth living. He just sees this as a world that has now become a massive void, where death rules over all things because mankind is weak and perishes easily. He was ready to hurt his family and the son of another man all in the sake of finding what appears to be solitude to work out whatever pain is in his heart and oddly enough, his journey led to the most hopeful moment of the night, but we'll get to that in just a little bit.

Because that hope was overshadowed by far uglier moments, as we discovered that Chris was not the only shattered member of the group, Nick has lost his way as well. He has gone from a productive member of the group, able to save the day to a man who has decided he belongs amongst the dead. Part of it may be due to the fact that he can finally walk about the world freely as something better than the creatures that surround him, the opposite of his life prior to the apocalypse, or it could be related to the fact that he believes he can never be anything more than a junkie in his mother's eyes. But either way, Nick has clearly had enough of people and the pain that comes with them and in a world without rules, he has drifted away from the people that matter. 

But the most heartbreaking story of the night was Daniel's. After all he has been quite the rock for a better part of the last season and a half, always knowing the right thing to do and when to do it and always having a good eye as to what might be on the horizon for the group. So to see him at his lowest last night, haunted by his memories and his late wife for that matter, well it was simply devastating. It's hard to say exactly what finally snapped inside of Daniel; but whatever sent him over the edge did one hell of a job because his need to find a purpose again, drove him to the extremes and it was sobering to know he completely destroyed the Abigail compound with fire to find peace within. 

Yet, despite watching so many of the group succumb to the despair and desolation of this world, there was still hope to be found. For one, they have quite the leader growing in Madison, since she demonstrated just how far she will go to keep her family and the group safe with her decision to lock Celia in with the dead and allow her to become "part" of the family and oddly enough, Travis' actions were equally as hopeful last night. For him to recognize how lost his son has become, and still be willing to stand by his side and step away from the group to get Chris' head right is quite the move. It speaks to the fact Travis still believes that people can be saved in this awful world and that maybe, just maybe he can reach his son. 

Those optimistic gestures however, don't fix a lot of the problems at hand for the group unfortunately. Once again, they are without shelter or safety since the Abigail compound is now burned to the ground and well, this is really the first time that the group has in essence, made an active choice to be apart and well...there are questions that remain. For instance can everyone move on from all the things they've said and done and find a way to reunite? Can Nick ever see himself fitting in with those that love him? Can Chris be saved from this savage world and for that matter, can Daniel? These are questions we will have to wait until August to have answered and it's going to be one heck of a wait because this truly has been some top notch writing and storytelling and let's hope that it continues along into the second half of the season. Until next time.

This season of Fear the Walking Dead has featured quite a few firsts when it comes to the zombie genre and it's a wonderful sight to see. This is a series rife with opportunity, where the show runners can try new and exciting and terrifying things when it comes to the zombie genre and this week on the show they decided to do that once again.  

Last night's episode, "Sicut Cervus", served as the springboard for exploring one incredible concept after another. It started simply enough with a look at what happens when people are completely and utterly pushed to their breaking point since several people in the group are starting to crack under the pressure; and it also took the time to dive deep into what happens when the human mind simply cannot take anymore of the horrors surrounding it.  But before we get into that fascinating part of the story, let's talk about those in the group who are collapsing from stress...starting with Chris.

This week's episode saw Chris make mistake after mistake and well, now the kid is getting downright scary. First he nearly lets Madison die at the hands of a walker outside the church, then he feels the need to threaten Alicia to not say a word about the fact that she caught him choosing not to help their mom and what the hell was he planning to do with that knife in Alicia's room in the middle of the night? It seems as though in many ways, Chris has finally snapped and since he's taken a life on several occasions now, one has to wonder if he's simply gotten a taste for the ease of it and with the world no longer conforming to any rules...perhaps he no longer sees the value of life anymore. 

There's a real mean streak brewing behind him, a hint of the Governor if you will because this is a kid who is young, impressionable and clearly believes that people telling him what to do and what he should believe at this age are trying to do him wrong. Now that he has discovered that some of his problems can be removed with a simple pull of the trigger...it's an easy way out and that's dangerous. Madison did have one solid point about her step son, he needs help, and it's obvious he needs it quickly because he's slipping into some pretty dark places and if they don't rescue him from it soon and figure out how to reach him, bad things are going to happen. 

Oddly enough however, Chris' disturbing behavior was not the most terrifying part of the night. That honor was reserved solely for the Abigail compound in Baja, where we quickly learned what effect the Apocalypse is starting to have on some people's minds, Nick's included, by uncovering the fact that Thomas Abigail's surrogate mother Celia, is playing caretaker to the dearly departed by giving the living dead shelter and food.  

This was a fascinating move and while for a moment there it seemed like an echo of The Walking Dead had popped up by way of retelling the tale of Hershel's farm, that was simply not the case. While Hershel believed that they were sick and needed a cure, and he was right about the sick part, Celia full on believes that the dead are the physical incarnation of the afterlife. That the spirits of the departed have come home to roost and in the process, reanimated the dead. Of course it's odd that she sees no problem with the fact that they eat human flesh, but Celia's inability to see them for what they are is absolutely chilling.

This was truly the best part of the episode because something we often see in the genre is that everyone is quick to accept the fact that hey, the dead now walk the earth, avoid them at all costs and kill them when you can. But Celia's thought process is a fine example of not being able to let the reality of the matter sink in. She cannot comprehend that this is the end of the world as they know it and that the dead have indeed returned to life to attack the living. She has injected her religious beliefs into the matter to rationalize it all and that's just scary, and well...it makes her the most dangerous person on the show right now since let's not forget that she was willing to poison an entire church full of people who disagreed with her view.

To top it off, Nick is also struggling with the reality of this mess as well and now he's starting to listen to her special brand of crazy. The group truthfully would have been safer on the ocean at this point and with Strand breaking his vow to die with Thomas peacefully...they're all in incredible danger now. They are sleeping atop a cellar full of the dead, their host is stark raving mad with an entire staff backing her up and Chris is still out there filled with rage as well. Either way, the stage is set for one stunning midseason finale and while we wait to see how this mess wraps up, kudos to the show for once again pushing the envelope and giving us one dark and disturbing tale. Until next time.

Sometimes, whether we like it or not, our favorite television shows decide to go to some pretty incredible places and shock all of us in the process. One can always hope that the shock that the audience receives is a positive and joyous one, but let's be honest...often times it's something horrifying, just as it was this week on Fear the Walking Dead since the show decided to take us into the deepest and darkest parts of the human psyche.

​"Captive" turned out to be quite the character study, where a majority of the characters were pushed to the limit this week, since the impending showdown with Connor and his merry band of pirates reminded everyone just how quickly the world has changed and how ugly each and everyone of them will have to be from here on out...and that they will have to find a way to live with it. If anything, that was the best part of the night, seeing a majority of the group be forced to face down their own respective ghosts.  

Travis's journey last night was perhaps the most direct approach to this little storytelling twist since through him we discovered that Alex survived being cut free from the Abigail by Strand and that after drifting for a bit, and putting poor Jake out of his misery before turning...she ran into Connor and his crew and was more than happy to offer up information on the people who left her out in the ocean to die, thus answering exactly how Connor's crew knew who was who on the boat when they boarded it.

But what mattered about this little plot thread is that it brought Travis and Alex face to face after that fateful moment, and while it seemed as though revenge was on Alex's mind, she simply wanted Travis to own up to the horrible call made that day, and surprisingly he did. In fact Travis was quick to apologize and immediately spill his emotional guts in front of Alex; speaking out about how hard he has tried to remain a good man in a bad time and this was quite the powerful little scene. So rarely do any of the characters in this universe truly get to reflect upon their actions due to the need to survive, so to see Travis do just that, alongside Alex was truly something to behold, it was a powerful, dark moment and really the harbinger that the collapse of society is slowly getting to each and every one of them as the days go by. 

The good news is that we learned that Travis is keeping the darkness at bay for the most part, but the same cannot be said for his son Chris, who all but snapped last night by demanding to keep watch over Reed...and murder the man in cold blood. All episode long we watched him struggle with his decision to not put a round in Reed and his boarding party and despite Nick's best efforts to calm him down, and Daniel's for that matter, he finally crossed that line and whether or not he is in the right to kill a man who put a gun to his head, it's clear that Chris is confused and lost in this world and the gentle moment between he and Madison shows that he is nothing more than a scared boy in a world he doesn't quite understand. Where we go from here with him is anyone's guess.

But of all of the characters we focused on this week, the big surprise of the night came from where the story is suddenly going with Daniel. To date, he and Nick are the only people perfectly suited and ready for this world since we have seen Daniel's skills come through to save the group or put them in a position to succeed time and time again. But last night...well there are now cracks in his armor since Daniel began to hear voices and that offers up a whole host of questions. Is he cracking under the pressure of the world surrounding him? Is there mental illness at work here that Daniel was able to manage in his past life with medication but now that he is without it, is it creeping up on him? Time will tell. 

Daniel's teachings to be bold and savage in this world however have not fallen on deaf ears because we do need to talk about the plan to get Travis and Alicia back from Connor's tuna boat simply because wow, it was a bold one to say the least. Despite Chris' grand mistake in killing Reed when the group needed him for a prisoner exchange, we learned that death doesn't mean a thing for matters such as this when you can simply send over a reanimated corpse to complete the transaction, just as Madison did. It was a wild decision for certain, and it demonstrated the darker side to Madison that continues to slowly be revealed.  

While the move did indeed save Travis and help facilitate Alicia's escape from the ship, so that the group could be reunited, one has to wonder what kind of fallout will come from this week's events. For one, despite the fact that Chris exhibited remorse for his cold blooded actions, he clearly has a taste for murder now and considering the fact that Travis has admitted his inability to stomach what's happening around him, that will only further strain their relationship. Plus, although the group did escape from Connor's compound; one gets the impression we haven't seen the last of his pirates. Jack is still alive, so is angry pregnant lady...as is Alex and she is quite the survivor, and we still don't know for sure if she is friend or foe. Either way, what a thoughtful and cerebral episode this turned out to be, and hopefully these newfound wrinkles to our characters are revisited sooner rather than later. Until next time. 

If there's one thing we have all learned about characters in the Walking Dead universe as a whole, is that not everyone has the noblest of intentions and if they seem hell bent on a goal or a destination...it's often times for nefarious purposes. Which is why Victor Strand has become such a interesting character to all of us since we are dying to know...is he friend or foe?

Well, the answer to that question arrived at last this week on Fear the Walking Dead, because "Blood in the Streets" managed to reveal everything we ever wanted to know about Strand. Who he is, what he stands for, what his life was like before the end of the world and for that matter what motivates him now took center stage last night and when all was said and done...the truth about this enigmatic man was absolutely fascinating. But before we get too deep into Strand's backstory, let's take a minute today and talk about the trouble that the group is in now, since it finally gave everyone a sense of purpose. 

After all, there has been a grand debate this season on the show...should they continue to take on and help people when given the chance? We know Strand thinks they should not, while Travis and Madison have made every effort to do so and the debate reached an apex (but not an answer) last night when darling Jack, Alicia's radio based boyfriend finally arrived at the Abigail with a pair of his friends. The trio, posing as a group in dire need of help were able to board the ship with ease and of course, with open arms and man...did that ever backfire. They quickly seized the ship and in the process, unified the group for the first time this season.

Suddenly, the darker side of everyone, that survival mode necessary to make it in this awful world kicked in. We saw Madison play mind games to keep one of the captors distracted and boy did she play those games well. She was able to send her captor over the edge quickly and it was quite the sight to see her work in such a cold and calculated fashion. Even Travis got in on the game, toying with his captor to buy the group some time and he even helped arm Daniel without a second thought, and young Alicia, the one who essentially got everyone into this mess; played the romance card to try and keep her family and friends safe. It was truly wonderful to see the group work together to ensure their survival and considering that Alicia and Travis were taken by Connor and his mysterious group of pirates...they're going to need that unity.

However, all trouble aside...Strand and everything about him was the focus of this episode and as I mentioned before, what a fascinating backstory this man happens to have. Now we know that Strand has always been an opportunist, stealing from a man he just met in order to get back on his feet and we also learned that really...little can rattle this man, considering how calm, cool and collect he was when the man he stole from, one Thomas Abigail, came calling to confront Strand.  

But while it was neat to learn more about his personality, nothing compared to the moment that we learned exactly why Mexico is such a big deal and why he is making a push to get there...the fact that he is trying desperately to be reunited with the man he loves, Thomas Abigail. Yes, Victor Strand is a hardcore romantic and all of this is to escape the madness the world is plunging into to live his life out in peace with the person who has stolen his heart, and well...I love this twist. It's one of the few times on this show or its sister show where someone's true intentions were actually noble and well because this move is so unlike the show. To give us something like this, when the world is crumbling around our characters is an incredibly hopeful move, one that speaks to the possibility that maybe mankind's future is salvageable after all and I applaud the show for taking that avenue storytelling wise and for keeping television diverse with another strong gay character.

We also need to take a moment and talk about the wonder that is Nick today as well because it is stunning to see how much his character has grown. A year ago he was a weasel of a junkie, begging his dealer for drugs and stealing an old man's morphine in order to get a fix and now he is truly transformed. As Strand said to him earlier this season, he is fearless and this is so true. To watch him face off against a walker and trap one to use the blood disguise he accidentally discovered last week was a stroke of genius and well, he was clearly the right person for the job to find Luis because he blended in with little to no effort and well...if it wasn't for Nick being asked to do all this, would the group have re taken the boat and saved Strand? Guess we will never know but in the meantime, Nick is quickly turning into one of my favorite characters on the show. 

What matters most though, is that the show continues to deliver one quality episode after another and this one falls into that category as well thanks to how intense it turned out to be and well, now that our questions have been answered when it comes to Strand, new ones arise. For starters, who is this enigmatic Connor that all the pirates rally around and exactly how strong of a force will they be to reckon with? While the group finally came together to kick some ass, they've never had to get into a fight like this, and with Travis and Alicia now being held captive, it's obvious the rest of the group will come for them and I certainly hope they will be able to do whatever they have to in order to save the ones they love. Looks like we will find out soon enough, until next time.