'Fear the Walking Dead' Recap: 'Eye of the Beholder' & 'The New Frontier'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Over the course of its first two seasons, Fear the Walking Dead has faced some serious criticism. At times it's been cited as being far too slow in its pacing and more often than not, the show continues to take heat for not being anywhere near as bold or as daring as its sister series and I myself have given the show a few jabs here and there when it comes to some disappointing twists and turns when it comes to the development of the characters. 

So when one considers that those complaints have been prevalent for the past two years on the show, it's safe to say that all of us pretty much expected more of the status quo when it came to last night's season three premiere and boy...were we all wrong. Because this two hour, two episode premiere, 'Eye of the Beholder' and 'The New Frontier', delivered unto us a show transformed. Gone were all the slower and drawn out moments we are used to seeing, they were replaced instead with a bevy of action and heart racing scenes filled to the brim with the Infected and to top it all off, a major character death that no one saw coming. But what pleased me the most about this new direction that the show is suddenly headed in, is that it did stay true to one element from the first two seasons that I thoroughly enjoyed, the need to have an overreaching thematic concept to play off of which in this case turned out to be the push to do anything and everything to survive, and the consequences that can come with that. 

In fact, every single character dealt with this concept, including Victor Strand. Who decided to tell his biggest lie to date in order to keep order from slipping into chaos at the hotel he stayed behind in by claiming that he was a doctor to a massive crowd that demanded shelter and health care. It's a lie that he held steadfast to and played out to a tee, providing care to these refugees every step of the way, but it was also a lie that grew to the point where its exposure would become dangerous to everyone who fed into it, leading to Victor's exile from the hotel. But not before a touching moment where he faced off with Ilene, the mother who watched her daughter suffer at the hands of the living dead on her wedding day, and the same mother who stabbed Strand for putting down the resurrected iteration of her baby girl, wherein he and Ilene made peace between one another before she provided him with a fine gift for his exile, a set of wheels, before taking her own life to no longer have to deal with the horrors of this world, and with her unfortunate passing...Strand is on his own once again, back out in the world of the dead, and that's the price he paid for trying to keep the peace and survive another day.

But while Strand's journey provided a fascinating little side story, it truly paled in comparison to the harrowing events that befell Travis and Madison's family. Because their story picked up immediately after the season two finale, and the family was picked up by the armed forces we saw in those final moments and dragged to a nearby military base. In this place we met Troy Otto, a brash and disturbed individual who was conducting his own special brand of experiments on the sick and the dying, or basically anybody he didn't like and sadly, Travis, Nick and Luciana were on his list to toy with. If anything, the early part of this sequence was a beautiful homage to both 28 Days Later and George Romero's Day of the Dead since it featured the idea of a soldier putting special attention upon a pair of healthy women at the end of the world and because of the experiments that were being conducted on the living and the living dead. But once we got past those little shout outs, survival came back into play and that's where one character shined above the rest...Travis. 

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Because he was truly a man transformed in this episode. While normally we would expect Travis to try his best to convince a man like Troy to come to a peaceful resolution, this former English teacher only had swift violence on his mind and he managed to orchestrate a thrilling escape, one that put him in an even stickier situation when he left himself behind to ensure Nick and Luciana's escape since Troy's men put Travis into a pit filled to the brim with the living dead. However, Travis wasn't the only one ready and willing to take drastic measures to survive since Madison surprised Troy with a spoon to the eye. Yes, you read that right, she put a spoon in his freaking eye, and was ready and willing to pop his eyeball out, if she couldn't get her family out of this place safely. 

Thankfully, for Troy's sake, a far more amicable Otto named Jake brokers a deal to have the family reunited and after spending a good half season spread all over Mexico, the family is indeed together again. But a tiny herd creates a touch of chaos, putting the family on the road and in the air to reunite at whatever safe heaven the Ottos claim to have and that's when that stunning death arrived out of the blue. Because on the way to what we would later learn is an isolated community known as Broke Jaw Ranch, the helicopter carrying Jake, Alicia, Luci and Travis came under fire, and Travis...well he took a nasty bullet from below, leaving him critically injured to the point where he had no other choice but to fall from the helicopter to his death to keep everyone in that chopper safe from a resurrected shell of himself. So...just like that, a major lead on the show, is gone forever and well, it's safe to say that nothing will ever quite be the same for those that continue on and perhaps that's the sorrowful lesson to be learned here about surviving at any cost, that sometimes the price of surviving...is that you carry the memory of those who did not, with you, forever.

Because Madison did not take the news well, in fact this is the first time in the short run of this series that we've seen her broken and weeping openly and while she and what's left of her family have found refuge at Broke Jaw Ranch, there's still solid reasons for them to keep on fighting and pushing to survive. Because aside from Jake, there's concerns to be had when it comes to this place because it's clear these people are not ready in the slightest to deal with the threat that is the living dead. Especially when one considers that someone close to Jake lost their life because they were unable to handle a pair of walkers. Plus there's the remainder of the Otto family, including the father of the clan, Jeremiah, who created this place ages ago as a refuge to be ready when society collapsed from what he expected to be socio-economic and political reasons, and really, considering their dealings with Troy and that Jeremiah seems to keep an uncomfortable watchful eye over everything, it's hard to say if this family can be trusted. Regardless, Madison is clearly ready to do whatever it takes to make sure what's left of her family survives and who knows what kind of consequences will be waiting for her down the road for that kind of devotion. 

When all is said and done however, in many ways this premiere truly felt like a brand new show and what a fitting thing to say about a show involving the walking dead. This series seems poised to resurrect itself from slow moments and scenes filled with brooding and so far, it's been extremely successful in its endeavor. There's a sense of danger that permeated this entire premiere, and it was simply wonderful to see the living dead return in a big way to play the threat they are meant to play. But most importantly, it's amazing that a show that essentially never kills off its leads while its sister show says goodbye to someone big at least once a year, finally decided to take the plunge and send one of its two top leads into the great beyond. I'm truly impressed, and I'm definitely curious to see what kinds of surprises wait for us as the season chugs along and if this season premiere was any indication as to what we can expect...we are in for a brutal and terrifying season, which is exactly what fans of this show have been waiting for. Until next time. 

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