‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Not Fade Away’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Thus far, our journey back through season one of Fear the Walking Dead, has yielded some fascinating perspective regarding how the world ended in The Walking Dead Universe. Since we came to learn that fear and chaos and a lack of unity, allowed for the living dead to bring humanity to its knees. Not to mention, that exploration offered up fascinating commentary on our world and how similar actions in our society allowed for Covid to run rampant and of course… we’ve been treated to some scary moments along the way, courtesy of fresh corpses and the sense of danger surrounding the families that we’ve been introduced to in this terrifying and desolate journey. But while it has been fun to play in a sandbox that finally gave us everything, we’ve long wanted from a zombie story… there is more to explore in this universe, as evidenced by the next episode in this tale.
 
For ‘Not Fade Away’ is a story that ponders upon some very real questions on our minds when it comes to our sometimes morbidly curious thoughts regarding the apocalypse in any capacity. Such as what would life look like in the days following the end, or as the end continued? Not to mention, would humanity take this opportunity to band together and work to rebuild what we lost? Well as it turns out, this story informs us that if we apply the realistic musings the first half of season sent our way, the answers to those questions would be unsettling at best. For this is a story that informs us that no… there would be no unity and push to solve the problem in front of everyone. Nor would life suddenly be peachy keen with the majority of the danger having passed. Instead, it would be miserable and scary… and people would be desperate to keep normalcy and routine going.
 
Because they would struggle to cope with the fact that the end of everything was upon them. So why break from routine? Why think about standing tall and fighting the dead and well… that’s what we saw here. Just people, going through the motions, trying to find jobs and duties to keep busy at a time when there was nothing left to hold onto. For at this point, Los Angeles had obviously fallen, but the draw of routine is quite strong and that is why we were plunged into a neighborhood desperate to maintain it while the military kept watch. Which did indeed bring forth a meager and desolate existence. One where no one tried to do much more than hang on, and of course… they poured all their faith into the military’s arrival and left it to those who swore and oath to keep them safe and give them space to heal and oddly enough, that led to another fine example as to why life would be scary post the end of everything.
 
Simply because, sticking to routine and sticking to the hope that things will go back to normal, would create complacency and not address the underlying fear that all are experiencing, including those sworn to protect. For they are also humans, and soldiers or not… they have families and dreams and things to worry about as well, and seeing the end of everything play out firsthand and having deeper knowledge can cause harm. Which we saw on display here. Since there was a push to consolidate power and make strange demands for the greater good. Not to mention, Madison’s discovery outside the fences and what Travis saw courtesy of Chris’ keen eye… only hammered home how power can corrupt in times of crisis, and absolutely if the chain of command and the top brass are filled with terror.
 
If anything, this was just… a solid episode through and through. One that truly took this show’s exploration of the end of everything to the Nth degree. All by exploring the reality that much of what helped the dead win, remained as the crisis wore on, and that caused more harm, and well, that allowed for this episode to go from slightly cozy, to uncomfortable and dangerous. Especially since we can no longer trust the military men set up around this safe zone, and now they truly represent the sense of danger in this story, which also reminds us that man is the more dangerous being in this particular universe. But that aside, this really was an engaging story, one that let us catch our breath for a quick moment before informing us that the back end of season one was going to be quite ugly and would complete our wish of showing us… how society completely handed over the world of the living to the legions of the dead. Until next time.

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