‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘So Close, Yet So Far’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

We like to believe, that when chaos strikes or trouble arises in our world, that it won’t be long before order is restored. For we also like to believe, that people will do what they must to help out during a crisis and keep others calm and generally… help dark times come to a quick and comfortable end. And we hold to those beliefs because we have seen people unite in bad times, and we hear stories of heroism in the darkness, and we simply want to believe… that people are inherently good and wonderful and that our safety nets will indeed hold and get us through all of this. But if the last couple of years have taught us anything… that belief isn’t always true. Especially when a prolonged crisis or an accelerated and grand one falls over humanity.  
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Because that excess pressure puts an end to good will and instead encourages people to worry about themselves and their safety as the crisis continues along, and thankfully, horror is aware of this hard truth, one we don’t want to discuss all that often, and will explore it, and one horror story that does a wonderful job of putting that hard truth on display, is the second episode of Fear the Walking Dead. For ‘So Close, Yet So Far’ is an utterly horrifying story. Since it truly reminds us of how quickly the world can go to pot when real fear settles in and when the systems designed to protect us must deal with an unknown and adaptive, and unstoppable threat and it accomplished that feat, by putting the Clark/Manawa family to the test. All by allowing the threat of the living dead to no longer lurk in the shadows.

After all, Nick, Madison, and Travis saw first-hand what the world was now up against, at the end of the pilot, and that put raw fear into them. The kind that precipitated an emergency escape plan. One where the family needed to flee the massive megalopolis that is Los Angeles to try and survive whatever this madness was going to bring down upon the city and that informed us, of how quickly people will abandon the rules. For instance Madison, who enjoyed great success in the education field by following rules and using them to lift up others, had no problem with throwing that out of the window to empty the school’s supply of drugs to get her son ready for withdrawal and a long and ugly trip ahead, all because there was a real risk the end was here and there was rightful fear in her heart, and the exploration of how quickly things fall apart in the midst of a grand crisis, didn’t end there. 

Courtesy of Chris and Travis’ journey. Since they encountered chaos in the downtown area for all the wrong reasons. For the police tried desperately to put down a member of the living dead, in front of a grand crowd of people and well… that was the perfect spark to bring forth utter chaos. For the city was already terrified of talk of acts of wanton violence and of a spreading virus, and it was becoming obvious that the police and all other emergency services were unable to assuage those fears and gain control, and that led to everyone abandoning the rules and indulging in fear and panic and selfish actions, bringing forth aid to the living dead and reminding us of how people become quite dumb when scared and how they will indeed let everything fall apart in the name of that, and had it not been for Daniel Salazar and his family, who knows if Travis and Chris would have made it out of downtown alive.

If anything, this is just a powerful episode when all is said and done. One that did an amazing job of exploring how fast things fall apart and oddly… was prophetic in nature. Since the same fear we saw in this tale, we experienced live a couple of years ago. And while the riots in our streets were for a just and proper cause, the rhetoric and fear and rise of so-called experts was not. And that led to panic being spread in a manner similar to this tale, and that brought forth one stunning tale. One that truly leaves you uncomfortable because of its familiarity, and it really does feel as though the end is nigh. Making this a wonderful continuation of what the pilot set out to accomplish. To show us the early days of the end, of how society fell and bravo to this story, for being so bold and so shockingly relevant now and it will be interesting to see what perspective will provide us with from an emotional standpoint, as we continue this return to the end of everything. Until next time.

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