"Fear the Walking Dead" Recap: "Monster"

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

In its freshman season, Fear the Walking Dead managed to pull off some incredible precedents for the zombie genre. It was the first real spin off television series involving walking corpses thanks to the success of its sister show The Walking Dead, but more importantly, it managed to provide a few things on screen that no other zombie story has ever managed to accomplish.

Two key things that stick out in my mind, is that the show gave us our first big budget look at the end of the world, and also took us inside those all important moments following the collapse of mankind, where our characters were forced to figure out what comes next...without a clue if they were doing the right thing or not. We were witness to plenty of mistakes and plenty of primal moments as modern day humans, used to creature comforts did their best to simply survive. It made for some compelling storylines and I was curious to see if the show was going to stick to that formula of storytelling for its second season premiere, "Monster".

As it turns out...it did, and not only did it manage to stay true to its roots, it managed to up its game in the process by giving us one of the most bone chilling visions of the end of the world I've ever seen in its opening moments courtesy of the military's counteroffensive against the living dead that was hinted at late last season. The image of watching a pair of fighter jets soar over the boat before revealing that all of Los Angeles was burning was enough to set the tone, and I have to be perfectly honest...it took my breath away, it was that powerful and that terrifying. To know that it had come to this, spoke volumes to how many walkers were roaming the countryside and the intensity didn't end there.

There was...a fire to the characters we didn't see last year in this episode as the reality of everything settled in. This was a group frustrated with their current situation and completely unsure of what would come next and with a moment to finally breathe, reality finally settled in and it certainly wasn't pretty. Chris obviously bore the brunt of it all emotionally this go round since he essentially shut down following the death of his mother. Sure we saw signs of life by the end of the episode when he decided to go swimming, but this is a young man suffering and it seems that part of him understands that everything is different now. There won't be any time to himself to grieve properly, just more fear, more suffering and sleeping with one eye open. 

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For a brief moment in the show however, it did seem like the mistakes that everyone made last season were going to be left behind when Travis and Strand made the call to not help out the boat of refugees floating in the ocean, but it didn't take long for Alicia to change all of that with her non stop chatter on the radio. Sure, I understand why she did it, the need to belong, the need for a sense of normalcy, but that doesn't make it any less furious for the audience since we know...the world isn't a safe place.

That's perhaps what ended up being the best part of last night, that despite the fact we had a moment to breathe, to relax with these characters after an intense escape from Los Angeles, the danger of this terrifying new world was still there and that it is evolving. It was a wonderful touch to find the walking dead floating about in the water thanks to the capsized boat and of course, we are all dying to know if Jack was simply accepting his fate with his message to Alicia near the end of the episode...or if he is indeed coming to see on that boat that Strand now has on the ship's radar.  

Speaking of Strand, he is perhaps the last grand mystery of the episode as well. Can he be trusted or is he leading these people to their doom? That's a set of questions that are difficult to answer simply because of the fact we have seen a case for both. On one hand, we have seen that he is capable of great cruelty. Those moments last season in the Army's Gulag were not a positive first impression for him as he did his best to break the weaker people around him in the cell, but at the same time...he saved everyone. Without him, everyone surely would have perished in the decimation of Los Angeles and let's be honest...he didn't have to do anything to help.

If anything I think Strand will be the grandest mystery of all this season. We still have no idea where the group is headed, and it is clear that Strand is intent on getting there as quickly as possible. I do love the fact that Daniel is keeping an eye on Strand and I can't wait for the two of them to start squaring off because we all know Daniel isn't a man to wait for the answers to come to him. Either way, I have to say I was pretty impressed by this season premiere. I loved the fact that it was so incredibly intense and I'm dying to know what Strand's agenda is, and where exactly this weary and worn group of survivors are headed. Should be a fun second year, until next time.

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