"Fear the Walking Dead" Recap: "Ouroboros"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Last week, Fear the Walking Dead finally reached its full potential as a series by delivering its best episode to date with some top notch storytelling and that does unfortunately mean that the stakes were high this week to give us something equally as impressive. It may seem silly to think that, but when the sister show is one of the highest rated series on television, the spin off better at least try to hold a flame to the original.

The good news is, last night's episode did indeed deliver one incredible story, and while "Ouroboros" was not as cerebral as last week's stellar episode, it didn't have to be. This was a tale that was grounded in the sheer horror of the dead coming back to life to attack the living and the savage new world that comes with that and it was also an episode that actually managed to deliver some answers to a couple of burning questions that have been nagging at the fan base's mind for a few weeks now; what the hell happened to Flight 462, and what the group is going to find in Mexico. 

We will get to the latter of those two questions in a moment because Flight 462, the living dead and tough choices were the centerpieces of last night and the effect they had on our characters was absolutely stunning. Case in point, Chris. He truly thought he was some kind of badass extraordinaire after killing a walker or four at the sanctuary, so leave it to him to wander off and kill a couple more. But to run into the man with the broken back aboard the plane, and be left with no other choice but to kill the man or let him suffer and die a slow and horrible death...well damn, that's one hell of a twist.

It's hard to say what kind of lasting damage this will have on the young man, but lately Chris has been faced with some tough realities and tough choices and has made them with little fuss, part of him understands that horrible things are going to happen and there's no time to stand on ceremony or moral debate and one should simply act, regardless of the consequences. That may prove dangerous in the days ahead with a boat full of people hanging on to ideals and morals from a world now gone, so it will be quite interesting to see what comes of this important moment. 

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Yet while I found Chris' journey last night to be fascinating, he was overshadowed by the stunning moves made by Flight 462 survivor, Alex. We already knew this young woman was plucky and resourceful based upon her actions aboard the flight, but there's something incredibly fascinating about the fact she was willing to take lives to save one, especially considering the circumstances surrounding this choice. 

After all, Jake was badly burned and doing poorly in the opening moments after Flight 462 went into the water and while it would make sense for this show to sacrifice the weak and wounded like Chris did, Alex felt better putting down the other two men in the life raft in order to save Jake. It's a stunning call on so many levels and one that quite frankly I could spend an entire blog upon, but at its core; it speaks to one particular thing...it's about survival of the fittest, and the bold, at this point in time. Kill or be killed. There's no civilization left, no rules, just survival mode and that's what makes the world so dangerous right now, the fact that everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to save their own hide.

What makes her decision more tragic however, is that it may all be for naught when all is said and done since Strand was happy to cut their tow line and let them drift off into the ocean, no doubt sentencing them to a horrible death by way of starvation and it ruins any good will Strand brought us this episode, since he finally revealed that the Abigail's destination is Baja, where a compound with high walls and plenty of food awaits them all. For a moment there I finally thought Strand was opening up and doing the right thing but his cutting the raft loose, and Travis pondering why Strand is just now providing them with information on their destination leaves you wondering what the hell everyone is going to find when they get to Baja and what Strand has planned for them. 

A few other highlights from last night include the awesome surprise discovery by Nick that if you smell like a walker, you can stand toe to toe with them and blend in just fine in a throwback to the sister series occasional use of zombie guts as camouflage in a stunning scene where the dead were everywhere on the beachfront with nowhere for the survivors to go. The Infected are becoming quite the viable threat on this show and it's a wonderful thing to see them pop up and cause trouble so often. Plus, I also loved the whole piece around Travis finding one stuck in the filtration intake valve. It's cool to see that the dead are quite the nuisance any way you slice it and big kudos as well for that gross scene where Travis had to pull the severed hand out of the pipes. Either way, the more I think about this episode, the more I like it. It was brutal from start to finish and I love that everyone is trying to figure out their place and their role in the new world to come. As long as they keep this kind of storytelling up...season two is going to be absolutely fantastic. Until next time.  

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