'Fear the Walking Dead' Recap: 'Do Not Disturb'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Three episodes into the second half of the second season of Fear the Walking Dead and the show continues to reinvent itself. Truly, nothing feels the same on this show anymore, and that's quite frankly for the better since it's gone darker and added new levels of brutality to the stories. It's as if it's taken a page from its sister show and these new additions to how the story is being told, is outright brilliant.

By trying this new hybrid approach to storytelling, the series has managed to deliver not only some top notch scares, but it has also added some stunning character development in the process and that's what 'Do Not Disturb' provided us with this week, some intense and thoughtful moments both scare wise and character wise and it also took an in depth look at what consequences come from making the decision to survive at all costs and it also resurrected an age old standby for this universe as a whole, by examining the notion of what one has to become mentally in order to survive at the end of the world. 

The first of those two thematic concepts was explored in depth by continuing the storyline at the hotel that Madison and her family and friends stumbled upon in fascinating fashion by taking us back in time first thing this episode. We met Elena, a hotel employee who was overseeing a wedding in the ballroom, and it didn't take long for us to realize that we had seen this layout before, in present day when Madison and company arrived at the hotel to find that exact ballroom empty with blood on the floor. The flashback allowed us to bear witness as to why that blood was there since the bride's father collapsed from a heart attack during a dance with his daughter and turned, allowing for chaos and flesh eating to ensue. But what made this moment so jarring was that Elena didn't call for help, she simply backed out of the room, and locked everyone in. 

It seemed at first this was going to be a one off story wise, but as Alicia worked to get back downstairs and find out if her mother was okay or not...she found Elena and the two formed a necessary but untrustworthy bond as we learned that the remaining guests in the hotel were out to deal with Elena. It was here that consequences came into play, as those guests, all of them survivors of the wedding massacre opted to kidnap Elena's nephew in order to get the keys to the hotel and banish the woman that cost them so much at the beginning of the apocalypse. Quick thinking on Alicia's part saved Elena and her nephew's hide, along with her own and the good news is she found her mother, but this is where the episode brought forth as many scares as possible by unleashing the dead at every single turn, and while it was fascinating to see what some have done and regretted in order to live, all of it was balanced out nicely by Alicia's newfound strength and quick thinking. 

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But while it was nice to see Alicia teach Elena a lesson in humility and kindness, the darkest elements of the story came to the surface by way of catching up with Chris and Travis. It turns out they had spent most of their days walking where the road would take them after abandoning the compound and well, for a while there it seemed like Travis was right. Chris needed some time with his father to get the young man back on track in his time of need...before Chris' erratic behavior came back into play when he stole food and water from another group of survivors before he and his father hit the road once again, hoping to simply find some semblance of shelter to settle in for the night.

It was here that the two characters began to diverge on a philosophical level and for the first time we received some fascinating insight into what Travis truly believes will happen from all of this mess. He is a man that thinks that the world will get a grip on this madness and eventually put life back together once again and well, his naivety explains so much about his behavior in the past year. He has been passive and hesitant because he doesn't want to do anything that he regrets, or that others in his family will...knowing full well that when the world sets itself right again, those actions are something they will have to live with for the rest of their days. Granted we know he is wrong, but his idealism isn't necessarily a bad thing and it's actually welcome at this point in the story. Yet at the same time, his vulnerability also revealed that he sees himself a failure at this point and that he cannot go back to his wife and step children until he proves that he is indeed a man that can inspire the best in people.

However...he has quite the road ahead of him when it comes to making that happen. Because in stunning fashion, Chris went down a dark road, one that was outright disturbing since eventually the group he stole from caught up with the men, offering a chance to return to the States with them and while Travis was hesitant to trust a group of bravado fueled frat boys, Chris was all about it. It led to a confrontation at a farm, where a father that was forced to bury his entire family on the property demanded the group leave, at gunpoint. While Travis tried to make the peace, his new friends escalated the situation, eventually leading to gunfire and when threatened in such fashion, Chris wasted no time and killed the farmer in cold blood. The divide this created between father and son was evident when Travis refused to take his son's hand to help him to his feet.  

This segment of the story was where we explored what someone has to do within their mind to make it to tomorrow at the end of the world, and ironically enough, while at first you feel as though Travis is weak for not wanting to be a little more gung ho, the man is right when it comes to hanging on to some sense of morals and respect and well, had the new group listened to him, that farmer would not have died. Yet Chris is also in the right in that they need to take more chances in a world falling to pieces, but anything he says is now overshadowed by the fact he is embracing the brutality of this world, and relishing in it. He loves the chaos and disorder and well, there is a fair chance now, that the young man could be lost forever. Either way, for the first time it feels as though our characters are in real danger and considering the tough situation all of them are in, it looks like things are going to get a lot tougher before they get better. Until next time.

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