Fear the Walking Dead - S1E3 - The Dog

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Previously on Fear the Walking Dead, ‘So Close, Yet So Far’ 

Looters Gonna Loot

While all hell breaks loose outside, Travis and his family hunker down with the Salazars in the barber shop. Despite being told not to look outside, Chris is peeking and comes eye-to-eye with a walker. Then he asks his dad if they can just not go to Madison’s and leave because he’s an asshole.

Travis throws shade at the Salazar’s business when he says the looters won’t break in because all there is to steal are combs. Just ungrateful as fuck. But Mr. Salazar knows Travis is just trying to assure his son that everything will be okay. It’s not. Let’s not get it twisted. But he understands what Travis is trying to do.

When the fire next door begins to spread to the shop, the group prepares to leave and make a run for Travis’ truck. The door is open all of three seconds when looters storm inside and immediately start trashing the place.

The group runs through the streets, passing people getting eaten and beaten, but before making it to the car, Mrs. Salazar has a scaffold fall on her. They get her free and into Travis’ truck, which is miraculously still a) there and b) in one piece.

When they get to the hospital, they witness cops shooting a walker outside the front doors. So much for that. Mr. Salazar insists that they’ll have to go home with Travis, and he’ll call his cousin to come get them. Then they’ll be even. Travis remarks they don’t need to keep score and Mr. Salazar is all, “You started it!” So petty.

Hey, Who’s the Crackhead Here?

When Nick isn’t hounding his mother for more drugs - and insisting on shooting up instead of swallowing pills - he’s insinuating that Travis isn’t coming back.

Madison tries to convince Alicia that the neighbor-on-neighbor violence she witnessed was no big deal. She breaks out the Monopoly for a little Family Game Night. It’s not long before the noises of the world outside remind them that shit is going down and Travis isn’t back yet.

Madison still tries to shield Alicia from the truth about what’s going on - so much so that she won’t even let the child look out the damn window. This doesn’t stop Nick from pulling back the curtains when they hear a noise outside the sliding door to the backyard. No worries! It’s just a bloody dog, which they let inside.

Musical Houses a.k.a Just Stay In One Fucking Place! 

The dog takes off and starts barking at the front door because a walker is shambling across the street towards the house. Nick gets the bright idea that they should all head out of the back door to break into the neighbor’s house to steal their shotgun. You know, closing the back door and hunkering down is an option, too, but do your plan. Of course, when they leave, no one closes the sliding door behind them.

In the neighbor’s house, Nick and Madison find the shotgun while Alicia keeps watch. She spots someone in their house! The nerve! How you gonna break into our house when we’re next door breaking into someone else’s house?

Oh, and whoever is in their house is totally eating that dog.

They decide to stay in the neighbor’s house, but then Travis pulls up. Note: Nick was still trying to pull the whole, “Maybe it ain’t him.” Pet-ty.

The three of them navigate through the labyrinth in their neighbor’s backyard (Why is that there?) to stop Travis from going inside the house. I should point out that Nick is calling out directions (“Left. Left. Now right.”) and this tells me he has totally broken into the neighbor’s house to steal shit. Meanwhile, Travis, Liza, and Chris find the walker eating the dog in the living room. The lights come on just in time for them to get a real good look at it, too.

In the backyard, Nick realizes they took the shotgun and not the extra shells so Alicia runs back through the jungle gym and over the monkey bars to get them. No, seriously. Why is this backyard so big and filled with these impossible things?

Inside, Travis is trying to talk to the walker despite Liza and Chris telling him to LET IT GO.

“Hey, Peter. You’re sick man. Stop eating that dog.”

Okay. Peter tries to eat Travis instead and Travis has the nerve to tell Madison to put the gun away when she arrives. Thank God for Mr. Salazar who shoots Peter right in his damn face. And when that doesn’t stop him, Mr. Salazar blows his damn head off.

Mr. Salazar is ’bout that life!

Next door, Alicia finds the shells and spies some gnarly old lady walker legs wearing slippers. She’s smart enough to take the hell off before finding out what’s behind door number nope.

So, back through the obstacle course she goes (WHY?) and she’s gripped up by Susan, the walker neighbor in the bunny slippers. As Alicia tries to go over the fence to her own damn backyard, Susan grabs her leg. Chris, who was outside puking up his guts after witnessing Peter’s head go boom (Chris is NOT ’bout that life), grabs Alicia to help over the fence. They fall to the ground and Alicia starts swinging, catching Chris in the nose. Rightfully, Chris is like, “What the fuck, man? I was just trying to help.”

Everyone gets a good look at walker Susan in the moonlight as she reaches through a slat in the fence, growling and moaning. Liza says she’s sick, but Nick drops those junkie bars: “No. She’s dead.” Then Alicia FINALLY gets what the fuck is going on and knows her bae Matt is probably home eating someone’s dog right now. She freaks out.

Too Many Cooks

In the house, everyone has opinions on what their next move should be:

• Mr. Salazar says he called his cousin and they’ll be picked up in the morning. I smell a lie.
• Travis is cool with that since they’ll be leaving for the desert in the morning.
• Madison is all, “The hell you say? We’re leaving now.”
• Liza tries to agree with Travis, but Madison is all, “Ain’t nobody ask you.”
• Alicia is still freaking the hell out and also wants to go now.
• I don’t know where Nick is. Probably swiping more shit from Susan’s house.

Travis’ cooler head prevails and he convinces everyone to just chill the fuck out for the night.

Zombie Sleepover

Travis checks on Chris’ nose, which isn’t broken. Chris wants to know what the hell is going on with people eating cops and dogs. Travis explains it’s a sickness, but that they won’t get it. There Travis go. Writing checks his ass can’t cash.

Mrs. Salazar is settled in a bedroom and her daughter thinks they should stick with Travis and family. She calls out her father for his lie about a cousin. He insists the house is the safest place for them tonight, and he knows where to go tomorrow. Mrs. Salazar tells her to trust her father and that’s that.

In their bedroom, Travis commends Maddie on thinking to hit up the school for Nick’s drugs and he apologizes for what Mr. Salazar did in the living room. You know, saved everyone’s ass. Madison knows he did what needed doing. Travis better get with the program.

Madison watches walker Susan as she still tries to reach through the fence because zombies are dumb. She makes Liza promise that if she ever gets like Susan, Liza will kill her and not let Travis do it because it would break him. Madison just basically pissed a circle around Travis to remind Liza he’s hers now. Also, Liza might not wait for Madison to get sick since Madison being all cute with it.

Madison’s one condition for staying was that Travis had to take care of the dead Peter in their living room. As he prepares to bury him out back, Mr. Salazar tells him they should probably burn the body to stop whatever it is from spreading. Why do I feel like this wasn’t the first time Mr. Salazar shot someone in the face or disposed of a body? Anyway, Travis continues to bury the body because he and Mr. Salazar have this weird Alpha Male thing going on and neither can be bothered to acknowledge when the other is making good points.

Road Tripping

The next morning, Travis takes the trashcan to the curb like someone coming to pick that shit up. He makes eye contact with a neighbor doing the same. Notice that neighbor didn’t show his face ONCE when all that shooting and screaming was going on.

Inside, Mr. Salazar (Daniel - I’m just gonna call him Daniel from now on) is showing Chris how to use the shotgun. Travis puts a stop to that shit IMMEDIATELY, despite Madison saying she gave the okay. They’re all packed and ready to go, but Madison has one more thing to do.

She stands just out of Susan’s reach and tries talking to her. Why, girl? Why? Just use the hammer you brought with you! But Travis puts a stop to that, too, because he’s a party pooper. He tells Madison she doesn’t know for sure that Susan is dead. She looks pretty fucking dead and probably smells it, too, but okay. Madison lets him talk her out of doing what needs to be done.

In the car with Nick, Madison gives him two more pills and he freaks when he sees they don’t have a lot left. She gave some to Mrs. Salazar and Nick is not happy. Junkies tend to be selfish so I’m okay with this.

In the house, Daniel’s daughter tries again to convince him they should go with Travis and he refuses. They’re good people, she says.

“Good people are the first to die,” he responds.

How can this character be so right, yet so wrong at the same time?

Doesn’t matter, though. Madison and Travis take off in two separate cars with their families. Instead of following Travis, Madison doubles back to the house when she sees Patrick, Susan’s husband, returning from his trip. She wants to warn him that his wife is dead. And might eat him.

She and the kids arrive just as he’s about to give his zombie wife a hug. Look. I get that he doesn’t know what’s going on exactly, but ain’t no way in hell I’m hugging ANYONE who looks like that.

Before she can take a bite out of him, a Rainbow 6 team arrives and puts one in Susan’s head. Then they grip everyone up as they start quarantining the neighborhood.

Madison flexes her white privilege, asking the armed military men where they took Patrick, and learns he was whisked off because he was covered in blood. She’s smart enough to tell them the fresh grave in the backyard was for their dog and not the zombie neighbor who got shot in the face in her living room. Along those lines, Travis gives them everyone’s names (including the Salazars) as being residents in their home. He tries to reassure Madison everything will be okay now that the military’s involved, but his face says otherwise.

Meanwhile, Nick’s sketchy ass is trying to break into someone’s house and walking around in those saggy old man clothes, looking zombie as fuck.