Fear the Walking Dead - S1E4 - Not Fade Away

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Previously on Fear the Walking Dead, ‘The Dog’

This was one sleepy hour of television. 

It’s been nine days since we last saw the Clark, Manawa, and Salazar families. Since then, the National Guard has occupied the neighborhood, erecting electric fences to keep the dead out and the residents in. Travis jogs the neighborhood and Nick floats in the pool while Daniel Salazar peers out of the bedroom window. On the roof, Chris documents everything on his camcorder and notices something glinting in the sunlight from a window miles away.

Hello.

Inside, Madison is frustrated because the power is out, her house is full of strangers, and she’s doing all of the cooking and cleaning (and junkie watching) while Travis is of little help and Liza disappears to give medical assistance to the neighbors. She fights with Travis, but Alicia puts a stop to it saying how ridiculous it is for them to argue like a normal couple when the world is anything but normal.

When Chris tries to show Travis that there are signs of life beyond the fence, Travis shuts him down. And when Madison tries to get Nick to take his meds (he says he forgot), he shuts her down cleaning he’s completely kicked his drug habit. Then he dives into the nasty-ass pool water like someone who has not kicked a drug habit.

The National Guardsman in charge, Meyers, gathers the neighborhood to read some announcements. He’s an asshole. These people are in one of twelve safe zones in the area and instead of asking pesky questions like, “When can we drink the water without boiling it?” and “Where is the medicine?,” he thinks they should just settle the hell down so he doesn’t have to shoot them. Like I said, asshole. He later asks Travis if he wouldn’t mind speaking to a neighbor, Doug, who’s having a bit of a meltdown. Travis reluctantly agrees and finds Doug rocking in his bathroom. Doug ain’t ’bout this quarantine life and doesn’t have the strength to take care of his family considering he’s scared AF. Travis gives him a half-ass pep talk that isn’t going to work in the long run. Doug does allow the military medics in to evaluate him.

Alicia brings the family’s rations back to the house and then traverses the maze in Susan’s backyard to sneak into her house. In quite possibly the most old people’s bedroom looking bedroom in the history of TV, she finds a note on the bedside table that makes her cry.

Liza finishes tending to a sick man named Hector, leaving him plenty of morphine to keep him comfortable. His wife is so grateful she sends Liza off with some soup. Nick watches from the other side of the fence and sneaks into Hector’s house. He hides under Hector’s bed, stealing the morphine IV and placing it between his toes. That’s some Black Ops level junky’ing right there. 

Chris, getting nowhere with his dad, shows Madison the video and says he believes someone is out there in need of help. Madison is also skeptical, but willing to listen more than Travis did.

Ofelia has found love in a hopeless place. She’s making out with one of the guards and in case you were thinking how sweet it is that she’s fallen in love in just nine days, it’s quickly made clear she’s using him to get meds for her mom. Unfortunately, he’s pretty much useless.

After some makeup sex in the car in the garage, Travis asks Madison why she’s acting so brand new. Before he lectures her on how she’s behaving towards her kids, she tells him he might want to pay attention to his own son, who has convinced her that there is someone out there. Oh, and she doesn’t trust the military because it’s been nine days and they’ve kept them from the rest of the world with little to no information, and something stinks worse than a city full of corpses. Their convo is cut short when Doug’s wife arrives to ask for Travis’ help in finding Doug, who took his car and bounced.

As the sun rises, Madison sits on the roof, trying to signal the possible survivors with a flashlight. She finally sees a response. Travis finds Doug’s car crashed at the fence and no signs of Doug. That raggedy-ass. While Meyers practice his golf swing, Travis begs him to send out a search party, but all’s good. Meyers claims they’ve already found Doug and taken him to a medical facility. Nothing sketchy about that at all. Then Travis tells him about what Chris saw, but Meyers insists Chris didn’t see shit. They’ve already gone house-to-house and there are no survivors out there.

Liza makes a house call to see Hector, but he’s been moved to the facility as well, and his wife is about to follow. She introduces Liza to Dr. Exner, who waits until they’re alone to call Liza out on not really being a registered nurse. But because she could really use Liza’s help, she asks her to pretend a little longer.

Madison sneaks out beyond the fence and finds signs that the world really did go to shit pretty quickly. There’s makeshift missing persons memorials and dead bodies in the street. And it DOES stink like a city full of corpses. When the military gets near, she hides under a car, right next to a dead woman with a bullet wound in her forehead.

Dr. Exner and Liza tend to Mrs. Salazar next, and Exner says she’ll be better cared for at the facility. Daniel insists on going, too. Outside, Exner examines Nick, who’s salty that Liza put his junkie business in the streets. Liza assures Nick and Travis that Exner, and the military, will take care of everything. Nick is alarmed to hear that Hector will be leaving, which means his morphine supply is about to dry right the hell up.

Madison admits to Daniel where she’d gone, and he asks for details. She tells him about seeing bodies of people who were shot, but not infected. Daniel tells her a story of how the government in El Salvador murdered civilians and makes her promise that if he does not return from this facility, she will take care of Ofelia. He warns her to keep her son close, but I guess fuck Alicia. Speaking of Alicia, she’s back in Susan’s house giving herself a tattoo over the flower Matt drew on her arms. And tetanus. She’s giving herself tetanus.

Madison finds Nick searching through Hector’s house, looking for drugs. She beats.that.ass. Good for him. He had that shit coming from episode two. Also, he’s still wearing those old dead man’s clothes (at least the jacket). Later, Alicia comforts him in the bathroom even though he won’t tell her how he got those lumps.

“Want me to get mom?”

She’s the one who did this to me!

Everyone is in for a shock when Daniel is not allowed to go with his wife, Griselda. Instead, the guards have Nick’s name. Alicia warns Nick to run, but the guards hit him and grip him up. As Nick is taken away, Liza pleads with Dr. Exner. She tells Liza she’s of more use to them at the hospital and gives Liza just a few moments to decide if she’s staying or going. She goes. Of course, Madison blames Liza.

Alicia lies in bed, reading Susan’s note, which is a suicide note left for her husband Patrick to find. As Travis sits on the roof, pondering his poor life choices, he sees and hears gunfire coming from the window in the distance.