A Rare Victory Propels An Upbeat ‘Fear The Walking Dead’

Last week’s midseason premiere of Fear the Walking Dead presented a predicament — the war brewing between The Nation and the Otto loyalists — and resolved it (at least temporarily) by episode’s end. Alicia brought both sides together in search of water, which is a more pressing concern for both sides than territorial rights to Broken Jaw Ranch. This week, Fear presented us with another problem: how to get the water from Lola’s Tijuana dam back to Broken Jaw Ranch. Again, by episode’s end, Madison and co. managed to solve that predicament, as well. For Madison and co., it was a rare win, one that presented us with something we have never before seen on Fear the Walking Dead: Walker’s smile.

For better or worse, Fear has fallen into a workmanlike formula — it’s beginning to feel more like a zombie-procedural on TNT than it does its parent series, The Walking Dead, a sprawling drama with season-long arcs. Fear has never felt more episodic, as though Dave Erickson is trying to check items off a list before the end of the season.

This week’s item? Water. How do Madison and Strand get the water from Tijuana back to Broken Jaw Ranch? There are a few complications, but it’s a fairly straightforward episode. Walker drives them to a junkyard outside of Tijuana; Strand takes them through an underground sewer; Madison chops up a zombie trapped in a sewer pipe; and they surface near the dam, where Daniel is waiting for them. Daniel threatens to kill Strand, Madison tells Daniel that his daughter Ofelia lives back at the ranch with her and that Taqa saved her life. Daniel is thrilled, at least until Taqa tells Daniel that he turned his daughter into a killer, because Daniel never wanted Ofelia to turn out like him.

So it goes.

Then the storyline takes a slight left turn. Lola won’t agree to a water deal because she doesn’t want to look like a traitor to the restless and thirsty Tijuanans, who are already threatening to revolt over access to the water after Daniel shot at them. If Lola gives water to the white people, she fears that all hell will break loose. She doesn’t want to use violence to quell the revolt, but Daniel understands its necessity. Daniel makes an appeal to Lola with no luck, and then Madison lays down a typical Madison guilt trip on her, also to no avail.

The surprising twist comes when Strand triggers the zombie apocalypse equivalent of the Reichstag fire. He surreptitiously blows up a water tanker to give the illusion that the Tijuanans have turned on the Water Queen. Lola immediately changes her mind and decides to assemble an army to fight violence with violence. To do so, Lola agrees to trade water with Madison in exchange for guns and ammo. Daniel also agrees to stay back in Tijuana and help Lola quell the masses, putting off the inevitable reunion between Daniel and Ofelia for at least a two or three more episodes.

Meanwhile, with all that water headed back to Broken Jaw Ranch, The Nation and the Otto loyalists can go back to doing what they do best: Hating each other.

Next week: Troy is back, and the civl war is back on.

Additional Notes

— What items remain on this season’s grocery list? The civil war on Broken Jaw Ranch, naturally; figuring out where Luciana is; a reunion between Daniel and Ofelia; and, most likely, the death of one or more major characters. In this case, most of the Fear fanbase is actively rooting for the death of Madison. Fear needs to be the Nick and Alicia show now (with a healthy dose of Strand), but it will never get there until Madison stands aside. It can’t happen soon enough. Madison has been a drag on the series since the second season, and never more so since Travis died.

— My biggest quibble with the episode? When a horde of zombies was approaching Madison, Taqa and Strand sitting in a rumbling water tanker idling on the freeway, Strand diverted their attention by tossing a beeping keyring onto the side of the road. Instead of walking toward the loud engine, 300 zombies immediately changed course and darted toward the key ring. If it were that easy, why wouldn’t more people in the zombie apocalypse carry with them dozens of beeping key rings just in case they stumbled upon a mass of the undead?