Travis, Madison, and Nick are traumatized by their encounter with Cal in the ravine. They race home, but change directions when Madison finally gets a hold of Alicia and finds out she is at Matts house. Matt is feverish. Travis takes the family over there and they find Matt ill but alive. While Alicia goes to get him some water, Travis checks on Matt, and see he has a big, infected bite on his shoulder. Is this how it transmits? Travis asks. He gets no answer. The family needs to leave and Matt insists Alicia goes with them.
Things are eerily normal back home. The family across the street is having a childs birthday party. The neighbor next door has the right idea: he is loading up survival supplies in his truck. He waves to Madison – and coughs. Travis has been unable to reach Chris or Liza, so he drives over to Lizas house. The plan is to pack up some essentials and get out of the city; head out to the desert to wait out the virus.
Nick is starting to go through detox, and Madison cant get a hold of the doctor. Without any opiates in the house, she has an idea and leaves Alicia in charge of Nick while she runs out. Alicia doesnt last long before she decides to go check on Matt. Nick begs her not to go, but she does. No sooner is she out the door than she hears a thunk. In the house, Alicia finds Nick seizing and choking on his own vomit. She stays behind to care for her brother.
Madison has gone to the school and steals some confiscated opiates from the crime prevention lockup. While there, she is startled by Tobias, who asks for his knife back. She gives it to him, then helps him load up a cart with canned goods from the cafeteria – the real reason he is back at school. As the two leave, they start hearing noises dead noises. They rush through the school, then through a door see the principal. He is walking slowly, limping, and Madison cautiously approaches her friend to help him. He is a zombie, and tries to eat Madison. Tobias jumps in with his knife, but can’t take him down. The two of them start wrestling, and Madison grabs a fire extinguisher. The principal has Tobias pinned, so Madison starts bashing him over the head. Of course, this works, and Madison and Tobias run to her car. The canned food is forgotten. Madison drops off Tobias at his house, though she does offer to take him home with her, since his parents arent home. He promises he will be fine, despite ominous premonitions of society crumbling quickly, which means that he was bitten and will be dead by next weeks episode.
Chris has been ignoring his dads phone calls. He is on a bus, stuck in traffic, when someone jumps on the bus to announce the police just shot and killed an unarmed homeless man. The bus riders run off the bus (including Chris) and gather at the police line. The spectators yell epithets at the cops, and Chris records everything, which pisses off the cops more than anything. It quickly becomes a loud, but non-violent protest, railing against police brutality.
Meanwhile, Travis has found Liza, and Chris finally answers his phone. He is proud that he is part of something, and wont leave. Luckily the protest has now made the local news, so Travis and Liza drive out to find him. It doesnt take long, and the two drag Chris from the protest. Things are starting to get bad. Another zombie is gunned down by police, and the riot squad is blocking the street, preventing the Ortiz family from making an easy escape. The riot squad also seems to instigate the rioting instinct in Los Angelinos, and so it begins. The Ortiz family takes shelter with a local barber, whose wife and daughter convince him to let in the frightened family.
It is night before Madison returns home with Nicks drugs, just enough to help wean him off. She finally gets in touch with Travis, who wants her to leave town, promising he and his family will meet them as soon as they can. Madison refuses to leave without him. The women hear a scream from across the street, and see the next door neighbor attacking the girl across the street. Alicia tries to run out of the house to help, but Madison bars the door. Frustratingly, Madison wont speak about the people she has killed so far and wont tell Alicia what is going on.
Tonights episode definitely picked up the pace and somehow made me very anxious. It could be because I watched this episode just an hour after I learned about Wes Cravens passing. It could be because this episode was giving me flashbacks to similar Los Angeles disasters: the Rodney King riots (when school was closed for two days because it was too dangerous to leave the house), and the Northridge earthquake (we had no power or phone access for three days; other people had no water, and a box of Lucky Charms cost $11 because no one knew how long we would be without power or water). Of course in those cases, we knew everything would eventually return to normal, and in the zombie apocalypse, that is the new normal. There is also a sense of urgency. You want the characters to put the pieces together, learn what we know, but at the same time, you dont want them to figure it out too quickly, because that is part of the scary fun.
You can check out a sneak peek at Episode 3 of Fear the Walking Dead in the player below.
