Fear the Walking Dead Episode 203 recap and previews for next week
The fate of Flight 462 is discovered in tonight’s episode. Alex is searching desperately for Jake. She and Jake are pulled into a lifeboat with three other men. One has a bite on his leg; he is hit over the head and thrown overboard. Alex tries to sleep and a man advances on her and Jake with a weapon; Alex stabs him dead. The final man tries to convince her to put Jake out of his misery. Jake assures Alex that it is okay, but later on in the episode, we discover the third man dead, Alex alive, and Jake still clinging to life.
On the Abigail, Travis and Madison’s sex is interrupted by a loud bang. The adults get up to check and think that something is caught in the filtration system, preventing the water from cooling the engines. Travis dons scuba gear and goes under the boat to check it out. Turns out it is a zombie caught in the intake – the last man who was on the lifeboat with Alex.
Travis thinks he can fix the filtration system, but it will take him all day, which pisses Strand off. The men fight, but ultimately no amount of yelling will help the situation, so Strand leaves Travis to it.
Alicia sees luggage scattered on a nearby island. She hasn’t seen people – dead or alive – on the beach, and she wants to go scavenge for supplies. Nick and Chris jump at the chance to get off the boat. Travis and Madison don’t want their kids to go, but relent when Daniel offers to go with them. He is hoping to find more antibiotics for Ofelia and doesn’t want to be beholden to Madison. Before they leave, he makes an off-hand comment about how they are headed to Mexico. Madison takes him aside to ask him about it, and he directs her to Strand. He saw the charts, and didn’t say anything because he “couldn’t be diplomatic.”
Daniel and the kids zip ashore. He instructs his charges to remain in sight and be quick. Naturally, Chris sneaks away when no one is looking. Nick and Alicia are almost having fun, picking out new outfits and looking for drugs and canned food.
Chris finds most of the cabin of the crashed airplane. He grabs a chunk of metal and goes inside, looking for more zombies to kill. He finds a few, and bashes them up. Then he finds a large man, mortally injured but not yet dead. He begs for help. Chris unhooks his seatbelt and the man tumbles to the ground. That is when Chris sees he has an enormous hole in his torso. There is only one way Chris can think to help him: kill him. It takes a number of blows to put the man out of his misery.
On the boat, Madison keeps her nervous attention split between the shoreline and where Travis dove. When Travis surfaces and the kids are no longer in view, she confronts Strand about taking them to Mexico. He tells her to mind her own business, and the two fight. Strand finally relents and tells her he has a house up in the hills of Baja California. It is fortified and stocked full of supplies. Madison informs him that they are coming with him. When she tells Travis about the new plan, he is doubtful. He doesn’t want to trust Strand, but he is more upset that Madison made the decision without talking to him about it.
On the beach, Nick is helping Daniel find worthwhile drugs to take when Daniel realizes Chris isn’t around. He goes to find him. After awhile, Alicia gets worried and goes to look for them. Nick starts to follow, but sees a big black medical bag and stays behind to investigate. Inside are plenty of powerful antibiotics.
A person comes running towards Daniel. Not Chris, but Alex, and she is screaming, “They are coming! Run!” Slowly zombies appear over the horizon. First a few, then dozens. Alicia has found Chris, covered in blood, which he assures her is not his own. Gunshots draw them towards Daniel and Alex, who are fighting a horde of zombies that is moving towards them. The gunshots also alert Madison, who begs Travis to hurry with the filtration system.
Nick hears a growling and follows the noise to a small cliff. Below is a zombie, buried to the waist in sand, with dozens of crabs eating its torso. Nick watches, amused, then slips and tumbles onto the zombie. He fights it and manages to knife it in the head before it can bite him. But his problems are only starting, as another zombie appears and lemmings over the cliff, dropping on top of Nick.
Daniel is out of bullets, so everyone grabs a bit of wreckage to use as weapons and they start bludgeoning anything that gets close to them. The zombies move in faster, and the group is backed up against the water. They are cornered. Alicia is set upon by a particularly voracious zombie, and she can’t get her weapon into the air. Nick appears, as if from nowhere, and saves his sister. He swings wildly, taking out any zombies in his vicinity, and the group rushes back to the dinghy. Nick, coated in zombie goo, discovers that it acts as a sort of camouflage. The other zombies don’t seem to notice that he has a pulse. The group gets back on the dinghy and head out to meet the Abigail.
From the deck, Madison does a head count. They are coming back with more people.
The dinghy – and the lifeboat, which holds the still-alive Jake – are brought aboard. Strand instantly becomes furious and refuses to let Alex and Jake on the boat. They are a liability. There is much debate, and Travis decides that they will tow Alex and Jake to San Diego. That way, those on the Abigail are “safe” and it will give Alex and Jake a chance. Alicia and Madison bring them food and water and blankets, but Alicia is mad they can’t help them. “This is the best I can do,” Madison tells her daughter.
It is dusk, and Madison watches Alex sadly from the deck. Strand comes down, with no warning and no hesitation, chops the rope, and allows Alex and Jake to drift out to sea.
You can watch previews for next week’s episode, titled “Blood in the Streets,” using the players below.
