In episode 2.08 of AMC‘s Fear the Walking Dead, titled “Grotesque,” Nick wakes in a small home. A woman, Sofia, is packing up; a kid named Juan is playing outside by the car. They are going to find the kid’s dad and want Nick to come. Nick chooses to follow his own path, and she suggests he head north, but warns him to watch out – the worst of man is out there. She gives him a knapsack full of supplies and a jug of water, and they go their separate ways.
As Nick embarks on his “vision quest,” he follows a completely empty road, which smacks of Rick coming into Atlanta in the first season of The Walking Dead. He seems at peace, and pretty happy with his choice. According to the sign, he is heading to Tijuana, 100 miles (kilometers?) away.
Nick flashes back to his time in rehab, thumb-wrestling with a girl who wants him to rehearse what he is going to say to his parents on Parent’s Day. Nick has some animosity towards his dad, who would just come home at night and go to his room, like he has checked out of life.
Dusk creeps in, and Nick finds a house to stay in for the night. There are no doors or windows, but it seems safer than sleeping outside. He drinks some water; eats an apple. As he sleeps, a woman approaches, screaming at him and beating him with a baseball bat. Nick tries to grab his supplies, but the woman, frantically trying to protect her scared daughter in the corner. Nick finally leaves without his bag.
Day. Nick is back on the road, with no supplies. He finds a car, its driver zombified and still strapped into the front seat. He carefully steals a half bottle of water and drinks it down, then grabs a battery-powered radio off the dash. I don’t know why he doesn’t just take the car. Instead, he ducks down outside the car and tries to tune the radio, but is distracted by a jeep carrying three armed men. They stop, beat a walker to death, then start looting the cars. One has a barely-live man in the front seat. The thugs kill him and laugh. Nick’s radio crackles and draws their ire. Nick runs; the thugs pursue. He runs into the desert and eventually loses them. He stops to catch his breath and realizes there is miles and miles of nothingness around him. No sign of a road or humanity anywhere. He walks.
Midday. Nick is tired and thirsty. He pricks himself on a cactus, then carefully cracks it open to try to drink some water from the frond. This doesn’t work, so he pulverizes it with a rock and eats the mush. Nick vomits it up almost immediately. Next, he urinates into his hand and drinks it. He doesn’t vomit.
Night. Nick takes shelter leaning against (but not inside) an abandoned bus. He flashes back again to Parent’s Day at rehab. He discovered that his girlfriend’s parents are rich, and when Madison came to visit, Nick’s dad wasn’t with her. They sit together, privately, and Madison tells Nick that his dad was in a car accident and died.
Morning. Nick wakes from his nightmare, screaming. In his dream, he is screaming because his father was dead. In real life, he is screaming because a pair of hungry dogs are attacking him. He fights them off with a rock and climbs on top of the bus. One of the dogs gave him a nasty bite on his leg. Nick stays low on the bus when he sees a herd of walkers coming his way. The dogs attack, but they don’t get anything from creatures who don’t feel pain. Instead, the zombies descend on the dogs and eat them. Nick watches with a smile. He gets cocky, makes a noise, and the herd moves towards him. Nick starts to pray, when distant gunfire pulls the herd away. He comes down off the bus and eats a little bit of the dog corpse. A zombie with broken legs crawls towards Nick, who steals its belt in order to fashion a tourniquet for his leg. A fresh coat of zombie goo, and Nick is migrating with the zombie herd. He is tired, dehydrated, and delusional, but he keeps moving.
Tijuana is still another 40 miles away when the jeep full of thugs pulls up. They start firing into the herd, picking off walkers. Nick tries to blend in, but the lead thug sees him, recognizes him, and sets about reloading. He seems to be afraid of the man who moves with the monsters, for he drops his bullets and his hands shake as he tries to reload. The other thugs get out of the car and start firing, but it is too late. The herd takes down two of the thugs; the third leaves his friends and drives away. Nick watches with fascination as the zombies eat.
The herd marches on. From a hill, a trio of people, led by Luciana, watches Nick move with the herd. Though Luci insists it “isn’t him,” Francisco wants to help him. While they bicker, Nick collapses. He has another flashback, this time to the church drug den, where he is snuggled up with the blonde girl from rehab, talking about a book his dad gave him while they cook their heroin. Rain brings Nick back to consciousness, and he drinks it in gratefully.
Back on his feet, Nick stumbles into a small town. It is completely deserted. He searches a shop for food and water, but finds nothing. He continues into a barber shop and uses duct tape to bandage his wound. Luci is at the door. He assures her it is just a dog bite and asks for some water. She gives him some – just a little – and tells him to come with her. She knows someone who can help him. Nick isn’t sure if he can trust her, but he follows.
At a medical clinic, a doctor cleans up Nick’s wound, on the verge of infection. “Death isn’t to be feared, but it shouldn’t be pursued,” the doctor warns him. He opens up a door and shows off a small, thriving city. Kids play, adults sell food and goods from stalls, and everyone seems fairly happy. Nick joins in a game of soccer.
You can watch a preview for the next episode, titled “Los Muertos” and airing on Sunday, August 28, using the player below.
