Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast

Fear the Walking Dead 2x05. "Captive"

Podcast episode 11.  "Captive"

     It's just Bruce and Stephen this week discussing the new episode of Fear the Walking Dead, "Captive." Our crew has retaken the yacht, but can the get back the missing members of their group?

     Stephen notes that this episode balances action with character development, in contrast to other episodes that tend to have one or the other. We both like the steak cooking scene and our introduction to Connor. He seems to have taken over rather quickly in the first few days of the apocalypse, having been the cook before. Probably as time goes by in the series, we'll see more capable leaders develop. It seems with the death of modern civilization, people revert quickly to tribalism, humanity's first social structure.  It may be that tribalism proves to be the most durable way of organizing society.

 

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast

Fear the Walking Dead 2x04. "Blood in the Streets"

Podcast episode 10.  "Hurricane Zombie"

    Quinn Warner, Stephen Payne, and Bruce Magee discuss episode 2 x 04: "Blood in the Streets." We find out more about Strand's past in a flashback to the period of Hurricane Katrina.  We also encounter pirates and see Nick going on a secret mission.

     Nick continues to show his value to Strand by going on a secret mission to bring back Strand's friend. We were confused by his actions as the reason for them only became clear when he met Strand's friend. The takeover of the yacht by a pregnant woman and two guys shows just how little you can trust people when civilization collapses. We liked the flashback to Katrina that showed how Strand became the man he is now. We compared the local collapse of civilization in the aftermath of Katrina to the general collapse of civilization in FTWD. Alicia seems to be developing as a character.  Having been fooled by Jack when he was talking to her on the radio, she sets out to trick him in return by acting like she likes him.  Madison continues to demonstrate a fierceness in both physical and psychological warfare. Bruce speculates that there will be no safe haven in the Baja, or the show would become an updated Gillian's Isle.

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast

Fear the Walking Dead 2x03. "Ouroboros"

Podcast episode 09.  "It's Raining Zombies"

    Stephen Payne and Bruce Magee discuss episode 2 x 03 "Ouroboros." There was a lot of action this week, with the yacht having to remain anchored while Travis cleans zombie goo out of the engine's cooling system.

    Alicia takes the initiative in going to shore and scavenging from the wreck of Flight 462, the web series that shows a plane being taken over by zombies and crashing on the beach. We discuss the web series about Flight 462 and agree we'd like to see more crossovers on Fear the Walking Dead. Alicia gets to kill her first zombie, and Chris kills his first human, a survivor who has a fatal injury. Nick discovers that being smeared with zombie body parts makes him invisible to zombies. We discuss Strand and whether he cut the boat the yacht was towing because he felt threatened by having his leadership challenged by Madison. Is the cold aloofness beginning to crack?  Stay tuned to find out!

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast

Fear the Walking Dead 2x02. "We All Fall Down"
Podcast episode 08.  Zombie Preppers

    Quinn Warner, Stephen Payne, and Bruce Magee discuss episode 2 x 02 "We all Fall Down." The main cast hides from the ship that's been pursuing them by landing on Katrina Island, where they find a ranger and his family. 

 It turns out the ranger is there because he's been preparing for some kind of catastrophe.  Unfortunately, it turns out that he is preparing for a permanent end to the crisis they are facing. We discuss the connections between the bubonic plague, which they discuss for the first time, and the current plague. We also discuss the kind of thinking that goes into a group suicide. We agree that this may be the best episode so far. It concentrates on character over plot, but manages to keep the episode incredibly tense.

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast

Fear the Walking Dead 2x01. "Monster"
Podcast episode 07.  Going Galt with zombies.

    Stephen Payne and Bruce Magee discuss the beginning of the new season, which gets off the a fast start with our characters abandoning the land to try their luck on Strand's yacht.

Quinn couldn't join us today, so it's just Stephen and Bruce. This episode starts off well, with the bombing of Los Angeles driving zombies to the beach and forcing our group to flee on the yacht. For much of the episode, the yacht seems like a somewhat safer option, but it becomes clear that dangers are as powerful on the sea as on the land. Something needs to drive the crew back to land just to keep the show interesting. It wouldn't be very interesting television if the crew spent the apocalypse riding around the ocean watching Gilligan's Island reruns. We discuss the role of Strand as the current leader of the group. As a member of the 1%, he's been preparing for some kind of catastrophe. He makes it clear that it's his boat, his rules. We discuss the way that this week's episode treats the presence of the monsters as an opportunity to go Galt, i.e., for the 1% to leave civilization for their own paradise. Of course, in this brave new world without government or a legal system, Strand's ownership of the yacht only lasts until someone with a gun disagrees.  We also talk about the development of other characters, especially how Travis has moved from being the "mayor" of his subdivision last season to being focused on the survival of his family this season. The group has already started making the transformation that has taken place to the people in The Walking Dead as they figure out how to survive in this new world.

 

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast

Fear the Walking Dead 1x06. "A Good Man"
Podcast episode 06.  Five Days at Walker Memorial

Quinn

Warner, Stephen Payne, and Bruce R. Magee discuss the season finale. We

agree that is is a great end to the season. The growing tension from

the season comes to a climax in this episode. 

We finally get a big herd

of walkers, which attack the army base and hospital.  Also Travis

reaches his limit, and we see the violence that has been brewing beneath

the surface.  Our metaphor for the week centers on what happens as the

army leaves the sick and the medical staff behind during the

evacuation.  Dr. Exner makes a grim decision when she uses the bold gun

to kill the patients who have been left behind.  

Following Katrina, a

similar situation occurred at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, when the doctors and

staff at the hospital kept their patients going as best they could for

five days, with charges of euthanasia emerging afterward.  We speculate

about the 2nd season and hope they won't spend too much time at sea. 

5. 1 x 05. Cobalt. 

Shawn Igou joins us again as we discuss of episode 5 of Fear the Walking Dead.  Bruce takes a victory lap for suggesting that Daniel Salazar had belonged to the death squads in El Salvador during the 1980s.  Ok, he took several victory laps.

 

The gang likes this episode quite a bit.  The focus again is less on the zombies themselves and primarily on the breakdown of human society.  We welcome the arrival of a strong black character named Strand (played by Colman Domingo).  He is a well-to-do "closer" who uses his ability to read people to manipulate them. 

The army decides to stop trying to preserve its corner of civilization and switches to Operation Cobalt.  Daniel Salazar reveals that he did indeed belong to the death squads in El Salvador's civil war, and he dusts off his torture skills to figure out where his wife has been taken, and to find out what Operation Cobalt is.  At the end of the episode, Cpl Andrew Adams, the soldier whose arm Daniel has flayed, reveals that the army plans to abandon their enclave, killing everybody on their way out. Bruce and Stephen agree this is great TV, but worry that fans will learn the wrong lesson about torture.  It hasn't been very long since watching the torture scenes in 24 influenced rulings coming from the Supreme Court.  

Madison is a surprise this episode. When she learns that Daniel is torturing Andrew, she's upset.  However, when Daniel asks her a couple of times if she wants to get her son Nick back from the army, and she goes along with his plan. Travis, however, is stuck in his pre-apocalypse mindset.  He still sees walkers as human and is unable to shoot one even when army men place a sniper rifle in his hands. Liza starts showing her potential when she finds Griselda in the hospital, sits with her while she dies, and then uses a bolt gun on her head to keep her from turning.  Meanwhile, Alicia and her step brother Chris bond through youthful hijinks.  They break into the nicest house in the neighborhood, get drunk, dress up in nice clothes, and broke glass and china for fun.  And are they starting to be attracted to each other? We try to figure out whether it's icky to have step-siblings falling for each other.

4. 1 x 04.  The Apocalypse takes a Tea Time

Fear the Walking Dead episode 1 x 04. "Not Fade Away."

Quinn, Stephen, and Bruce discuss episode 4, and red tea, at Parish Press. After the tension of last week, the pace let up some; the apocalypse has taken a tea time as well. 

This is the first episode of TWD or FTWD that we can remember not having an active walker. The focus therefore isn't on the walkers, but on the attempt of modern society to recover from any crisis. Nine days have passed since the army came in at the end of the last episode, and everybody is attempting to hold on to some normalcy. But the cracks in the facade are obvious. Nick is back to his IV drug use.  Alicia is inking her arm with the design her probably dead boyfriend Matt drew on her arm on their last date.  We wondered during the episode whether the hospital that the army took people to was real or not. By the end of the episode, we thought it was real, but were suspicious about what goes on there.  We also wondered about what has been happening in the zone around the fence.  Is the army just killing the walkers only, or everybody it encounters?  

3. 1 x 03.  Zombie Hurricane

1 x 03. "The Dog."

Quinn, Stephen, and Bruce discuss episode 3 with guest Shawn Igou, who visited us at Parish Press. We agree that this is our favorite episode so far.

And what do the zombies repesent this week?  Bruce thinks they represent a disaster like a hurricane, with the national government stepping in to solve the crisis when other institutions fail. At the end of the episode, after the group makes it through the difficult night, the military sweeps in to save the day.  Quinn says that if this were a typical zombie movie, the movie would be over at this point. But in the very end of the episode, we see a soldier drawing x-code, made famous in Hurricane Katrina, on the wall of the house next door.  It's hard to imagine anything good coming from such an ominous ending.

The action is beginning to intensify.  The effects of the zombie virus are beginning to spread.  A couple of episodes ago, there were rumors on the Internet about an outbreak affecting 5 states.  By this episode, the news has become public, and governors in 11 states have declared states of emergency.  LAX and the Denver airport have closed down; other airports probably have, too.  Most institutions are trying to keep operating, but the cracks are beginning to appear in the façade of civilization.  Bruce thinks they should be filling the bathtubs with water, along with the trash cans in the back yard. Most worrisome at this point is the collapse of the health system.  When Nick was in the hospital in episode 1, the hospital was still functioning normally; even when the man beside him coded, the staff whisked him away quickly and professionally. Now just a few days later, the group goes to a hospital to get Griselda's broken ankle tended to, but they find police surrounding the hospital shooting the walkers on their way out.  Worse yet is the state of the hospital itself.  We can see in the background the signs that it has been overrun by the walkers.  We consider the way various characters are developing during the growing crisis.  We agree that right now Daniel Salazar is the most ready both mentally and physically, with his mysterious past in El Salvador during its the civil war.  Bruce hopes they develop the character of Alicia--Alycia Debnam-Carey, the actress who plays her, also plays Lexa on the series The 100.  Her character Lexa is the Queen of the Grounders and a real bad ass. We hope they'll let Alicia live up to her potential.

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2. Zombie Lives Matter 
1 X 02. "So Close Yet So Far."

Quinn, Stephen, and Bruce discuss episode 2. We agree that the

excitement level has gone up considerably since the first episode.  If

zombies are a metaphor for drugs (and sex) in episode 1, what do they

represent now?  We conclude that zombies this week are most closely

associated with Black Lives Matter.

We disagree over how the movement is

treated. Quinn likes the way the show treated the movement; Bruce

thinks they are portrayed as impediments to the police trying to handle

the situation.  We agree that the movement and the numerous videos of

police violence against unarmed citizens has undermined the status of

the police in minority communities. We also discuss the way Madison and Travis ditch Alicia's black boyfriend Matt when they see that he's been bitten. Madison is later ready to take in the white student Tobias, who has some knowledge of the outbreak. Bruce has trouble getting past the incident, especially since the characters don't fully understand the zombie process yet. He spent last week in New Orleans during the 10th anniversary of Katrina. It's hard forget the images of black people left behind when most white people

had been safely evacuated. Given the high death rate of black male

characters--3 in two episodes, it looks like Fear the Walking Dead is

following the example of The Walking Dead in its treatment of black male

characters. We also discuss the timeline of the show and how many days have passed so far. (We think two.)

Zombie Lives Matter

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