Fear The Walking Dead Review: Episode 202 “We All Fall Down”
4 min read
In this week’s episode, we got to see the group play a game of hide and seek, and run into a family that was more Jonestown than Doomsday Preppers.
The episode kicks off with Strand, Travis, Madison, and Daniel trying to find a place to ditch the tail they’d recently acquired, and a place for shelter. They all decide to head to a place called Katrina Island, which has a cove big enough to hide Abigail in. From the shore, they can see a flickering light inside a house in the distance, and they decide to head there. Once they dock on the island, Strand, Salazar, and Ophelia decide to hang back while Travis, Madison and the rest of the family investigate the house they’d seen the light in.
Once they reach the house they’re greeted by a family. George and Melissa, their two young children Willa and Henry, and teenaged son Zack. Travis and Madison ask for permission to stay the night and then head out in the morning, to which George and Melissa gladly oblige. Meanwhile, back at the boat Salazar begins to question Strands true intentions, and why he has just enough supplies for the group. Nick plays around with the two youngest children while Alicia is drinking wine, and Chris remains in his stand-offish ways. While playing with Harry, Nick discovers that there may be more to this scenario than meets the eye, especially when Harry lets slip that if things got too bad, the family would always be together, because they have “power pills.” Zack and Chris share a pretty interesting scene, as Zack is clearing out walkers from the fence line by the shore. He tells Chris that he sees new walkers everyday, and they have to clear them from the fence to eliminate the threat. Chris takes over the clearing duties, dispatching approaching walkers with a fire axe. Travis sees this and comes down to try to stop him, and of course Chris remains defiant.
While the pacing of this episode was exactly what you’d come to expect from a Walking Dead episode, it did turn out to be wildly predictable in parts. During the dinner between the two families, we see Melissa and Madison interact, with Melissa’s probing questions seeming all too pointed. Zack interrupts and checks on his mom, seemingly making sure she isn’t in danger, but also potentially making sure she doesn’t say too much. Travis struggles to hold on to the last bit of humanity in himself, while seeing his son transform into a barbaric, walker killing machine. Sound familiar? It should because this is essentially the same story we seen in the parent Walking Dead franchise with Rick and Carl. Only difference is Travis may end up losing Chris all due to Chris’ reckless abandon. Madison uncovers Melissa’s want for Travis and the group to take Willa and Henry, because she doesn’t feel that the island is as safe as George makes it out to be. She leads on that George would never leave the island and she can’t because she has cancer.
After Stand mysteriously disappears for a few minutes, Salazar finds a hidden chest with weapons and secret maps hidden inside. I really like the dynamic between Salazar (Daniel) and Strand. They are engaged in an intense game of mental chess and it looks like Salazar’s suspicions have all but been confirmed. I’m hoping we see these two end up working together at some point, but my gut tells me that Strand may end up being the demise of Salazar in a future episode.
Back at the house, Melissa is giving Travis and Madison instructions on how to care for Willa and Harry, when George barges in. Trying to understand why Melissa was intent on giving the children to Travis and Madison, becoming more angry by the moment. The group is suddenly interrupted by Harry who’s calling for his mom because something has happened to Willa. Melissa rushes off to tend to Willa, while Harry tells Nick that she’d taken one of the “power pills” essentially sealing her fate. Everyone runs upstairs to discover young Willa, and Melissa begins to grieve. Her grief doesn’t last long though, as Willa reanimated and took a chunk out of her neck. Everyone goes into panic mode and starts to head back towards the boat, George tells Travis to take Harry with them, while he presumably stays behind to be with his wife and daughter.
When everyone reaches the boat, Strand questions why they were all in a rush and instantly blames Madison for the mess. Just before they take off we hear a rifle shot in the air and Zack hops aboard Abigail to take his little brother back. After a tense standoff, Zack leaves the boat with his little brother in tact, and with a newly turned Melissa slowly approaching them from the docks. Zack makes Henry turn and wave goodbye to the group, while he fires a round from his rifle into his mother.
While this was another decent episode of Fear, I feel like it flubbed in a few places. Strand is probably my favorite character on the show other than Salazar, but his lines come across more rehearsed and repeated than actually DELIVERED. Chris continues to be defiant towards Travis and his teenage angst is starting to become more annoying than Carl’s initial burst of rebellion. I did enjoy seeing Nick come across the prescription pills and then decide not to take any, leaving just enough doubt in my mind to make me wonder if he is finally clean.
Fear The Walking Dead returns next week with an all new episode, but it’ll be airing opposite Game Of Thrones, so I’m interested to see how well it does against another powerhouse TV franchise.
