‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 2B Premiere Recap ‘Grotesque’
The season 2B premiere episode of ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ was a deeper look into Nick’s path after he walked away from Madison and Alicia after the compound burned down. The hour focused on what happens to Nick, along with flashbacks to one of his stints in rehab with Gloria. [Yeah, remember her? The very first walker of this series!]
These flashbacks were poignant for a few reasons, but mainly to understand some of Nick’s deeper seeded parental issues; especially with his father. In preparation for a conversation with his parents for one of his therapy sessions, Nick gets pretty personal with his feels about his father not being there for him. Unfortunately, he never gets the chance to actually say it to him, because Madison arrives with the news that their father passed away in a car accident.
Nick’s wandering through Mexican heat towards Tijuana, wasn’t exactly the ‘Eat. Pray. Love.’ trip I think he thought it would be. After getting chased off by a crazy woman with a baseball bat, shot at by some big guys with guns, and attacked by two ravenous dogs, Nick begins hearing the dead speak to him. However, twice in this episode, the dead saved his life. Once by distracting the dogs, and once by eating the men that previously shot at him.
When he finally falls in the road from exhaustion and dehydration, there is another group that was watching from afar, a woman named Luci and two other men. The men suggest to help, Luci says no. After a night lying in the road and a good dose of rain he is back up on his feet. Nick wanders into a new town, and tries to scavenge for supplies to fix his wound. Luci and the other men find him patching the bite and decide to take him to their camp to see a doctor.
Once his wound is patched, the doctor opens the door to a brand new world. Nick walks out into large walled community, full of people, and supplies. His arduous journey comes to a rest in a strange place, but the Nick we see in the last scene of the episode, has never looked happier than he did in that moment.
We learned a lot about Nick in this episode, and it helps to understand some of the choices he’s made through the series so far. The long walk that took him from where he parted with his family, to the new community was more than just a walk through Hell, it was a personal pursuit to find a place he felt like he belonged in a world that was once again changing.
Question now becomes, how long will this community last? And what, if anything, is being hidden behind the curtains? ‘Cause as fans of The Walking Dead, we know all too well that nothing is really ever what it seems to be…. Looking your way Woodbury… and you too Terminus.
For a mid-season premiere, ‘Grotesque’ was rather mild for the most part, but did a whole lot for Nick’s character development and who he will become moving forward. I’m interested to see where he goes from here.
‘Fear the Walking Dead’ 2×09 airs Sunday, August 28 and the episode will focus on Madison, Strand, Ofelia and Alicia. Will you be tuning in?
Writer of stories, watcher of TV. I am an avid horror and sci-fi junkie who’s been riding with the Winchesters since their dad went on a hunting trip in 2005. Current obsessions are The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files and The Dark Tower movie. Find me on twitter – @jryan_author – for your daily dose of sarcasm and poems about my unnatural love of coffee.