I wasn’t excited for “Fear the Walking Dead” leading up to the premiere episode last Sunday…at all. I kind of don’t see the point in it because we know how it ends. Civilization falls… The human race loses 98% of its participants in about a month… The zombies win. So, there isn’t the suspense of “what will happen?” when you already know the outcome. Still, I’m such a huge fan of “The Walking Dead” that I felt I had to give the spin-off prequel show a fair shot. Apparently, 10,310,000 people did the same thing and made “Fear the Walking Dead” the highest rated cable premiere in HISTORY.
The first episode starts with a drug addicted young man waking up in an abandoned church turned drug den. He’s wearing a weird women’s shirt and that’s all I can really focus on for some reason. After regaining his senses he goes on the hunt for his friend, Gloria, while seemingly ignoring all the growling coming from the halls of the church. He finds a dead body, and then he finds Gloria herself eating a dead body with a knife sticking out of her chest. She growls at the drug addicted young man – I think his name is Nick – and he is so freaked out that he hauls ass out of the church and into the street. He’s so busy running for his life, in fact, that he runs into traffic and gets mowed over by a car. A crowd forms around him, calling for help and tending to his injuries, and we get a glimpse at the city. Everything seems normal. For now. But, I hope Nick dies early on in the series because I don’t see myself investing my time and energy in a junky…
In the same morning we get to meet junky’s family members: bitchy mom (Madison), handy step-dad (Travis) and angsty teen daughter (Alicia). Later on we get to briefly meet Travis’ extended family: hot ex-wife (Liza) and angsty teen son (Chris). Chris doesn’t want to spend his court ordered weekend with Travis, which is a good thing because Madison gets the call that they’ve found Nick. Nick is alive, but he’s detoxing and restrained to the bed because he was raving about blood and guts; and because they deemed him a suicide risk. He claims that running into traffic was a complete accident and that he really, really hates Travis for some reason. There’s also an old man sharing the room with him, and this will become important later on in the episode. The old man is not a part of the family, but this all stands to paint a portrait of America’s typical if not completely dysfunctional family.
Madison and Travis are both teachers and Travis decides Madison should be the one to go to work today. He’ll stay with detoxing, dirty Nick. At school, we meet the high school principal who resembles Barack Obama. We also meet Tobias, a plump and pimply faced student who sets off the metal detector on his way through the doors. Madison intercepts him before Obama and the rent-a-cop do and plants pocket change on him as a false flag. She knows he’s being bullied but is shocked to find a pocket knife on him. While speaking to him in her office, he says the knife was never to hurt himself or others, but that a virus is affecting people and he will need it to protect himself eventually. We meet Alicia’s boyfriend, Matt, who is painting the senior class’ mural. Boy, do the produces of “Fear the Walking Dead” like interracial relationships or what? They agree to meet up for a quick date later on that evening before Alicia heads back to class.
Back at the hospital, Narcotics Nick is having nightmares about what he saw at the abandoned church. He is so flustered that it convinces Travis to go investigate. When he gets there, he finds a jittery tweeker and a big pool of blood, but there isn’t a single body – alive or dead – to be found; although it’s obvious something very bad happened there. The next day, at the high school, Madison is talking with Obama about how more of the students have called out sick. Madison is unfazed because she already got her flu shot. Are these hints as to how the zombie apocalypse started? Did a new drug cause it? Did a new virus cause it? We need answers! But, the answer I need most of all is: who let that nurse have her job? At the hospital, Nick convinces a nurse to let him out of his straps to take a piss. She does and in that moment the old man in corner dies and the nurses rush in to try and resuscitate him. This gives Nick enough time to flee the hospital while wearing the dead man’s clothing. At least it’s not the girly white shirt…
Madison and Travis go searching for him and stop by the abandoned church first. Madison is overwhelmed by the conditions of the drug den and is horrified to see the squander Nick was living in. Although no one is around, she agrees that something bad happened there. They stop by Cal’s house next, a former drug addict and drug dealer who is on the mend. Cal is super attractive, but he hasn’t seen Nick recently. That same night, Alicia waits around for Matt, but he never shows up for their date and doesn’t even respond to her text messages. Probably because he’s dead. On the way home from the hunt for Nick, there’s a huge traffic stop on the highway and Madison and Travis get the feeling that something is not right… due to all the gun shots several cars away from them and the police helicopters flying nearby warning them to stay in their cars. Yeah, that’s never a good thing, so they get the Hell out of there and take another way home.
In the morning, the video from the traffic stop has gone viral and all the students and teachers are watching it. It shows a man coming back from the dead and attacking the EMT’s and police officers. He’s shot several times, but isn’t even fazed, before someone delivers the kill shot to the brain. Due to everything going on, the district calls a half day and all the students gleefully exit the building. Madison catches Tobias boarding the bus home and they make eye contact and in that moment she knows that he was right about needing to protect himself. Good lucky, Toby. Good luck… Then we see super attractive Cal again because he agrees to meet Nick in a diner in town. Apparently, someone isn’t as clean and sober as he makes himself out to be! Nick is completely erratic and Cal begins to see him as a liability. If he keeps running his mouth, eventually the cops will have to investigate and they could arrest him for dealing if they get too close.
Cal agrees to give Nick a dose of “good stuff” for free as long as it shuts him up. They drive out to flood tunnels under a busy highway and it turns out with was all a plan so Cal could kill Nick to cover his tracks. A small fight ensues, resulting in Nick fatally shooting Cal in the chest, killing him. He calls Madison and Travis for help, but when they show up, Cal’s body is no where to be found. They go to leave the flood tunnels but someone is blocking their way… Zombie Cal! He tries to take a bite out of Madison and Travis, but Nick mows him over with Travis’ truck several times… but he keeps on coming! Zombie Cal is incapacitated, though not dead, and it prompts the question: “What the Hell is happening?!”
