Fear the Walking Dead, Episode 5 – “Cobalt”
When we return, the viewers are treated to a ghetto-like quarantine facility located indoors with all the inhabitants locked in small rooms made out of fencing. We meet a smaller, creepy Tyrese knock-off in a nice suit who starts saying that God brought the plagues, God must have brought this, too. He goes off on a tangent about how he has the ability to sell everything, except life insurance because he never understood how people could trust their families’ lives to a tiny piece of paper. Knock-off Tyrese sits on a bench next to Doug, who is now an even bigger mess. Doug is crying and holding a picture of Maria and Knock-Off Tyrese insists that she’ll be fine because she’s good looking enough to find another, stronger man. Doug begins to really lose it, causing some guards to show up and take him away. When Knock-Off Tyrese sits on the bench again, Nick has taken his spot and is unfortunately not dead yet.
Back at the safe-zone, Ofelia is freaking out – throwing glass bottles at the fence, cursing and trying to rile up all the other survivors because the military is being shady and she wants her mother back. NOW. Probably not the best idea to threaten the men with guns, Ofelia. A soldier is ordered to take her out, but her marine boyfriend, Andrew, steps in and says he’ll take care of it without incident. Andrew lets himself back into the safe-zone and offers to take Ofelia home so he can calm her down. She goes willingly. On the other side of the gate, though, a soldier is starting to freak out and states “I can’t do this anymore,” before being removed from the area.
Travis has gotten dressed and is going to speak with Moyers about the whereabouts of Griselda, Liza and Nick. Chris shows up and starts being a dick and doubts his father is actually going to look for Liza. Madison tries to assure Chris that Travis is concerned about everyone, but Chris interrupts her like a rude douchbag. Travis drags him into the other room to try and calm him down and it becomes clear that Chris is upset that Liza just left. She wasn’t forced. She wasn’t manipulated. She just left. Chris is worried that, by treating sick and injured people, that Liza will somehow get infected herself and die. Travis assures Chris that that will not happen and that Liza had to go, helping people is what Liza is all about and she always has been. Travis asks that Chris maintain a level head because he needs his help in holding the remaining family members together. After asking Chris to apologize to Madison, though, Chris basically tells Travis to fuck off and storms out of the house.
Later that day, Madison finds a handwritten note, although the viewer is unable to see what it says. Madison begins searching for Alicia and enters one of the unoccupied houses. She hears noises coming from the basement, so she grabs a flashlight and a kitchen knife before pressing forward. Upon entering the basement, she finds Andrew bound and gagged to a chair with Daniel and Ofelia standing close by. Madison goes to until him, but she’s stopped by Daniel who tells her, “This is how we bring them home.” Andrew’s walkie-talkie is still functional, so they’re able to hear whatever the military is saying. Andrew apologizes for the way they took Griselda and Nick, but says he had nothing to do with that. The plan is simple: they’ll hold Andrew hostage until they hear all they need to hear from the radio and then they’ll trade him for a safe exit. Madison wants Daniel to promise not to hurt Andrew, but he asks, “Do you want your boy back?”
Travis is allowed outside the safe-zone gate and meets with Moyers. He wants to know how he can see Dr. Exner and his family. Moyers side-steps the questions and tells Travis that the current crop of marines are not worries, they’re just kids who want to go home to their families. He says that Travis has been super helpful in keeping the real enemy out of the safe-zone: dark thoughts. Travis asks to see his family again, but Moyers says he can’t be concerned with civilian problems. Travis says that the survivors will start asking questions and may revolt and Moyers asks if that is a threat, to which Travis replies, “Just trying to be helpful.” For whatever reason, this convinces Moyers to change his mind and he takes a small convey away from the safe-zone while conveniently dropping that the dead walks among them outside the gates.
In the government medical facility, Liza is stitching up an injured man and doing her best to help where she can. There’s literally dozens of injured people and Dr. Exner confirms that there were only three nurses left, down from seven, before Liza arrived. Liza asks where Nick is, but gets a side-stepped answer. Liza asks where Griselda is and Dr. Exner tells her that she’s in recovery, they had to amputate her foot. Eventually, Liza finds bite marks on an injured soldier and they rush him away from the rest of the injured people. A man is doing something with an oxygen tank in the hallway, but I couldn’t really tell what it was. When Liza does get a chance to visit Griselda, she finds that the woman has gone in septic shock and is talking incoherently before dying. Dr. Exner hands Liza a gun and makes her shoot Griselda in the head to keep her from coming back as a walker.
Daniel doesn’t want Andrew to blame Ofelia for him being taken hostage and both men agree that she is special, innocent and pure. Andrew finally relinquishes that Griselda is at a field hospital in a hospital located two miles away. This isn’t enough for Daniel, though, who proceeds to start shredding his arm with a shaving kit while talking about his own previous experiences with shady government militants. Daniel wants to know why the people on the walkie-talkie keep saying “Project Cobalt,” but Andrew claims he has no idea what that is. Moments later, Ofelia finds the torture scene and runs screaming from the house. Yeah, because that’s not suspicious at all.
Meanwhile, Alicia finds Chris laying on top of a car and the two have pretty stupid cops and robbers banter before breaking into another unoccupied house. Together, they play with toys, try on expensive clothes and get drunk while listening to music and deducing that this is the life they should have had. Yeah, ok. Once they’re really stinking drunk, they go on a rampage and start smashing and breaking everything in sight.
On the way to the hospital, the military convey sees a walker in a diner and stop to take her out. Moyers wants Travis to shoot her in the head and Travis is about to, but he readers her name tag – Kimberly – and he’s unable to at the chance that there’s still a human somewhere in there. Moyers shoots her in the head before hearing a distress call from another squad who are pinned down in a library. Travis wonders how they’re encountering trouble when everyone was evacuated, but Moyers says not everyone listened to the government. Some people hid. The marines order Travis to stay in the convoy and proceed to get their ass kicked by walkers as Travis listens to the whole thing on the radio. When he sees the marines next, they’re a few men short and tossing grenades at the door to try and keep the walkers inside. Travis asks where Moyers is and the soldiers tell him that he didn’t make it. They’re going to drop Travis off a few blocks from the safe-zone and then they’re taking off, going back to their families.
When Travis gets home, he finds Ofelia sitting in the grass outside and she tells him that they’re torturing Andrew. Travis storms inside, where he finds Madison peacefully drinking tea, and demands to know if she knew what was happening in the basement. Obviously, she did. They head downstairs as Andrew tells a story about how a stadium was overrun by walkers because “they turned so fast,” so they chained everyone – alive and dead – inside the stadium. Basically, 2,000 innocent people died in those moments after being locked in with walkers. Finally, after his break down, he tells everyone what “Project Cobalt” is. “Project Cobalt” is going to be the swift removal of the military after they humanely kill all of the survivors in the safe-zone. Um, why would they do that?
As Alicia and Chris stumble home, they see the military already starting to pull out, meaning “Project Cobalt” is already in effect. Back at the quarantine ghetto, guards are doing a temperature check on their captives and since Nick is going through withdraws, his temperature is sky high. They try to take him away, but Knock-Off Tyrese is able to bargain away two one of a kind Vegas rings so Nick can stay. Knock-Off Tyrese says he needs a man of Nick’s talents – drugs, really? – when they break out, and shows him a key he managed to steal during the trade. Finally, Daniel escapes the safe-zone and checks to see if Andrew’s story holds up. It does, and the walkers are already trying to break out of the stadium…
