The second episode of the second season of FTWD begins with rolling waves on a sun drenched shore. If you’re like me and a bit tired of the endless humid forests of TWD, these shots of the golden coast are a nice change of pace. We’re treated to a somewhat out of place scene of two children gathering seashells together, but soon enough walkers begin to wash up on shore. TWD isn’t too scared to kill kids but it seems a little early in this series to be putting children in harm’s way. Luckily these kids are protected by a fence, and strangely, they seem to have been making a shell collage for the walkers. It seems as if they’re protected, for now, but where is this magical place where kids are dressed in L.L. Bean and have the convenience of playing on the beach during the end of the world? We’ll see, perhaps.

After that odd little intro, we find our heroes in a bit of a predicament. The log book that Nick recovered from the sunken vessel details that their destination of San Diego has been bombed out and depleted by the military. Worse yet, they are being pursued by a larger vessel, presumably crewed by the guy Alicia was playing Dream Phone with last episode. Looking at the map, Strand figures they’ll be safe in a cove on an island but the group thinks a neighboring island, one designated as a wildlife refuge, would be a better spot. In a rare moment of concession, Strand agrees and off they go to Catrina Island.

I will say that I like the pacing of the show, even though it’s barely two episodes in. So far it’s fairly point A to point B without a lot of filler or useless dialog. Abigail docks on the island and Strand tries to stay behind by himself but Daniel insists he and Ofelia will keep him company, leaving the Manawa clan to go exploring. As it turns out, our well-dressed kids and their guardians reside on the island, but are hesitant to help despite their house lights flashing on and off, as if trying to signal someone.

George, the man of the house, or ranger station rather, informs Travis over a beer that the Pacific Northwest has been napalmed straight to hell, as well as every major city down the coast. The border has been shut down and according to reports from other ranger stations, pretty much the whole western half of the country has gone dark. This gives us some room to speculate. Where did the outbreak begin? What were our heroes in Atlanta up to at this time? Perhaps Rick was in a coma at this point on the timeline…

Meanwhile Maddie and Melissa, the woman of the house, have a chat and find they have some things in common professionally. The conversation is polite, if a bit awkward, but it isn’t until the third and eldest child makes an appearance that we see that these folks may be a little off. Seth seems overly concerned for his mother and wary of Maddie, giving her a parting glance as he goes on patrol. In the living room, Nick has no trouble befriending the kids and his happy-go-lucky demeanor casts a glaring light on Alicia’s quiet wine drinking and Chris’ insufferable brooding. It isn’t until the little boy, Harry, takes Nick upstairs that he also sees that things aren’t quite right on this island. Harry has action figures with little red marks on their foreheads, named after those that have been infected and subsequently shot. He also tells Nick about his “power pills.” One thing about Nick is his ability to gain trust and observe and learn without showing fear or concern. Yet another asset, as Strand would see it.

Back on the boat, Daniel begins to pry at Strand’s motives. I like the dynamic of the two characters, one with a dark past and another with a mysterious one, making nice but also feeling each other out. Meanwhile, George tells Travis his theory behind the outbreak and guesses him to be Maori (the actor who plays Travis is, in fact, Maori and this is one of the rare times he is cast as such) and shares an odd interest in Travis’ culture.

On their way back to the boat, Travis and Maddie compare notes on just how bizarre things are on the island, while Nick and Alicia idly chat about the pros and cons of the end of the world. These are some of the most poignant lines of the episode. Nick remarks at the stillness of the Earth, and that their situation does not qualify as “The Rapture.” When he says that something is off on the island, Alicia murmurs:

“Everything is off, everywhere.”

The next morning, Seth teaches Chris the finer points (pun intended) of walker maintenance with a pick axe. Travis has a problem with his son so eagerly “killing” as it were and his confusion prompts George to explain his very pragmatic approach to the zombie apocalypse while patching up holes in the fences. They come to an overlook, where Catalina is visible. George knows that all the walkers on the island will eventually make their way toward Catrina, and he’s at peace with it. He and his family will live on the island until the day they die, whenever and however that may be. That’s the truth of his situation, and there is no morality, no malice in their fate, simply how things are now. When Travis asks how George can just give up like that, he replies with a thought provoking line:

“I’m not giving up. I’m mending the fence.”

A lot can be said about this approach to life in the end times. George is realistic about his chances and chooses to live on his own terms. Rather than wander and live in fear, making mistakes, getting people killed, and generally making a mess of things as we’ve seen our heroes do for a few seasons on TWD, George would rather live out whatever time he has left in one place, as secure as he can make it. While his stoicism in the face of eventual horrible death is admirable, something is still not right on Catrina.

Elsewhere on the island, Nick is once again proving to be quietly resourceful, using his nose for narcotics to find the “power pills” Harry mentioned, before being discovered by Willa, who wants Nick to come draw with her. There is value in being easily likeable. It doesn’t raise suspicions.

As we approach the end of the episode, a few truths start to reveal themselves. Melissa confesses to Maddie that George’s pragmatism and stubbornness has an ugly side. She wants Harry and Willa to have a better shot than just waiting for the island to be overrun with walkers, and asks Maddie to take them on the boat. In fact, it was her that signaled Abigail in the night. Maddie then talks to Travis, who says he’ll talk to George. It’s a little frustrating that Travis’ first instinct is to talk it out, even though it rarely worked last season, and usually made things worse. Daniel finds a hidden cache on Abigail’s bridge, containing maps of Mexico and a military-ish looking weapon, an MP5? Gun nut readers feel free to correct me. Strand himself is shown chatting with someone over satellite phone, and while it’s still unclear what his aim is, all we need to remember is “sundown.” And finally, Nick reveals the truth of the family on Catrina Island. George is planning on taking the Big Nap, and bringing his whole family along for the ride. “Power pills” indeed.

When Travis, Maddie and Nick try to take Willa and Harry, things go haywire as they often do. Perhaps FTWD has suffered a bit because it was difficult to care about the characters or get emotionally invested in what happens to them along the way. The final few minutes of this episode take a huge, albeit tragic, leap forward in terms of emotional content. Things go as badly for our heroes as you might expect, but in a way that perfectly illustrates how dangerous it can be to try to help others, and how awfully devastating the unintended consequences of trying to do the right thing can be. I’m not trying to avoid spoilers here, I just think my usual play by play would not do the scene justice.

I’d definitely say the stage is set for an interesting season. We may be caught up in the sad ending of this episode, but let us not forget that it seems that Strand is on his way to some place specific. Perhaps he’s delivering our heroes to someone? That gun in the storage locker may not be for self-defense. But Daniel is on to him and if there’s one person on the boat who is more dangerous than Strand, it’s him. This episode has also proved, to me anyway, that the writers are capable of compelling writing and are able to find the heartstrings that have been tugged many, many times already by TWD. I look forward to the further voyages of Abigail.