Strand and Maddie find themselves where every bartender finds themselves every night at last call, behind the bar and surrounded by mumbling assholes. But they take a page from Nick’s survival guide and grease up to make their escape; Strand very astutely closing the door behind them. No matter, Alicia and Ofelia are mysteriously in the wind. But after getting their bearings and barricading themselves inside the hotel, they find Alicia again but with new friends in tow.
Back at Colonia, Nick pulls some Breaking Bad type drug science to make up for his screw up with the drug dealers. He seems to be fitting in well and making himself a vital asset to Colonia, becoming closer with Alejandro and Luciana. One wonders if he’s found a place that he cares to stay at for an extended length of time.
Back at the hotel, (and I have to say, this makes me want to play the Dead Island games something awful) Strand, Alicia, Elena and a few other guests realize that they’re sitting on a beachfront fortress with enough food to last them for months. It becomes clear that they shouldn’t leave, even with Ofelia still unaccounted for. Much in the same way Rick and the gang offered their services to the good people of Hilltop, Maddie and Strand offer to clear out the hotel in exchange for an invitation to stay. Oscar is begrudgingly okay with accepting help from people associated with Elena but his former/temporary mother in law is still inconsolable.
No matter… they start with room to room executions and are going to burn the bodies when Alicia gets the bright idea to round them all up Pied Piper style and make use of a pier and the riptide to send them down to Davy Jones’ Locker. It may not have been as exciting as the retaking of Alexandria but nonetheless we are still dealing with smart, strong survivors here. It goes off relatively painlessly and they even have a nice celebratory dinner after. Though Strand goes through much of the episode quiet and sullen, he and Oscar have a moment as he helps Oscar move on from what should have been a happy day for him.
In Colonia, Nick makes the drug delivery with Luciana but tells Alejandro about his disdain for just surviving. It’s like eating shit, and I do believe something very similar came out of a Savior’s mouth in the last season of TWD. But his reward is a little trailer, pretty nice for a junkie, and more insight into Luciana and the people she’s lost.
It’s strange how little “zombie action” happened in this episode, and this show in general is definitely of a slower pace than TWD. But its reward is in these moments between characters who have things in common, shared tragedies that make them human and relatable in a show about zombies. FTWD’s strength can’t be in it being somehow more violent or edgy than TWD, so it goes a different way by telling different stories about people who have just had their lives destroyed, and still making sense of the new world. It might not have worked at first, but I can’t wait to see what happens next for these people. And that, as we all know, is a dangerous enthusiasm.
Written by A Play On Nerds contributor, Jerry Herrera - Lover of horror, sci fi, and fantasy in that order. Semi-permanent Disneyland resident. I'm at least one of the droids you're looking for. Twitter: @FrankenJerry - Instagram: @GeraldoPedro