Week after week, Fear The Walking Dead continues to excel! Not bound by the narrative of the comics like its companion show, Fear The Walking Dead is allowed free reign to do whatever it likes. As a result, we get some very impressive storytelling. Last week, Troy, wanting to enact revenge on the newly amalgamated Broke Jaw Ranch, unleashed a horde of zombies on his former residence. In the aftermath, his own brother Jake was bitten, forcing him to kill his zombified brother. Other members of the community were also killed in the aftermath. Those that could escape the zombie horde were forced to hide in the bunker. Will Nick and Troy be able to save them, or are they trapped?
This episode might as well be called “The No Good, Terrible Day For Alicia.”
The entire episode was a stress test for our heroine as she was stuck in the bunker waiting out the zombies. Ofelia and Crazy Dog quickly discover that there is no air coming into the bunker. With such a high amount of people stuck down there and no new air coming in, they would quickly suffer from carbon dioxide poisoning. Alicia, still using her high school science, figured that they had two hours of air left before they would all suffocate. Ofelia and Crazy Dog are then tasked with crawling through the air ducts Aliens-style to fix the broken vent while Alicia has to figure out a way to reduce the air depreciation.
The big problem is that some of the bunker inhabitants have already been bitten. Alicia, Ofelia, and Crazy Dog came to the conclusion that those who have been bitten will need to be put down. After Alicia tells the group current events, those who are bitten now have to voluntarily be killed. At first, no one wants to fess up, but slowly but surely, they start volunteering themselves to save their loved ones.
Alicia has the task of giving each of the infected members in the bunker morphine to put them to sleep, and then drive a knife through their skulls to put them down. After she puts down the first one, a member of Black Hat, she immediately breaks down. As she’s sobbing to herself, one of the other infected people, an older woman comes to her. At first, it looks like it’s to console her. But in reality, she’s there to get her back on track, reminding her that she has a job to do. Alicia then proceeds to kill all the infected people in the bunker. It’s at least twenty of them. As she sits on the down surrounding by a pile of her former friends, it’s clear that she’s suffering the burden of this responsibility.
Ophelia and Crazy Dog are also dealing with their own problems. For the most part, they are able to make it through the air ducts with no problem. They come across one part of the ventilation system that requires them to turn their position around so they can drop down into an open space. Ophelia does this with ease. However, Crazy Dog suffers from a panic attack. After she talks him down and convinces him to take deep breaths, they move onward. The finally come across the air vent and see that a zombie has gotten stuck. The two of them are also suffering from the depleted oxygen and almost fail. Crazy Dog passes out while trying to hold Ophelia up and the zombie falls down and starts attacking the two of them. Ophelia manages to kill the zombie and the vent starts to work again.
Alicia wakes up from dozing off and notices that all of her fellow Broke Jaw people in the bunker have now died and are resurrecting as zombies. She first has to kill many of them with her knife. She is almost overrun by them when she manages to help carry the only remaining survivor to a room and shuts the gate. Lucky for her, she has a gun which she uses to start shooting down her former friends. Being that actress Alycia Debnam Carey was once on The 100, it seems that she’s Fear The Walking Dead’s version of "Wanheda" (the Commander of Death).
Outside in the chopper, Nick and Troy are desperately trying to make a last stand. They turn the chopper on and a few zombies get torn apart by the blades but then they break down. Troy has his gun with the single bullet and tells Nick to decide which one of them will get the final shot to the head. Before Nick is able to answer, a large explosion goes off. Someone got to the fuel tank.
Now all that remains is Alicia, Nick, Troy, Ophelia, Crazy Dog, Strand, and Walker. Broke Jaw no longer is a viable option and they need a new home once again. Madison comes with the idea of going back to the trading post for supplies and then heading to the dam. They tell Ophelia that her father is still alive, which causes her to break down in tears as well. Nick opts to keep Troy summoning the zombies a secret. Alicia learns that Jake is dead (as if she hasn’t been through enough hell) and is now a forever changed person. She’s tired of the same routine: finding a home, fighting for it, and then it getting overrun by zombies. She opts not to go with the group and go out on her own. Madison allows her daughter to leave, but asks Nick and Troy to secretly follow her so that she can be safe. Just as they all get together, they once again get split apart.
