Violet recaps the penultimate episode of this season of Fear the Walking Dead, titled Cobalt, where Travis tries to get to Liza and Nick at the hospital, while Daniel has his own method of getting information! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 5: Cobalt
The episode opens to a man talking to Doug, causing him to cry. They are in a fenced in holding cell, and many people around him are in other holding cells. The man makes a comment about a picture of Doug’s wife, which makes him break down even more. The guards come and take Doug away, leaving the man alone in the cell with Nick.
Back in the residential area, Ofelia makes a scene at the barrier, throwing things at the fence, saying she wants her mother. A soldier is ordered to “take care of” the situation, but Adams convinces him to let him handle this instead, and takes Ofelia home.
At Madison’s house, Chris is worried about his mom, and Travis comforts him. Travis decides to go after Chris’s mom and Nick.
At the hospital, Liza is working with the Doctor. She asks to see Griselda, and asks how Nick is, but the doctor says they’re fine, and brushes her off, saying they have work to do.
Madison goes next door to look for Alicia. She hears a noise, and when she goes down to the basement, we see that Ofelia has brought Adams there, and Daniel has tied him to a chair. Adams tells them they’ll have their family back. Madison demands to know where they are, but he says he doesn’t know. They go upstairs, and Daniel and Ofelia tell an upset Madison their plan: to trade the soldier for their family. Ofelia leaves. Madison doesn’t think it will work. Daniel says he knows they won’t trade, but that the soldier has information they need, and that he’s seen people go out on trucks and not come back. He tells Madison to keep Ofelia at her house and not to let her come over there. Madison says she doesn’t want Daniel to hurt him, but Daniel insinuates that he’ll have to if she wants her boy back.
Travis goes to talk to Moyers about going to see the people who were taken to the hospital. He eventually agrees to take Travis to see the doctor.
Daniel begins to set up some torture devices. Adams begins giving him information, telling him where the hospital is, and saying he’ll tell him anything he wants. Daniel says he knows.
Travis rides in the humvee with Moyers and some soldiers. As they drive toward the hospital, they make a stop when they see a walker. They set up a gun with a scope to shoot it, and try to get Travis to take the shot. He reluctantly agrees, but when he looks through the scope and sees the target, he can’t do it. Moyers steps up and takes the shot instead.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Liza helps the doctor with the intake of an injured soldier. She discovers that he has been bit. They move on and work on a different soldier, while someone takes care of the bitten one.
The humvee goes to a site to help out a squad that has been overrun. They tell Travis to wait in the humvee, while they go in shooting, and Travis listens to the screams over the radio.
Daniel continues to torture Adams, though he begs him to stop. Daniel asks Adams about the word “Cobalt” that he keeps hearing over the military radio transmissions. Adams says he doesn’t know what it means.
Alicia and Chris go to an empty house where rich people used to live and go through their stuff.
At the hospital, the soldiers go around taking people’s temperatures. The man we saw earlier is fine, but Nick has a fever. The soldiers start to take Nick downstairs, but the man bribes a solder with expensive looking cuff links, and they let Nick stay.
Moyers doesn’t make it, but the other soldiers come back and say they’ll take Travis home.
Madison goes next door, and it seems that Ofelia has discovered what her father has done, as she rushes out upset. Daniel is upset that she had to see it, but knows it was necessary. Madison asks if he got the information they need.
At the hospital, Liza goes to find Griselda, who is laying in a hospital bed, locked in an enclosed area. The doctor says she has septic shock.
Alicia and Chris trash the rich people’s house.
When Travis gets home, he finds Ofelia crying outside. He goes inside and finds Madison, confronting her about whether she knew what Daniel was going to do.
Meanwhile, Adams tells Daniel about an arena where they locked people inside and chained the doors. Just then, Travis and Madison come in, and Adams explains what “Cobalt” is. It’s the command code to initiate evac from the LA base, but only for the soldiers. Everyone else faces “humane termination.” This is set to take place at 9:00am the next day.
Nick vomits. Then he asks why the man saved him. He corrects him, saying that he “obligated” Nick, explaining that now they return to the “old rules.” The man has noticed that the soldiers are leaving, and that he’ll require a man with Nick’s talents when he makes his move. Somehow the man has gotten a key.
Walking home, Alicia and Nick hide from humvees driving by. They see the vehicles loaded up with stuff, and realize that the soldiers aren’t patrolling, and that something is wrong.
At the hospital, the doctor and Liza check on Griselda, as she talks nonsense. The doctor explains that her brain is swelling. Then she dies. The doctor explains that traumatic brain injury is the only way to keep dead people from coming back. She gives Liza a livestock bolt pistol, and Liza shoots Griselda in the head.
Daniel investigates the arena that Adams told him about. As he approaches the chained doors, the walkers inside struggle to get out.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 5 of Fear the Walking Dead: Cobalt
I had mixed feelings about this episode. Although it advanced the story quite a bit (maybe a little too much, but then, that’s to be expected considering that there’s only one more episode left this season), and gave us a fair amount of action, I didn’t feel like a lot of this episode was believable. The whole situation with Daniel torturing Adams seemed way off base and unnecessary. It seemed like when threatened with torture, he gave them the information they needed, or that I thought they had wanted anyway, which was where their family members were. But then Daniel tortures him anyway, and finds out what “Cobalt” means, and it just so happens that it means they’re going to kill them all off the next day, thereby justifying Daniel torturing him, because otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten this valuable piece of information. Convenient. This Daniel guys seems a bit extreme to me, comparing everything that is happening here to the war that he experienced. And somehow everything is happening in just the same way, which seems highly unlikely, as it is a much different situation. But whatever, I guess they’re just going to make Daniel keep being right all the time.
It seems rather quick to me that they’re going to abandon the entire LA base after such a short amount of time, after taking the effort to set up everything that they have so far. I guess they tried to illustrate the troubles they’ve been having by bringing up the fact that they’re so short on soldiers that they haven’t been able to sleep in days. But that doesn’t seem to justify killing off all the healthy survivors. Though I suppose you could argue that by killing them, they’re reducing the amount of potential walkers that could be created.
The “hospital” isn’t quite as shady as I thought it would be. It seems like they actually do have real medical facilities to try to help people. But they’re also locking away people who they’ve deemed have mental issues, or non-life threatening illnesses or injuries, which are the ones they’re keeping in the fenced in areas. Did the doctor know what the situation was like before bringing these people in? And what is this new guy’s deal, the one that wants Nick to help him? Why would he randomly save Nick, of all people? He seems to place his faith in Nick in the fact that he’s a heroin addict, for some reason. Anyway, this was another convenient thing that happened, Nick getting saved by this guy at the last second. Curious to see what happens next here, and hope this gets explained in a believable way.
Well, heading into the season finale, it looks like the goal will be to get out of town before they are “humanely terminated,” whatever that means. And they somehow have to meet back up with Nick and Liza. Unless their stories will split up from here on out. I’m guessing we’ll have at least one major death by the end of the episode…
Josh’s Thoughts: Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 5: Cobalt
So, the most intriguing part about this episode is the man who “helps” Nick out, and seems to be a guy who has always been able to get what he wants. At least it seems he does given his speech in the beginning of the episode. The vibe I get from this guy is that he is narcissist, and in this developing zombie apocalypse he is out for helping one guy, and that is himself. He seems like a guy who can read situations well, and learns to develop alliances that will keep him alive. So, right now, while Nick is being helped by this man, I think if it proves beneficial for this guy, he would as soon turn on Nick to save his own skin. I am curious to see what this guy’s plan is though, as he has already told Nick he needs him for the right moment, whatever that means.
As for as the most disturbing character so far, that award has to go to Daniel. I figured this guy was messed up, but he turned out to be more messed up than I initially though. At this point, I would think he can’t let this soldier go, as if this soldier makes it back to his group, Daniel and the people he is with are likely dead. But for second most disturbing person, that award has to go to Madison. Apparently she had no problem with the torture that was going on. Pretty creepy for someone who is/was a child guidance counselor. I guess when your son is taken away, desperate times call for desperate measures?…One thing I am curious about though–why did Daniel decide to go investigate the area where the walkers were locked away? Did he have to make sure the soldier was telling the truth? I guess that sort of makes sense.
As for at the hospital, it looks like they are figuring out pretty quickly that head trauma is what stops these guys. I have a feeling that things are going to get a little crazy soon though. This chaotic environment is prime for missing just one bitten person, and the entire place goes down.
As for the soldiers pulling out, I am curious to know where they are going, and under whose orders? has the government gone dark, so they are taking matters into their own hands now? Are they tired of carry for the civilians?
Tonight is the season finale, so I hope for a big bang! I imagine we will be seeing Madison and Travis trying to get to Nick and Liza. Hopefully we have a walker “breakout” to up the stakes, and make for a tension-filled episode!
Scenes from Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 6: The Good Man
Here are scenes from the next episode of Fear the Walking Dead, titled The Good Man:
