Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 4 of Fear the Walking Dead, titled Blood in the Streets, where we get some flashbacks about Strand, and the yacht gets some unexpected visitors! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 4: Blood in the Streets
- Her thoughts on Season 2 Episode 4 of Fear the Walking Dead: Blood in the Streets
Fear the Walking Dead Recap, Season 2 Episode 4: Blood in the Streets
Strand Flashbacks
Strand sits at a bar, talking to a well-dressed man with an accent, while the TV shows images of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The man guesses that Strand is from the West Coast. The man explains that he has come there to buy, because the best time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets. Strand says that everything he owns is submerged underwater, and he is bankrupt.
Later, Strand helps the man to his hotel room, as he is very drunk. Strand lays the man on the bed, then takes the man’s shoes and jacket off. Then he takes the man’s credit cards and leaves.
Strand is in a fancy hotel room, and gets a knock at the door. It’s the man from whom he stole the credit cards, who introduces himself as Thomas Abigail, along with his friend, Luis Flores. Strand tells him that he bought some clothes and purchased $30,000 worth of credit card debt. He says that’s where he started before moving to fringe real estate. It seems that Abigail is not going to call the police, and Strand says he intended to pay him back with interest. Flores is shocked that Abigail isn’t taking any action against Strand. Abigail tells Strand he’ll be waiting for him at the bar. Strand thanks him for the pardon, but Abigail says he didn’t pardon him, he obligated him.
Sometime later, Strand and Abigail lounge by a pool at his Baja house. Strand plans to meet up with Luis in LA to complete some business of buying a parcel of land. Abigail talks about how this place makes him feel like the rest of the world has fallen away, and they don’t need it. Then he reaches his hand out to Victor, who takes it, and they hold hands.
As the outbreak starts, Strand wants to go to LA to make a quick buck, due to the “blood in the streets.” However, Abigail tries to talk him out of going. Strand says he’ll be back in 2 days. They kiss goodbye.
Nick’s Adventure
Nick swims ashore, and wanders through a tent city. He finds a walker, and lures it toward a tent, where he zips the tent up behind him and waits inside. When the walker tries to go into the tent, Nick stabs it in the head. Then he cuts it open and smears its blood all over himself.
Nick pulls out a piece of paper with an address on it, and wanders down the street of a neighborhood. He sees a walker coming in his direction, so he imitates the way it is walking until it passes him.
Nick walks up to a house and knocks on the door. A man comes up behind him with a gun pointed at him — it’s Luis Flores. Nick says that Strand sent him and shows Luis the piece of paper with the address, pointing out “Abigail.” Luis says it’s about time, and loads up his expensive looking car. He explains that this housing complex was Phase 1 of the Abigail Home Experience, and they were just about to break ground on Phase 2. Luis is going to get them across the border to Mexico, but not until Nick cleans up first — he doesn’t want to get his car interior dirty.
However, it seems that Luis was not expecting so many people – he only secured transit for two, and adding 7 more people is a problem. The only way into Mexico is through the “flotilla” (fleet of ships or boats). Luis tells Nick that his mom works for the Abigails, and that she raised him and Thomas Abigail together. Now, his mother is staying at the Baja house. Luis leads Nick down to a raft, where they load up the bags.
The Yacht
Picking up after the events of last episode, later that night, Travis vents to Madison about Strand cutting Alex’s raft free. Travis doesn’t think they can trust Strand.
Meanwhile, Chris and Ofelia are sitting outside. Ofelia tells Chris a bit about her background. Chris talks about a girl he was seeing in Pomona before his mom moved them back to LA. Ofelia assures Chris that there are still girls left on the planet. Suddenly, they notice a raft rowing toward them. Its occupants yell that they need help, as they begin to come aboard. Chris points his gun, wondering aloud if he should shoot them. The two men help a pregnant woman aboard, who has blood running down her legs. They say that they’ve been drifting for days. Travis, Madison, and Daniel wake up and investigate.
Meanwhile, Strand hears the commotion, and goes for the assault rifle – only to see that Daniel has taken the clip.
Alicia wakes up and goes to see what’s going on. She sees her mother leading the pregnant woman into her bedroom, and says that the baby is in distress. Alicia wanders over to the new visitors and recognizes the voice of Jack, the person she had been communicating with on the radio. At the recognition, he punches Travis in the face, and they tie up everyone except Alicia. Meanwhile, the woman has knocked out Madison and tied her up as well. It turns out she had cut her leg.
They seem to know everyone’s names, though Alicia tells Daniel she didn’t tell Jack their names. They hear something outside, and Jack’s partner, Reed, runs out there, as Jack grabs Alicia’s hand and runs out there as well. They see Strand rowing away on a raft. Jack aims his gun at Strand, but hesitates. Reed shoots twice, and looks to have hit his target.
At daylight, we see that Strand is still alive, hanging onto the side of the raft, and trying to blow on his satellite phone and battery to dry it.
On board, Reed asks Alicia where the key to the boat is. But she says she doesn’t know. Ofelia tells him that the guy he shot was the Captain, and he had the key. He asks Chris if that’s true, but he doesn’t answer, so Reed hits Chris, then holds the gun to his head in an attempt to get an answer. Travis confirms that Strand has the key. However, Reed doesn’t let up on Chris, so Travis says he can hotwire the boat.
The pregnant woman brings Madison in with the rest of them. Madison asks where Nick is, but no one knows. Jack comes in and reports that no one else is there. The partner tells Jack to find the spare radio and reach out to Connor. Jack brings Alicia with him, to which Madison protests, but Alicia says she trusts Jack.
Jack assures Alicia that he didn’t come here to hurt anyone. He explains that they all have a function, and that he has to talk to Connor, who will assess the situation. Alicia asks what will happen to her family, and Jack assures her that Connor listens to him.
Meanwhile, Strand drops the satellite phone in the water, and it sinks before he is able to grab it.
Reed accompanies Travis as he works on getting the boat started. Travis says he’s going to have to go down to the engine room.
While their captors are distracted, Madison and Daniel scheme for a way to overtake them. Daniel works on getting his bindings loose, while Madison distracts the woman by talking to her about her pregnancy.
In the engine room, Travis tries to figure out what to do, while Reed points a gun at him.
In Alicia’s bedroom, Jack gets in touch with Connor via the radio. He says he looks forward to meeting Alicia. She asks Jack if anything he told her was true, and he says versions of it were. He then explains that Connor saved his life, so he owes him. Jack says that he doesn’t enjoy any of this, and apologizes about Reed shooting Strand, though Alicia says Strand wasn’t any better than Reed, and concedes that they’ve done worse on this boat. Jack asks Alicia to come back with him, and she says she could — with her family. Jack says that their resources are precious and that Connor doesn’t bring in just anyone. Alicia tells him that she’ll contribute and will be with him, if he protects her family. He cuts her tied hands loose, and she hugs him.
While Daniel continues to work on getting his ties loose, Madison continues to distract the pregnant woman. She implies that the baby might have died inside of her, and might turn. This conversation angers the woman, who holds her gun below Madison’s chin, but Reed walks in with Travis just then and breaks up the argument. While Reed is distracted, Travis slips a weapon behind the couch cushion before he and Reed head off to get the boat started.
Reed and Travis go up to the captain’s deck. Just before Travis is about to start it up, Connor’s boat approaches theirs. Reed says that Connor wants to meet Travis. Travis seems to be stalling before starting the boat up, but Reed tells him to go ahead. Travis touches a wire to an outlet, and the boat starts.
Connor and a couple of his people board the yacht. Connor says that Travis and Alicia will come with them — they only need two. Connor takes the two back onto his boat and they drive off, leaving Reed, the pregnant woman, and his two other people. Madison tries to convince Reed to let them go to shore, but he doesn’t like that idea.
Nick Makes It Back to the Yacht
Just then, Nick and Luis approach the yacht on their motorized raft. Nick, looking through binoculars, sees that there are people on board. After Nick confirms to Luis that the ones who are armed are not his people, Luis shoots the two new people that came from Connor’s boat. When Reed tries to go investigate, the group attacks him, and Madison stabs him in the side with the weapon Travis left behind for them. In the scuffle, Daniel, who had finally freed himself from his ties, was able to take Reed’s gun from him.
Nick and Luis board the yacht, and Nick tells them that Luis is going to get them into Mexico. However, Luis corrects him, saying he was going to get Strand into Mexico. Madison breaks the news that Strand escaped on the raft, and was shot at. Luis says that without Strand, they don’t get into Mexico.
As Strand floats around in the ocean, Madison takes the raft out to him and pulls him in.
Her Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 4 of Fear the Walking Dead: Blood in the Streets
I’m glad we finally got some background on Strand this episode, as he has been the big mystery man all this time, and his actual mission has been a big question mark. While I was not surprised to find out that he was somewhat of a con man, I was surprised and thought it was an intriguing and unexpected choice for the show that that Strand turned out to be a gay man in an interracial relationship. It’s always a good thing when a show can include diversity within its casting and storylines, so this aspect of the show has made me appreciate it more than I have before this point. As I’ve mentioned before, Strand has been the only thing keeping me interested in watching Fear the Walking Dead, and his backstory did not disappoint.
The episode was a little confusing with the way it started out with Nick swimming to shore. When he does so, you see helicopters flying out with spotlights, though I’m still not sure why. It made it seem like the group was on the run and Nick had to escape, and felt like this was a jump ahead in time and that we were going to go back and catch up to the point where we were now. It took me a little while to catch on that Nick’s storyline was happening simultaneously as the yacht storyline.
Anyway, so Alicia’s flub with giving out too much information over the radio to her friend Jack finally came back to bite them in the butt, just as Strand was afraid would happen, and like the audience knew would eventually happen. My question is how much time has passed since the “end of the world”? Connor and his people seem like they’ve been at this for quite awhile, or at least the way Jack explains it, that’s what it sounds like. Also, did Travis actually know how to get the boat started, or did he just get lucky? It seemed like he was just jerking Reed around in an attempt to save Chris, and was waiting for an opportunity to take him down.
So did Reed actually shoot Strand, or did Strand just pretend to get shot? I’m guessing Strand will be okay, since we need him to further the storyline of getting them to Mexico. However, what are they going to do about trying to get everyone else to Mexico too? I suppose that first they’re going to want to try to get Travis and Alicia back though, so Mexico will probably have to wait.
Although this episode was slightly more interesting than previous ones, I’m still not really all that into the show. Since most of the characters were held captive for the duration of this episode, they didn’t really have a chance to make those dumb decisions that they’ve been making. I’m guessing they’ll be back at it next episode, but hope that they’ll somehow get smarter. Probably not likely, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe this Luis guy will help in that department.
His thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 4: Blood in the Streets
So, it looks like Alicia’s radio friend kept his promise and came for a visit–with friends. That went about as expected. His group basically taking the boat over, and Jack trying to make himself appear as the nice guy, saving her life.
Strand certainly proved himself to be a coward. I am curious what his plan was after he went off into the ocean in the pontoon boat. He had few supplies, and no destination in sight. I thought this guy was a smart, calculating man? Apparently he is about as bright as the rest of the boat’s occupants.
Strand’s mystery-boyfriend seems intriguing though. His friend Luis shows up and takes some names, with his long range rifle. I am unsure how he was able to make such accurate shots on a pontoon boat, given the amount of movement you would have moving in that type of boat. But regardless, it was kind of cool establishing this guy as a tough dude.
The relationship between him and Strand will be interesting. Especially after Madison had saved Strand’s life. Is Strand going to try to muscle these people off the boat with his friend? Is he thankful to Madison and willing to be less secretive now? Will he help rescue Alicia and Travis? There are lots of questions. Especially because there was really only passage for two to Mexico, we learned. Was Strand going to abandon these people, or did he have a plan to help them too?
While there were a couple interesting moments to the episode, I cannot buy into it yet. I have to give it a little more time to see if things change and my interest becomes peaked.
Scenes from the Next Episode of Fear the Walking Dead: Captive
Preview for Season 2 Episode 5 of Fear the Walking Dead: Captive
