Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 9 of Fear the Walking Dead, titled Los Muertos, where Strand, Madison, Alicia, and Ofelia scavenge for supplies at a hotel, while Nick and Luciana go on a supply run. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Los Muertos, Episode 209 of Fear the Walking Dead
- Her thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 9: Los Muertos
Nick and The Wall
Nick wakes up and wanders outside, where he finds a little girl crying. He soon sees why. Her father is being sent by Luciana and the pharmacist into a field of Infected, weaponless, and is killed by them. Meanwhile, the villagers stand on the other side of the fence, watching and repeating a chant in Spanish. Nick is horrified.
Later, Dr. Nunez (aka Alejandro), the pharmacist, treats an injured man with an injection, who appears to have been bitten on the leg. Alejandro then has a quiet discussion with Lucia, saying something about “manana” (tomorrow).
Nick goes to collect some water, but it seems that the village’s water stores are dirty. Luciana tells Nick they have work to do. She leads him to the field of Los Muertos (The Dead), where she pins one to a wall and cuts it, so that she and Nick can take its blood and rub it on themselves, then she releases it. Nick wonders why she’s taking him with her, and she says it’s because no one will miss him. She explains that the only one who would miss her is already missing.
As they walk, Nick asks Luciana about what happened this morning. She explains that those who are near death deliver themselves to The Dead and join “The Wall” which protects them from outsiders. She says that the Dead are returning, and when they go, the world will be as new. Nick guesses that this was the pharmacist’s idea, but Luciana says that without him, they would be lost. She also reveals that he was bitten.
Luciana and Nick arrive at a supplies warehouse controlled by a gang. They lay down their weapons before entering and hand over some medicine in exchange for entry. They are allowed to fill one cart with anything in the warehouse, though Luciana points out that the deal used to be 2 carts.
Luciana tells Nick to fill the cart only with what they need, and disapproves of him trying to get a pastry snack. They fill the cart with water bottles. Nick notices one of the gang members tending to a sick woman.
When they leave, the men tackle Nick for stealing – he ended up hiding the snack in his waistband. The men are about to chop off his hand, when Nick asks Ofelia to translate for him. He asks if that was the man’s sister inside. Nick then warns that they’ll take their business elsewhere, which means no more oxy for the man’s sister. He then demands another cart of water if the man wants to continue getting oxy. Nick and Ofelia leave with 2 carts, but Ofelia is now worried that the men will follow them back to the “colonia.”
They make it back safely. Nick gives the stolen snack to the little girl who lost her father earlier that day. Then Nick is called to see Alejandro. He explains why he stole the snack. Alejandro shows Nick that he injected the man this morning with saline solution, which won’t help stop the infection. He explains that he’d rather the man didn’t fear. He further explains that the Dead are walking toward their final resting place, and when the world is washed cleaned, the faithful will remain. Alejandro believes that they have been chosen and will outlast death. Nick asks why he’s so sure, but Alejandro doesn’t answer, and instead casually lets his unbuttoned shirt slip to reveal the spot on his shoulder where he was bitten. Alejandro then gives Nick a bottle of water, tells him to drink, and says he is welcome to stay with them. However, he warns Nick that if he ever puts his people in danger again, he’ll feed him to The Wall.
Later, Nick stands at the back of a room where Alejandro delivers a rousing speech (in Spanish). The congregation begins chanting the phrase that they had been chanting earlier that morning when the man was eaten by the Wall. We now see the translation: “From death we come and to death we deliver ourselves.” Nick begins chanting along as well.
Strand, Madison, Alicia, and Ofelia
Strand has been driving Madison around to look for Nick for 2 days with no success. Alicia and Strand convince her that they have to go back to the Abigail. They drive back to where they left the Abigail, but it’s gone. Madison is reluctant to leave, thinking that Nick will never find them. Alicia has an idea though – they use branches to leave a note for Nick: “ABIGAIL LOST HEAD NORTH.”
The group drives toward a hotel for shelter. They watch it for awhile and don’t see any movement, so they head inside. The doors are barricaded with chairs, but they get in fairly easily. They don’t find anyone or anything upon entering.
They wander around and find a room where a wedding had been interrupted. Ofelia talks about how she was almost married once, but he was moving to New Mexico, while she had to take care of her parents. Strand comments that the past will make you sick.
They end up wandering into the bar, where Alicia insists on checking every hotel room to find supplies. Madison wants Alicia with her, but Alicia says she can take care of herself, and she and Ofelia head out, while Strand and Madison stay in the bar.
Strand makes a couple of martinis for them, and Strand finds out that Madison is from Alabama, where she bartended to put herself through school. They then move on to tequila.
Meanwhile, Alicia and Ofelia figure out that someone has marked the rooms that contain Infected with “Do Not Disturb” signs. They go into a room marked safe, where they find that a man has hung himself in the shower and is now an Infected. They leave the room, and change the sign to “Do Not Disturb.” They go to another safe room and collect more supplies. Alicia wonders why the man gave up. Ofelia says maybe he got tired of surviving, and starts to break down about her father. Alicia assures her that they’re her family now.
Strand and Madison get drunk and discuss what might have been. Strand says that he would have hit on Madison at a bar, and says that he is a seducer of people. Madison realizes that Alicia is right – she’ll never see Nick again. However, Strand assures Madison that he’s alive. But Madison says that Nick has his father’s darkness in him. We also learn that when Nick’s father, Steven, crossed the divider into oncoming traffic, she lied when she told the kids he fell asleep. They get more and more drunk, toasting to motherhood and false hope, and Madison starts throwing glasses at the wall, while Strand decides to play the piano (not very well). The Infected trapped in a nearby building hear the commotion and clamor to get out.
Alicia gets finished taking a shower, but Ofelia is nowhere around. She then notices that Infected are coming out of their rooms and falling off the balcony. Alicia realizes what is happening and runs into the hallway to look for Ofelia. She opens the door to the stairwell, but it is filled with Infected.
A drunk Madison and Strand finally notice that Infected are closing in on them. The Infected break through the glass and come inside. The two grab whatever they can to fight back, but there’s too many, and soon find themselves trapped in the bar area, surrounded by Infected.
Her Thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 9: Los Muertos
Okay, so I’m glad that this episode didn’t focus on just one person or group like last week’s episode that focused entirely on Nick. I much prefer it when we see what’s going on from different people’s, or group’s, perspectives. Interestingly though, we only expanded to include one extra group, in addition to Nick, which was the Strand/Madison/Alicia/Ofelia group. We’ll call this the “main group” just because it has the most people from the original group. So we are 2 episodes in after the break, and still no sign of Travis and Chris. That seems like quite a bit of a hiatus to spend away from those characters, after having seen so much of them in previous episodes. But judging by the preview for the next episode, it looks like we will be seeing them next time, finally.
Regarding the main group, I feel like they’re just repeating a mistake that they’ve made before. Okay, they’ve made a lot of mistakes, so I’ll be more specific. Remember that episode when Alicia was looking at the area with the plane crash through her binoculars and thought it was safe because she didn’t see any movements for a few minutes, and everyone else agreed with her and thought it was a good idea to send all the kids over there to gather supplies, but then it turned out that the area was crawling with Infected and they barely made it back to the boat alive? Yeah, that’s how I felt like this whole hotel situation was going to turn out. And once again, it was Alicia’s idea, go figure. Just because you don’t see walkers doesn’t mean they aren’t there. But at least Alicia behaved more responsibly than the adults, Strand and Madison, who thought it was a good idea to get drunk and make a lot of noise to attract the Infected. Smart guys, real smart. And by “smart” I mean annoying stupid, like so many decisions that people make in this show. I really thought they would know better by now, even if they were drunk and the area “seemed” safe.
But here’s the big takeaway from this episode: Madison is from Alabama. Which is right next to Georgia. Which is where Atlanta is. Which is where The Walking Dead started off. It seems like Fear the Walking Dead is trying to set up some connection with The Walking Dead, implying that maybe Madison is related to one of the characters, which ties in with Chris Hardwick’s theory that he brought up at the Fear the Walking Dead panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year. I’m pretty sure that the producers have claimed that the two shows aren’t really associated with each other, apart from taking place in the same universe, but I think they are setting us up for some sort of connection down the line, which would be pretty cool.
Back to Nick, though. How does there always happen to be some cult or group that likes to keep a big group of Infected/walkers/whatever you want to call them, and likes to revere them?! And Nick always happens to find them and fall in line with them. If Nick was around for The Walking Dead I’m sure he’d support Hershel’s decision about keeping the walkers alive in the barn. It almost seems like there are more of these groups than there are the normal people who would want to do the sane thing and kill off these dangerous creatures. Anyway, so it seems like this “colonia’s” days are numbered, with the group running out of the oxy medicine that they use to trade the gang for supplies. It does seem like the Wall might actually be helpful if the gang ever decides to come after Luciana’s colonia, but pretty much all that’s going to end up happening is that the Infected will get unleashed upon the colonia. I’m not sure why Alejandro’s people think they are “chosen” or whatever. Alejandro, sure, because he was bitten and did not turn. But everyone else? Especially Nick, who joins in the chant, not even knowing what it means, considering that he doesn’t know Spanish.
The other big takeaway from this episode though, is learning that Alejandro is apparently immune. I don’t think we’ve ever come across someone who is immune, either in Fear the Walking Dead or in The Walking Dead, which is odd, considering that most virus shows there will be someone who ends up being immune so that some sort of cure can be made from them. But I guess that goes to show just how rare this immunity is. However, I suppose there’s not really a way of testing whether one is immune until it’s too late. For all we know, many of the characters we already know could be immune, but there’s just not really a good way of finding out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like this aspect will be explored, and more of the crazy town aspect will instead be focused upon. I hope I’m wrong though.
His Thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 9: Los Muertos
COMING SOON
Scenes from Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 10: Do Not Disturb
Preview of Season 2 Episode 10 of Fear the Walking Dead
