Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 11 of Fear the Walking Dead, titled Pablo & Jessica, where Madison’s group tries to clear the dead from the hotel, while Nick tries to make up for the trouble he caused at the trade. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Pablo & Jessica, Episode 211 of Fear the Walking Dead
- Her thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 11: Pablo & Jessica
The Hotel
The episode picks up at the end of Season 2 Episode 9, two episodes ago, where Madison and Strand are overcome by Infected. They are able to take shelter behind the bar, and then Madison kills a walker, which she and Strand then take the blood from and smear it on themselves. They are then able to sneak past the horde unnoticed, close the doors behind them, and barricade the doors with chairs.
When Strand and Madison run outside, they find that the truck is gone. They climb up to higher ground in a different section of the hotel and have a look around from there, then go inside. Madison doesn’t believe that Alicia would leave though. It seems that this is the spa area. They gather supplies, including several bottles of water.
Suddenly, Madison hears Alicia’s screams, figures out where they’re coming from, and busts open the door to find Alicia and her new friends Elena and Hector. Now we’re back to where the previous episode ended.
Madison wants to go after Ofelia, who may or may not have taken the truck, but Strand wants to focus on what’s there. Elena explains the situation about the others wanting her dead. Madison and Strand decide to take matters in their own hands and go to talk to Oscar about working together. He allows them to come up to his room without weapons. Madison asks Oscar and his people for their help, saying that this is a good place to a make a home — but they have to clear the dead first. Oscar says that if they help, then Elena cannot stay. However, Madison sticks up for Elena, saying it was the sickness who took the woman’s daughter, not Elena. Oscar gives them the keys.
Strand accompanies Alicia and Hector while they clear hotel rooms with dead inside. It seems that more people from Oscar’s group have decided to help as well. They drag the bodies out to the beach to be burned. They realize that it’s going to take too long clearing 1 floor per day, considering that there are 3 buildings with 17 floors. Alicia notices a warning sign on the pier about rip tides, and comes up with an idea to clear all of the walkers at once.
Elena explains the layout of the hotel, and the group gets ready to put their plan into action. Before Madison splits off from Alicia, she assures Alicia that she’s not losing her, and they hug. Alicia and Hector go out to the parking lot and lure Infected to follow them. Meanwhile, Elena and Victor go floor to floor and open the hotel room doors to let the Infected out, and then have them follow. Madison also lures Infected toward her. The three groups meet up in the agreed room, which leads to the pier. All the walkers converge into one horde and follow them out to the pier.
Madison continues to lure the walkers down the pier by banging a pan, while Alicia and Hector go jump into a motored raft, and a couple of the others try to help get the boat out. Everyone watches, even the bride’s mother. They have some trouble with the waves, but are able to get to where they need. There’s an opening in the pier’s barrier, where Madison jumps into the water, and the Infected follow, jumping off as well. Madison swims to the raft, and they pull her to safety.
That night, almost everyone joins at the dining table for a celebratory feast. Oscar is not there, however. Strand finds out from Elena where the Honeymoon Suite is, and goes up there, where he finds Oscar standing guard outside. Oscar reminisces about when he and his wife got together, and tells Strand he won’t let him touch her. Strand sympathizes with him, but tells him it’s not his wife in there. Strand pleads with Oscar to let him help him, and finds out his wife’s name is Jessica. Oscar reluctantly agrees, and lets Strand go inside.
La Colonia
Nick goes to see Alejandro and tells him he’d like to make up for screwing up the trade. Nick’s solution is to mix the powdered milk with the oxy to make new “oxy” tablets, in order to buy the Colonia more time, since they are running out of oxy. Nick asks Alejandro what happened, referring to his bite. Nick doesn’t seem to believe he was really bitten.
Alejandro tells him his story. There was a boy who was an addict, and was mistaken for one of the Infected, and a mob attacked him, herding him toward the other Infected. Alejandro stepped in to save the boy, but as he was being attacked by the living, he was also bitten by the dead. He went and found Luciana, and they waited for death to come, but it didn’t.
Before Nick heads out with the oxy, Alejandro tells him to be brave, but careful. They notice Luciana playing soccer with the children. Nick joins in. While they’re playing, a man named Francisco, covered in blood, comes in to talk to Alejandro, telling him “he’s in pieces.” Luciana realizes that they found Pablo.
Luciana heads out with Nick for the trade. Luciana tells Nick that Pablo was her brother. She tells him a little more about her family, and that her brother was all she had left. She begins to cry, and Nick hugs her.
After Luciana and Nick return safely, Alejandro talks with Nick, saying that Luciana told him the trade went well. Alejandro then rewards Nick with a small house to stay in, using the excuse that he needs to free up beds in the infirmary. Nick tries to protest, but Alejandro says he deserves it.
That night, Luciana visits Nick at his new place. She is surprised to find Nick reading a dictionary. He is trying to learn Spanish, and practices with Luciana. He tells her a little about his family. After awhile, Luciana falls asleep, and when she wakes up, Nick is sitting on the floor with the dictionary. She gets up to leave, but Nick stops her and asks her about what Alejandro said that morning about her testing people, and that she was testing him. Luciana kisses Nick, and he kisses back.
Her Thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 11: Pablo & Jessica
Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to admit that I was finally getting on board with Fear the Walking Dead. Things were getting more interesting, and I liked that we were seeing other perspectives of when the world fell, as well as meeting new characters and adding them to the group. In this episode, with regards the hotel group, we expand even more, seeing that there were quite a few people in Elena’s rival group that was headed by Oscar, the groom. We got to know Oscar a little bit better, and it seems he may be coming around. As for the bride’s mother, however, it seems like she may be a problem down the road.
While I was on board with most of the hotel group aspect of this episode, by the time it got to the part when they actually set their plan into motion, that’s where it fell apart to me. It seemed unrealistic that all those Infected actually followed the three different groups as planned, and that they ended up with that number of walkers, because it surely didn’t seem like it when they were doing their gathering. Then when Madison jumped into the water and the walkers followed, it didn’t seem like they would continue to do so, unless there were people down there that the walkers would want to go after. I suppose that Alicia, Hector, and Madison could have stayed in that spot with the raft until all the walkers jumped in. But is this plan really going to be effective? Madison didn’t have a whole lot of trouble swimming to the raft. Who’s to say that the walkers won’t just get washed ashore? I just had a hard time with the overall believability of this plan.
That brings us to Nick. His story felt like more of a minor side story this episode. Though we did hear the story of what happened to Alejandro. I don’t really have a reason to doubt him, because immunity is always a possibility when it comes to virus movies and shows. But I suppose he could have thought he got bitten by an Infected, when in reality it was just somebody that was on drugs? I know I have heard stories in the news about people being on drugs and biting people, trying to eat them.
Also, that didn’t take long for Luciana and Nick to hook up. Is she just testing him again? How exactly has she been “testing” him anyway?
So… what are Travis and Chris up to now? We’ve only seen them once so far this half of the season, and judging by the preview below, it doesn’t look they make an appearance next episode.
At this point, I’m still cautiously optimistic about where this season is heading. Hopefully the show can live up to my expectations.
His Thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 11: Pablo & Jessica
COMING SOON
Scenes from Fear the Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 12: Pillar of Salt
Preview of Season 2 Episode 12 of Fear the Walking Dead
