RECAP: Fear The Walking Dead “Lights Out in East L.A.” [Episode 2]

The Walking Dead has always been difficult to watch and yet still intriguing to fans, I believe, because we joined our ATL survivors at a time when the world was already gone. We didn’t know how, or why, or what the last days were like until we were granted bits and pieces of our survivor’s histories as they reminisced.  We were never given flashbacks and the end of civilization was left to our imaginations. Fear the Walking Dead is even more difficult once you realize that, while fictional, nearly every beloved pet, mother and child, skateboarding teen, and lovers holding hands will soon be gone.  They will not be prepared for what’s coming, and while we can be reasonably certain that several of our recently introduced L.A. survivors will be around for a while – we know that they won’t be prepared, either.

Speaking of unprepared, we open to Alicia approaching Matt’s beautiful family  home, having been stood up for the date at the beach. The front door is open and the living room is in disarray, as furniture has been turned over. The shallow bits of me realize how much I would even miss the cozy furniture in that apocalypse. She doesn’t know to run, as we want her too. While I thought she was about to experience Nick’s shock of finding Glo hungrily stooped over a dead body last week, Alicia finds Matt alive, but breathing heavily.

 

Madison and Travis are waking up to reality after leaving Calvin’s undead body, and all are searching the car’s radio for news to figure out what’s going on but can’t find what they are looking for Travis is the most anxious and wants them all to head for the desert (Chris and Liza included). Maddie is hoping to find Alicia, who, of course, did not go home as instructed. When they are able to get through, Alicia tells her family that Matt has a high fever and that he’s sick. They know she should stay away from him and heave the house, especially since his parents are still in Vegas. They know she is in danger and there will be no one to help her.

When they arrive, it is clear that he has been bitten. They unsuccessfully  try to convince her that he may be contagious and that she should go before she becomes ill, too. It is as if Matt also knows something is seriously wrong. He tells her to go, reminding her that his parents are one their way home to him. It is sweet, and sad, because we all know what Maddie and Travis (and even Matt) understand. He is dying. As this is happening, we learn that Chris is even closer to the action when a bus empties as the crowd goes to watch “a cop who shot a homeless dude 20 times.”

As the Clark family arrives home, suspicion sets in. One neighbor is feverishly coughing and sweating, scaring Maddie. Another neighbor is planning a child’s birthday party worries about “the bug” going around that may stop the guests from attending. Nick, our ultimate survivor, wants his mother to warn the neighbors, especially the party planning mom, Mrs. Cruz. Travis cleans Cal’s blood off of his truck before going to pick up Liza and Chris as Maddie goes to warn her neighbor. Other than the fact that we know it is the beginning of an apocalypse, the day looks as normal as any other – with the exception of the borrowed “Freaky Friday” plot.

Now Liza is the person who doesn’t listen, telling Travis they agreed that Chris could stay with her this weekend – not to come over. She shuts him down when he tries to tell her that something is wrong. Nick, who kept his stuff together through three different near death incidents, is unable to battle the toughest fight yet, his addiction. Without access to the a prescription to help him, Maddie turns to another source – the school’s (confiscated?) drugs locker. Tobias surprises her asking if he can reclaim his knife. Uh, did the kid not make it home? Did he take the family’s only knife? Surely he didn’t think school was a better place to die than home because that would be even more tragic. I am already hoping he becomes part of Maddie’s family.

If Chris is not careful, he will not be part of the family. A crowd is berating the officers for shooting a  homeless man they all knew to be harmless. #PotentiallyNewChris (Tobias) follows Maddie into her office. While mom is out scoring drugs for her big brother, Alicia is caring for Nick and it is not pretty. She tires of caring for him and decides to go help Matt instead. Nick tries to warn her that Matt is not safe, and will kill her if she goes to him. Sadly for him, but luckily for her, Nick has a seizure and Alicia races back to save him.

Chris doesn’t want to leave the protest, even after called by his mother and father. They will have to go get him. Walkers waiting to rise, protesting chaotic crowd. #Niceknowingyou, kid.  Tobias is still dropping words of wisdom and is raiding the school’s food pantry – his real reason for being there. Maddie, convinced they have enough, doesn’t think she needs to take any of the food when offered. As her children are sharing a warm and tender  moments at home, Maddie is feeling less than warm listening to Tobias’ accurate predictions about how the world falls. They hear a growl over the intercom system, with Tobias telling Maddie that “it’s one of them.” He could have told it to a stone wall with a better outcome.

Principal Costa was featured at the beginning of the episode, patrolling the school, making sure the students were all gone and that the building was secure. Like any good captain with his ship, Costa has gone down. He is now a walker. He is the walker they heard on the intercom -we think. If he is bitten, another walker has to be there, too, right? Though Tobias is warning her to stop calling for him, she continues to try to reason with Costa. Sure, this is all new, but the guy is nonverbal and growling… Pssst, you’ve seen that BEFORE! Tobias attempts to protect Maddie from a charging Costa using his recently returned, perfectly useless, knife, aiming for the chest. Of course it has no effect and a struggle ensues with Costa and Tobias hitting the stairs. Maddie panics and it takes her a minute to think of grabbing the fire extinguisher (seriously, she’s going to make it to the end, isn’t she? Clearly others are going to die trying to save her from her stupidity). She finally uses the extinguisher to put the growling “Artie” out of his misery. I can’t believe Tobias wasn’t bitten!

Downtown, Travis and Liza find Chris in the crowd, just as the homeless walker rises and more walkers approach. On the other end of the crowd, a mounting police riot force causes the crowd to disperse as some take the opportunity to destroy property and overturn vehicles they have no idea they’ll need, imminently. As a barber is closing up, shop, lowering the metal shutters, Travis, Liza find Chris find refuge. I get a warm fuzzy when he introduces  his son and ex as his family. The barbershop suddenly feels like the safest place anyone could be. Tobias, going home, doesn’t feel safe, to me. Maddie offers him the chance to stay with her family until this all ends, but  he tells her it won’t end, and that she has a son to take care of –  he’ll be ok. It is the first time anyone has said that on either of the Walking Dead shows and I believed it.  I hope we see this kid again.

Between the sirens and the glass breaking, Tobias’ predictions are  becoming all too real. Travis is grateful to be behind the metal shutters, but knows when they leave, they have to all get far away from what’s happening. The lack of incoming news makes it feel local, for everyone. Maddie makes it home and cries as she washes Costa’s blood out of her jacket. She is interrupted by a call from Travis letting her know they’re all safe. She lets him know that she has enough pills to wean Nick off of his addiction and to make it to the desert. As they hear heavy fire and the metal shutters rattling, he tells her to go to the desert, not to wait. As told by Tobias (which should become an AMC column) the phones die. Power and the internet are next, surely. The scenes that follow are gruesome: Costa’s body on the school stairway, Matt’s parents’ car with lights on and truck open – suggesting they are now gone, too, rioters in the street with a car burning… society in chaos.  

We hear Mrs. Cruz screaming as Mr. Dawson – the neighboring with the fever and cough from earlier, is attacking her. Alicia is as horrified by her mother stopping her from running to help Mrs. Cruz, as she is by Mr. Dawson’s attack. As the barber’s wife prays, we know that the only thing left for most of them to pray for is a quick end, and it is heartbreaking to watch, knowing there is little hope left for most of them. Or is there?  

We’ll find out next week.  

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