RECAP: Fear The Walking Dead “The Dog” [Episode 3]

Madison, Nick, and Alicia are holding up at home while Chris, Travis, and Liza are still temporarily safe – staying with the Salazar family. They learn that states of emergency have been called in 11 states, so far.  This thing is spreading faster than even poor Tobias could have predicted.  Mind numbingly clueless rioters are making things worse by running wild, setting fires, and breaking into the neighboring stores. Luckily, the dumbest die first!  

When the fires begin to destroy the walls of the fortified barbershop, the two families make a run for it. Chris is stunned watching an Infected officer attack and attempt to bite another officer. Travis has been keeping the truth from his son.  There are no secrets to be kept any more.  Only Alicia is still in the dark as Madison keeps her children occupied with a game of monopoly.  As the Clarks are having family game night, the other two families are literally running a gauntlet through shouting rioters who have blocked the streets and the sidewalks. They nearly make it to Travis’ parked truck when a scaffold falls on Mrs. Salazar (Griselda), drawing blood. 

While the Clarks seem to be having an easier time, it begins to feel as if they are Walker bait, sitting by candlelight, pretending everything is ok, until they hear gunshots – breaking the mood. Somehow, Travis and company are permitted to leave downtown, as if officers are attempting to clear as much of the road as possible. The group witnesses walker patients stumbling out of a nearby hospital, being shot down.  They realize there is no where they can take Griselda for treatment so Mr. Salazar (Daniel) decides they should go home with Travis until his cousin can come to pick up the family. There is tension between the two men who think that each is keeping score regarding who is ahead in helping save the other.  The mood in the truck is sombre as all watch the lights go out in the city.

The lights are out at the Clark house, as well.  Nick is trying to convince his mother that Travis has abandoned them for his other family – which is funny since it is pretty much what Chris wants, too. Alicia notes that Mr. Dawson is on the prowl again. If ever there was an anti-drug endorsement, #FTWD isn’t it. The only guy in the room with a drug addiction is the person who has to tell his mother and sister to get away from the window, as they shine their flashlights out into the darkness signaling their position.He also has to tell them to stay quiet as the walkers begin shaking the door handles, trying to get inside. Unfortunately, Nick’s family gene kicks in and he decides to pull back the curtains to satisfy his curiosity about what is on the other side (as if he hasn’t seen it before).  It’s only a neighbor’s dog, covered in someone else’s blood.  

Nick leads everyone out the back door when the dog alerts them that good ole’ Mr. Dawson is approaching the front door. Yup, the dog gets left behind with an open patio door. Nick leads them to next door neighbor’s (Susan and Patrick Tran’s) home to look for weapons as Alicia searches the family pictures on the wall. As Nick loads the gun, Alicia notices that someone has entered their house, across the backyard. We know it is Mr. Dawson, and the dog’s whimpering tells us what has happened.  They run home just as Travis pulls up in the driveway.  They are unable to get to him before he, Liza, and Chris walk through the front door.  

We see what we knew was true, the dog is being gutted by Mr. Dawson, just as the lights kick on again. A battle ensues as Travis tries to “save” Dawson -who is trying to bite him. Mr. Salazar wastes no time and fires twice, first taking off Dawson’s  face, and then taking off his head.  No one has noticed that Alicia ran back to the neighbor’s house to retrieve additional shotgun shells when she is nearly bitten. Chris grabs her to pull her back over the fence, but she panics and hits him, nearly breaking his nose.  Nick has to tell them that the neighbor, “Susan” is dead when Matt springs to a terrified Alicia’s mind. She refuses to believe that Matt has become one of those things.

The Salazars want to leave in the morning. Maddie and Alicia want to leave immediately. When Travis agrees to wait, Madison at least wants the dead body out of the house. Daniel warns that Dawson’s body should be burned, but Travis, who is emotionally connected to the man, refuses to listen. Later, while Travis is  talking to Liza, she makes it clear that without a doctor,Griselda will get blood poisoning and die. The Ofelia tries to convince her parents that they need to go with this new family. Daniel  feels that this is the wrong time to be in someone else’s debt. As Madison and Travis talk, she plans to give part of the meds she took from the school to Griselda. They embrace and Travis swears to never leave Madison again.

Later, Madison and Liza talk things out while guarding the back door. Liza wants the two women to get along to help reassure the children, who will need them both.  Madison begins waxing poetic about the neighbor, Susan, who watched her kids while she worked and helped her after her husband died. She makes Liza promise to “take care of her” if she ever becomes like Susan.  She doesn’t want Travis to have to do it, knowing it would break him.  I’m trying to determine if her comments were about her love for Travis or were more “new wife/girlfriend bitchy.” I think taking Liza out would break him too, from what we’ve seen.
 

“Su su” is still snarling and reaching through the fence the next morning, as Travis is burying Dawson. He bids her good morning.  Salazar is teaching Chris how to fire the shotgun and Travis flips out. He has moved from the “clueless” to “utterly stupid” column after all of this. They are gearing up to leave but Madison doesn’t want to go without giving Susan peace. She wonders about Susan’s husband, Patrick, and if he will ever make it home or if he made it home and is now gone. Travis goes full “Hershel” and thinks if there is a chance people can still be saved let them “live.” Madison leaves Susan among the “undead.” Daniel witnesses the scene and, speaking to himself, calls Travis “weak.”

They haven’t made it out of the driveway before Nick is begging for more drugs and is pissed off that the rest of the drugs went to the Salazar family. When she vows to be there for him,  Nick tells his mother he doesn’t need her, he needs his meds.  I  guess it’s wrong that I want her to leave him behind. Daniel is just happy that they are leaving. He still thinks he will find a doctor to treat his wife when they are gone. Ofelia is convinced her father is living a fantasy. Maddie and her children ride together while Travis, Liza, and Chris huddle in the truck. Just then Madison sees Patrick, who was turned back at the airport and couldn’t make his business trip. She drives back to help him. He finds her in the backyard and just as Susan reaches to bite him, soldiers take her out and pull the others away.  They clearly now know to take the kill shot, not one bullet was wasted. Patrick is devastated.

Patrick has been removed, since he was covered “in the blood of the infected.” The soldiers take the names of the three sets of family members: Madison, Alicia, and Nick Clark… Travis and Chris Manawa, Liza Ortiz… Daniel, Griselda, and Ofelia Salazar.  It feels more like a listing for the obituary pages.  Nick scours the neighborhood for drugs before feeling shame when a little girl waves at him through a window.  False hope spreads, as they watch soldiers clear bodies from the neighborhood and search home to home.   Daniel is the one who realizes that it is already too late.

 

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