Fear the Walking Dead still struggles to get its sea legs.
ThisFear the Walking Deadreview contains spoilers.
So lets talk about what did and didnt work in Captive.
What worked:
Alex (Michelle Ang) returns.
Shes a great character, one we were initially introduced to in theFlight 462minisodes.
InFlight 462, Alex was basically the only person on the plane who possessed any kind of apocalypse savvy.
She put those new survival skills to the test as the flight was quickly overrun by the undead.
Were it not for Alex, one of his parents would have made it onto the doomed flight.
(I thought Alex was one of the more interesting parts of that episode, too.)
So its interesting to learn its because of her that Travis was taken from the boat.
And its here that the episode becomes more philosophical.
We can be more than what weve become, cant we?
Nick is pretty chill.
Yes, Nick is a pretty laid back guy, all things considered.
He had no problem braving dangerous waters to make landfall in Mexico in Blood in the Streets.
He handled himself well against a major zombie beach attack in Ouroboros.
Connors (Mark Kelly) untimely death.
Or maybe its timely, based on your feelings about him.
As for what didnt work:
Minimal zombie action.
Im all for character development in a show like this.
We dont need constant action to tell a good story.
But in the absence of a more compelling narrative, the lack of zombies becomes very obvious.
Except in this case, instead of someone else animating the corpse, the corpse animated itself.
Returning to land, again.
Seriously,FTWD, you are really squandering the premise of weathering the zombie apocalypse on the high seas.
Hes not the cool customer I once thought he was.
In Captive, he spends a lot of time shivering under a blanket.
When I said he was cool, thats not exactly what I meant.
Plus his justification for needing Nick still isnt holding much water for me.
And finally, what really didnt work for me was how quickly the Connor storyline is wrapped up.
Its not even like they stocked up on any of Connors Omaha steaks before leaving.
Some closing thoughts:
Im on the fence about Chris.
I can appreciate that he regrets not shooting Reed and company on sight before they boarded the yacht.
Daniel is suddenly hearing voices.
Is this his guilty conscience speaking up, or something else?
