Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 discussion and spoilers.

[jbny67]

Youngest boy: takes a pill "vitamin" to keep the family together?

I think the "vitamin" pills were something they gave him on a regular basis to make it easier to get him to take the poison pills when the time came. It would just be part of the daily routine & he wouldn't think twice about it.

Not to mention his assumptions seemed based on Ranger stations going dark, though those aren't exactly grouped around major population centers (and isn't it pretty early for that many Ranger Stations to have gone dark already, anyway? Low population, secluded areas should be relatively safe).

Places like remote ranger stations might be some of the first places to go dark. In a situation like this, a lot of the workers there might abandon their posts to go try and help family they have in the heavier populated areas.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

It kind of makes you wonder how bad the Operation Cobalt really fucked over the country. In this episode we learn that (at the least) San Diego and Portland are gone. Also several ranger stations, so we can probably assume most of the major cities between Los Angeles and Colorado have been napalmed. Well, in The Walking Dead, we saw how well that took care of the walker infestation of Atlanta (not at all). In the first season, L.A. seemed pretty quiet, except for the 2,000 undead in the stadium. Makes you wonder why the military didn't just send in a bunker buster in the stadium (and other stadiums where walkers are contained) instead of napalming the shit out of everything and really exasperating the situation even more. Or hell, why not just use nukes on the major cities if you're trying to go for total devastation?

 

[davejames]

Yeah that's something I've always had a bit of trouble buying in these kinds of stories-- when the government just decides to nuke or napalm an entire US city to somehow save the rest of the country from a virus or plague of some kind.

And it's especially strange here, given that the virus has already spread out over the entire country and world as a whole by this point. So wiping out some cities or even the entire west coast isn't going to change that at all.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Travis: would anyone in their right mind just start walking up on a ZA property and yelling out? What if the occupants were like Joe's Claimers? Randall's gang? Travis' family cannot fight, and were not armed. How much sense does that make?

It's a risk, yes, but so is walking up on a likely heavily armed, isolated cabin in the middle of the night during the apocalypse without announcing yourself and your intentions beforehand. They got a signal from the house, and so far their experience with rival groups and raiding parties is limited, so Travis felt the greater risk was rolling up on these people unannounced. They do a lot of stupid things on this show, but I can't really fault them for this one.

Nick: jeopardizing the safety of his family by seeking drugs? Yeah--he thinks the pills are lethal, but Nick's original motive is the same self-serving BS. The series cannot keep this "flawed hero" crap going on as he's not realistic, but TV loving to prop up lowlife characters. Who would tolerate such self serving BS during a fight to survive?

No way. It's almost as if addiction makes you do crazy, irrational, selfish things when you're desperate for another hit. Who'd a thunk it?

Daniel: Where the hell does he get off questioning the ownership of Strand's boat? "A" or "my" is interchangeable in loose conversation. Breaking into his locker? He deserves to be kicked off of the boat.

He's a former secret police/intelligence officer who reads people and recognizes that Strand is not telling the truth or the whole story about himself, the boat, and their destination, and he's concerned about the safety of his daughter and the group if Strand abandons them or leads them somewhere dangerous or turns them over as hostages for all he knows. It's weird that you're preaching total distrust for every other situation but unquestioning loyalty in this one.

The guy is clearly sketchy as hell and hiding something, which is what makes him interesting, but it would be pretty disconcerting if your life and the lives of your surviving family depended on him.

Madison: Oh, so thinking of taking a parent's children seems like a good idea? How can she promise to keep anyone safe, when she cannot guarantee that for herself? Who the hell is she to order Strand to do anything?

Dispassionately speaking, logistically and in terms of increasing their difficulty of survivability, no, taking on two young children would not have been a "good" idea. But it was the decent, human thing to do, and what I would expect someone who has children and worked with kids to do this early into the apocalypse, before they've had time to form calluses on their hearts. If she hadn't tried they would have been irredeemable characters already.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Or hell, why not just use nukes on the major cities if you're trying to go for total devastation?

Radioactive Zombies, coming to the SyFy Channel in 2016.

Besides the clouds of radioactive dust sweeping inland from the oceans, the fallout would produce a nuclear winter that would wipe out a lot of plant and animal life for a few years (and take decades to recover from). So, not only would you be dealing with a zombie infestation unaffected by these problems, but you'd be freezing, starving, dehydrated, and dying of radiation sickness as you're trying to get away from them.

 

[hux]

Am I the only one who thought they had it pretty good on that island? Sure, the resort zombies might start to migrate over but it's a finite number. You could definitely deal with them and is the alternative -- randomly heading south -- that much better?

Was Nick responsible for the little girl's death? It seemed like she found those tablets specifically because of him. If the WD has taught us anything, it's taught us that, just because you are surviving doesn't mean you're surviving better than other people. I honestly don't see why they felt they needed to interfere. "Give your children to us... We're going on a boat... Somewhere."

Anyway, I'm starting to enjoy the cosy catastrophe feel of this show now that they're on the boat. I hope they stick with it and we see them hitting the mainland shore and islands for supplies etc as it goes on. I always wished Rick and co would go south and find a boat. It makes sense as a way of surviving.

It's picking up some speed.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, for me, the series is getting progressively better. I mean, it's not quick progression; about as quick as yacht on the open seas but progression none-the-less. I mean, if this were the "parent" series that launched the franchise on television I don't think it would have stuck me, or anyone else, with it; so it has the advantage of a name to ride off of so we know there's potential here for stuff to go on as more and more human threats become apparent.

The survivalist family was pretty interesting, though I was a bit confused on the "vitamins"/"pills" thing. Someone above seemed to suggest that the pills Nick found were the hidden lethal drugs and that kids were being fed placebos in order to adapt them to "trusting" the pills they were being given by their father under the guise of being vitamins. But.... these are grade-school aged kids; do they really need this ruse? Wouldn't they take *any* pill their parents give them regardless of what it looks like? Or was the father planning on "going Jonestown" all on his own and was going to swap the "vitamins" out for the pills when surviving was no longer possible?

Asshole older son was an asshole. I mean, good strategist when it came to defending their perimeter fence; but at the end there it sort of felt out of nowhere.

There "infected" daughter was actually pretty cool and I think one of the more interesting death-by-walker scenes we've had in the franchise. Oddly, it didn't even dawn on me when the mother went to the dead daughter that she'd be reanimated already. (The reanimation times seem to vary based on the speed of the story's needs.)

Survivalist father was a bit nuts; but I mostly take him at his word that "most" of the western part of the country he was able to communicate with has fallen.

I still don't like Druggie Nick. Yeah, yeah, he's a drug addict and that's not going to vanish in the few days that've passed since the end of the last season but I groaned and rolled my eyes that we were *still* on this plot thread when he was going around the house looking for drugs. I know they can't really drop it and ignore it but, ugh, to focus on it..... Sigh. And I like how because he's a drug addict he gets the deus ex machina of carte blanche of drug identification. Because, I guess, he's taken or seen every kind of drug out there so he can look at these blue/yellow gelcap pills and instantly know what they are at an instant look.

I'm laying down money now on Strand not having any sinister or ulterior motives here and is insistent to get to San Diego to rescue family. He may have odd methods and personality but he's a good guy inside. It's understandable why he's not being trusted at this point, but I sense misdirection.

I think it's a good show, just very differently paced than the parent series.

Enjoyed Talking Dead, he gets ragged on a lot but I think Chris Hardwick is a fun and charismatic host, liked the bit where he let the audience member sit his chair and take part in the interaction with the guests and read a Twitter question.

 

[sojourner]

Lou Diamond Phillips brought up a good point on Talking Dead: Why was Strand locked up in the beginning? he wasn't sick or injured. Did he get locked up for some bigger reason?

I can actually see 3 possible motives for Strand and his private phone call.
1. trying to reunite with family.
2. he was involved in some illegal organization.
3. Involved with the government some how.

If it's option 3, then he might be the closest we get to seeing more of the "big picture" behind the ZA.

 

[.:: TSN ::.]

Radioactive Zombies, coming to the SyFy Channel in 2016.

...

They are already there

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Places like remote ranger stations might be some of the first places to go dark. In a situation like this, a lot of the workers there might abandon their posts to go try and help family they have in the heavier populated areas.

I can see that, except that starting at a ranger station puts you in an incredible advantage in terms of having all the perfect supplies (and potentially even transportation) you could need - including the radio systems. So why wouldn't you take those with you if you just decided to leave?

And anyway, the dialogue seemed to strongly imply that at least some of those Ranger stations were victims of the same bombing that hit the cities, which makes no sense to me at all. The military isn't bombing small towns with potentially still thousands of residents, but they're going to bomb national parks with at most a few hundred tourists in them?

 

[publiusr]

Best not to think too much about it.

This series was at its best with the riot merging with the zombie take-over. you had no idea what exactly was happening.

I actually would not have interfered with the father at the ranger station. I know that sounds mad--but hear me out.

It isn't really death that scares us the most--but separation.

Take this sad scene for instance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Weird_Al"_Yankovic#Personal_life

Weird Al lost both of his parents at once. While this was bad for him of course--it was the best possible death--in that neither of his parents mourned the passing of the other. They had lived a long life--and had no reason to fear the coming of the next day. They were healthy at that very moment--but you knew pain and suffering were not far.

They died--at peace--in bed.

This is what Ricky Gervais meant in his animated show where he imagined a world where you just died--never got sick--you go home--not knowing when the end comes--but there it is--and it's your life.

I can orchestrate no better ending.

The father tried to. They would die as a family--and rise as a family--away from other walkers--and be together.

THAT"S when the group should have shown up--finished them off and buried them.

What we saw was the worst possible ending. children left on their own--separation.

I get why the mother flashed the lights. But there is part of me that wonders if hope can show up too late.
I have read tales where a person has resigned himself to his own fate--only to have a possible out show up just so--actually irritating one.

Rather like hiding under a table during a storm--with a person saying they have a storm shelter--only to be struck down in a field by debris and dying like animals. Let the house fall upon you--in comfort untill the very end--before death---

My own mother survived my father only four months. She told me things she had never said before. Told me that she had a miscarriage--that my dad dumped my favorite dog. She and my father were married for decades--and she grieved herself to death--dying in a hospital--despite a feeding tube--due to hypoxia and failure to thrive. That's what infants die from.

She willed herself to death.

Believe it or not--Weird Al was lucky. The situation could only have been made better if say--Al had a fatal disease that he was to learn of the next day--but only after visiting his parents and staying over that fateful night.

They all die as a family that way. Your extended family..in-laws--they don't miss you the same way.

You see--the father in this episode--he knew what he was doing all along.

 

[Crow T. Robot]

I'm fairly sure what you described is actually considered at least one psychological condition of some sort. And not healthy ones in the slightest.

I mean, I understand where you're coming from, but... yeah. I'd much rather mourn a loved one than have them dictate when and where I die. I'm not their property. They're not God.

 

[sojourner]

Yeah, killing your kids "to be together" is not in any way a good thing. seek help.

 

[hux]

Now you tell me.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Am I the only one who thought they had it pretty good on that island? Sure, the resort zombies might start to migrate over but it's a finite number. You could definitely deal with them and is the alternative -- randomly heading south -- that much better?

Sure they had it better, but the father was convinced an island would eventually be compromised. How? From the random dead who wash up on shore--and how often does that happen in real life numbers? Not enough to be a threat. Is he afraid of sailing gangs invading? Either way, his sickening belief that he had any right to take his family's life would have posed a threat no matter where they lived.

About the Travis gang, they bought the "island danger" crap. Once the son was left with the little brother, it was just a matter of time before they too committed suicide. At that point, the Travis gang could have taken the island over, and worked to set up effective watch points to always be ready for invaders. But that sounds too much like common sense, and besides, Daniel the Torture Barber is too busy violating Strand's privacy and shadowing him, so Travis & company cannot think independently, other than to think of news ways to piss off their only means of transportation / man who saved them from the firebombed coast.

 

[publiusr]

Yeah, killing your kids "to be together" is not in any way a good thing. seek help.

I mean, I understand where you're coming from, but... They're not God.

Remember, this is the "zombie apocalypse" and typical ways of dealing with things out the window--esp. early on.
We all understood why Carol did what she did in "The Grove."

Pre-outbreak, the girl would have been institutionalized. Justly so. Maybe if they had made it to Alexandria early on--they could have put her in the cell only recently finished--but it was not to be.

Maybe the father worked at Brown University: http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/11/us/brown-students-vote-on-atom-war-suicide-pills.html

Once the son was left with the little brother, it was just a matter of time before they too committed suicide. At that point, the Travis gang could have taken the island over, and worked to set up effective watch points to always be ready for invaders. But that sounds too much like common sense.

Besides, I can imagine a horrible fate would await the two youngest children had they been evacuated. I don't think they would have lasted as long as Sam http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/Sam_Anderson_(TV_Series)

I think a "power pill" is preferable to being eaten alive, don't you?

Again, had this family been next door to Alexandria--my thinking process would have been different. Yes--rescue the kids once you have a base of operations. Build. Defend, Explore.

But in this series--everyone is caught cold. All bets are off.

 

[Crow T. Robot]

Remember, this is the "zombie apocalypse" and typical ways of dealing with things out the window--esp. early on.
We all understood why Carol did what she did in "The Grove."

I don't have to remember anything.

Carol executed whateverhername was because she was clearly a psychopath. It had nothing to do with protecting her from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse, and everything to do with protecting everyone else. Considering there was no mental health facilities to send her to, that was really the only viable option.

That's completely unrelated to what you described. Which very much is crazy. If you honestly believe what you said, you need to get yourself checked out. That's not a joke or me being snarky. It's a legitimate concern.

 

[publiusr]

I don't see the world ending though. And no I don't plan on taking any pills. So don't worry about me.

"Considering there was no mental health facilities to send her to, that was really the only viable option."

And there are no resources here. Death seems to be right around the corner. I don't think we'd question the mental fitness of folks who took pills after a nuclear exchange, so as to avoid a horrible fate. We're talking about a TV show here.

 

[Crow T. Robot]

Not worried about you. Worried more about the people in your life.

 

[publiusr]

The folks in my life are all in old age--or have succumbed to same.