He rescued them. He expected civil, grateful behavior in return--not being forced to isolate himself. The Travis group burned that expectation.
He was never forced to isolate himself. He chose to do so. And that choice clearly started before he'd even met most of them.
There's no gratitude in demanding to take on new burdens (passengers), including one likely to be a walker. There's no gratitude in forcing suicide family's kids on the boat.
Saying that gratitude should automatically override a person's basic instincts of human decency is basically arguing for a Maffia system of human relations.
There's no gratitude in breaking into the captain's personal storage.
...and above all else..
There's no gratitude in Madison threatening to kill the man who saved the Travis group.
We've already established that Daniel is more paranoid than he rightfully should be, but he isn't even remotely indicative of the rest of the group as a whole. And Madison still had very good reason at that point to be suspicious of Strand.
Take your own advice, since the "he should have learned to fix the boat" was another pointless, cheap attack on Strand in order to defend that Mount Rushmore of FTWD characters best known for accepting torture and mass murder as heroic deeds.
The point was never to defend anyone else. The point is that Strand is no more logical than the rest of them. He had time on his hands, he could've put it to good use, but did not. He then proceeded to actively antagonize the person who actually did make use of that time when he should've let him get on with fixing the boat.
Controlling the ship is not just watching instruments, and in case you forgot, his new duty is watching out for the mystery boat likely drawn to his location thanks to the "I need attention" BS of Alicia. But, please. continue to suggest you have nothing against Strand.
Watching instruments. Like I said. I've worked jobs like that, you have plenty of time on your hands.
There you have it, and again, all talk of "contribution" go out of the window if Strand had not saved them all.
And the exact same goes for Strand. Once again, this isn't about anyone being better. They're all in the same boat.
What was their plan after the army/med base? Did they have shelter? No. Did they have a means of escape that would not drive them into the heart of a city overrun by the dead and live threats? No.
The only bullshit is the continued disregarding of Strand being the one and only reason this group survived L.A.
They had a car. They could've gone anywhere. They chose to go with Strand because he said he had someplace safe, but that doesn't even remotely mean they were doomed if they had gone a different direction.
By threatening to murder the captain...break into his storage..try to force others aboard his boat....that's the way the Travis group finds a way.
And Strand finds a way by obsessively keeping secrets from everyone, acting like a dictator, forcing everyone to abandon their principles without ever once attempting to engage them as people and have a serious and clear conversation about the world and why they need to do what he says. See, all in the same boat.
Argue with the series, which was not ambiguous regarding the security of the farm lasting until that shot. The episode clearly shows the herd changing their direction--which was the point of drawing the farm plot to a close. Up to that time, being near Atlanta did not send herds to the farm's direction, or did anyone mention such threats. So, your conjecture is without merit.
No, they just had their numbers significantly cut down by zombies (including Deanna, Jesse, Sam, et al.) and the Wolves' attack. all within their walls.
Oh, these two claims back to back are absolutely hilarious. Atlanta couldn't possibly ever form a danger to the farm because the series 'unambiguously' showed it as safe ( which really just means that for a grand total of a few months, nothing major happened), but Alexandria is somehow worse off for taking people in even though the series repeatedly and explicitly claimed they would've been completely wiped out if it wasn't for Rick's group?
So once again, the takeaway is
Strand is stupid & unreasonable, while the Travis group--all of their own choice since setting foot on the boat tried to create a "workable group dynamic" by:
- demanding he take on new burdens (passengers), including one likely to be a walker. Who was going to watch him? If he was dying, what's the point of dragging a potential threat aboard?
- attempting to force suicide family's kids on the boat.
- broke into the captain's personal storage.
- threaten to kill the man who saved their lives.
Yeah, Strand has so much to work with, and expect from this group.
Nope, the takeaway is EVERYONE, including Strand has done really stupid things, many of those stupid things are daisy-chaining off one another repeatedly making the whole group dynamic worse, and if any of them expect to survive they all need to get over themselves and work together. And as of last week's episode, Strand is being the biggest obstacle to that simply because he refuses to engage with anyone. (Daniel being the second biggest obstacle because of his paranoia).
On to the new episode:
Alicia has officially reclaimed the title of current dumbest character on the show. For a few moments there she seemed to have the perfect opportunity to finally grow up, but, apparently, she still believes this guy for no logical reason whatsoever.
Strand being literally the last person to respond is so stupid it totally breaks the believability of the story - and before anyone gets upset, I'm not blaming Strand at all. That's just plain terrible writing that a man with that character and obsession (who was already awake before the incident started) would react so slowly. Seems like the writers just had to get Strand off the boat for the episode and didn't give a damn that their explanation made no sense for the character whatsoever.
Most of the other characters showed some good growth. Chris' hesitation was disastrous but understandable in the situation, and from the look on his face he seems to have actually learned his lesson now, unlike Alicia. Madison and Daniel probably should've tried a little earlier, but for their very first time having to break out of a hostage situation, that was actually pretty decent. Travis' stalling was very well done, and far gutsier than I thought he would be.
The flashbacks are a weird thing to use in a show like this, but they did take Strand's character in an interesting direction. Never occurred to me that he might be BOTH a con-man and actually legitimate. Though I did assume his need to get to mexico might have something to do with family or spouse. And his ultimate secret was about what I expected: his plan specifically called for him to abandon everyone. Which also explains why he isolated himself so much. But, given that Luis seemed at least open to the possibility of trying to get more people through, there is perhaps some hope (though I foresee lots of arguing about whether they should rescue Travis and Alicia or not).
Two things I really didn't understand:
Why send Nick to pick up Luis? Weren't they communicating via radio? Why didn't Luis just come out by himself?
And what on earth is going on with Mexico that it's 'impossible' to get more than two people in? Do they actually still have a military that's patrolling the borders? Is their 'safe house' surrounded by a massive zombie hoarde? That part really doesn't make sense.
