Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 discussion and spoilers.

[Admiral2]

I kept thinking... If only they had a clipper ship. They wouldn't have to ditch it due to fuel issues.

But they'd be at the mercy of the wind and would be giving up the speed a dedicated propulsion system affords. Besides, if we're talking about the ship you have pictured it would be too much for seven inexperienced people to handle.

So...one episode in and the teenagers are all still stupid, I see...

 

[Arrrrgggh]

FTWD would do well if they bumped off the drug addict and his obnoxious mother. The rest of the cast is tolerable..just as long as that other mama's baby never picks up a camera again.

Tom Riddle is fine when he's not acting like a stereotypical drug addict. The only thing he did in the last episode I found annoying was the "I'm going to ignore everyone and swim into this zombie infested wreck." But that's far and away less annoying than what the other kid did, and it's pretty typical behavior for these shows.

Also, it seems to be a little too early for there to be a group of evil ocean scavenger/pirates, especially ones using such a cheesy tactic that only ever shows up in badly written novels or television shows? "Yes, we'll seduce young teenage girls over the radio and lure them into a false sense of security with our sexy man voice, that plan will work time and time again for the ocean is and always has been littered with rebellious teenage girls with isolated access to radio equipment!"

 

[davejames]

Thought it was a pretty solid premiere myself, and I continue to like this show's more naturalistic, slow-burn approach as a contrast to the original's crazier and more larger than life style. And I still like the idea of following people who are still rather new to the zombie apocalypse and aren't quite ready to be as cold and ruthless as Strand or the other survivors we're used to.

And yeah, it was pretty obvious what Alicia's radio conversation was leading to, but from her perspective I had no problem buying that she would think it was harmless (and after all, it does seem a bit soon to have pirates running around raiding ships and shooting people up).

Although even as inexperienced as this group may be, it does seem unlikely that they wouldn't have found a way to arm themselves a lot better by this point. I'm sure Strand has a weapon or two onboard, but otherwise it looks like Daniel is the only one with a gun of any kind. Which just seems insane given the situation they're in.

 

[Q2UnME]

^ At best they have a couple of hand guns and one over-under shot gun. Unless Strand has guns hidden on board, that's all they have shown so far...

 

[Arrrrgggh]

Out of curiosity, why was Tom Riddle (if it's not obvious, I'm really bad with names) acting like the yacht log he scored from the wreck was a big deal? Did I miss something there?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

^ It will have locations of fuel depots, ports, navigational hazards, etc. Could be useful for scouting out locations to land and resupply. Definitely not worth jumping into a smoke-covered, bobbing for zombies ocean probably swarming with sharks to swim under an overturned, bullet-riddled, sinking boat, though. I get that his drug addiction has supposedly turned him into The Man Without Fear somehow (which is silly), but that was a pretty damn stupid risk.

I found myself so bored that I was imagining cooler spin-offs involving zombie sharks and zombie pirates throughout the episode.

It was pretty obvious Lexa from The 100 was going to stupidly lead her radio DJ boy toy right to them, so much so that I said "It's a trap!" in my best Admiral Ackbar voice (RIP) right away.

I found it a little unlikely that the father who was unwilling to even kill zombies a few days ago is now suddenly so mercenary that he'd leave a boat full of people adrift.

Strand and Salazar continue to remain the most interesting characters. Ruben Blades should hook them up in Panama, since he was their Minister of Tourism.

 

[Admiral2]

I found myself so bored that I was imagining cooler spin-offs involving zombie sharks and zombie pirates throughout the episode.

Sharknado 5: Walkernado!

Strand and Salazar continue to remain the most interesting characters.

Isn't it funny how that works? The characters with half a brain are the ones you want to watch most. Imagine that!

 

[sojourner]

Sharknado 5: Walkernado!

Z Nation already did a zombie-nado.

 

[marillion]

Did I miss something with the conversation the girl was having with the guy over the radio? Do we KNOW that the "pirates" coming for them are the same people she was connecting with?

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Tom Riddle is fine when he's not acting like a stereotypical drug addict. The only thing he did in the last episode I found annoying was the "I'm going to ignore everyone and swim into this zombie infested wreck." But that's far and away less annoying than what the other kid did, and it's pretty typical behavior for these shows.

Yeah, Nick swimming to the capsized boat made no sense at all--typical false drama. No one in the ZA would think swimming to a wreck--with no weapons--made sense, because of the high possibility of corpses floating around..and what happened? Yeah...boo.

Also, it seems to be a little too early for there to be a group of evil ocean scavenger/pirates, especially ones using such a cheesy tactic that only ever shows up in badly written novels or television shows? "Yes, we'll seduce young teenage girls over the radio and lure them into a false sense of security with our sexy man voice, that plan will work time and time again for the ocean is and always has been littered with rebellious teenage girls with isolated access to radio equipment!"

Alicia was especially stupid and too trusting; after the series put mass street riots on full display before the ZA was understood (season one), she has to know that people will turn on each other, loot and abuse anyone when desperate. She faced predatory soldiers in the 1st season finale, so she should not be so naive about the rapidly sinking state of society.

If that's not bad enough, the torturing barber and obnoxious mom Madison don't trust Strand--yet it did not stop them from piling their asses on his boat for safety. Oh, and Travis trying to man up against Strand? What the hell ever. There's barely any balance of characters; most are dysfunctional assholes, with few--if any representing a more moderate side. Compare that to TWD season one--the balance was characters such as Rick, Dale, T-Dog and Glenn on one side, with Shane, Ed and Merle on the other; their motives were not all the same, but at least there was no majority of dickhead characters as seen with the FTWD cast. Ophelia Salazar is an exception, and surprisingly, Nick (until the plot demands a turn).

Although even as inexperienced as this group may be, it does seem unlikely that they wouldn't have found a way to arm themselves a lot better by this point. I'm sure Strand has a weapon or two onboard, but otherwise it looks like Daniel is the only one with a gun of any kind. Which just seems insane given the situation they're in.

Where were the other guns coming from? From the point they escaped with Strand, they did not (or could not) stop to find other guns. They were in a hurry to get out of Los Angeles, and thanks to Travis' ex-wife's lack of decomposition, there's not much time between the end of season 1 and start of 2. So, we can conclude that the group spend that unseen time packing, this no time to collect more weapons.

 

[Admiral2]

Z Nation already did a zombie-nado.

Gee, must have missed that. Understandable, considering I wouldn't watch Z-Nation with a gun to my head...

 

[kitik]

I did think that, while foolish, the swim and look-around of the zombie/overturned/one-thousand-bullet-holes boat was pretty cool. And speaking of cool boats, I like the Abigail. That's some swanky stuff.

Did I miss something with the conversation the girl was having with the guy over the radio? Do we KNOW that the "pirates" coming for them are the same people she was connecting with?

No we do not know that. Its just an assumption, but it could easily be a fake-out.

But we have learned that other people can be dangerous. Don't broadcast information about us and our boat or our capabilities or our location over the radio.

 

[Vendikarr]

If I remember correctly, he told her 'see you soon' after she told him they wouldn't be coming for them. She must have given up enough information on their location that the pirates had a good idea where they're located.

 

[Arrrrgggh]

They're using a radio. Isn't that difficult for any experienced radio operator to triangulate someone's position.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

It was kind of a slow episode, but I still enjoyed it. My only problem is, why would the military fire bombing Los Angeles cause the walkers to migrate toward the ocean? I believe this was said by a main character as being the reason there were so many on the beach when they were trying to board the boat. This is in direct contrast to a recent The Walking Dead episode where the walkers mindlessly walk into fire and into a lake that is on fire, courtesy of Daryl and his RPG. Do zombies operate according to a different set of rules in LA?

 

[davejames]

I didn't get the sense the zombies were driven to the ocean by the firebombing. I think they had just naturally made their way over there by the time our people were leaving.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It was kind of a slow episode, but I still enjoyed it. My only problem is, why would the military fire bombing Los Angeles cause the walkers to migrate toward the ocean? I believe this was said by a main character as being the reason there were so many on the beach when they were trying to board the boat. This is in direct contrast to a recent The Walking Dead episode where the walkers mindlessly walk into fire and into a lake that is on fire, courtesy of Daryl and his RPG. Do zombies operate according to a different set of rules in LA?

People move away from the heat of the firebombed cities to the beaches where the ocean breeze keeps the smoke moving inland. Zombies follow the people to the beaches. People have nowhere to run. Zombies bite people, create more zombies. Lots of zombies on beaches.

 

[sojourner]

I'm surprised the sound of the waves breaking on the shore hadn't already led there to be hordes of zombies on the beach.

 

[Trekker4747]

FTWD season 2..and Strand still tolerates largely ungrateful, self interested bums. Now, it seems like Alicia has set up her own people to be tracked by the voice she was speaking to.

Sigh. I just..... I just can't anymore.

People making bad decisions for the sake of the plot or just making bad decisions in general, like the girl who got on the radio to bring them trouble.

This is a case of "the audience knowing more than the characters." There's no reason why she, at this point in the ZA, should mistrust a voice on the radio reaching out when they're just off the coast of California; not known to be patrolled by Somali pirates. Our characters on the parent show? Sure. They've lived in this world for the better part or more of two years so they now very well to not trust every person they encounter.

A teenage girl for whom the world ended just a few days ago? Not so much. It's odder to me there'd be such threats already out there this "soon." I mean, the world just ended. Yeah, the disease or whatever has been going on for a few weeks becoming a more escalating of a problem but it was just recently it seems the government(s) said "fuck it" and hit the "end society" button. So she has no reason to mistrust a voice on the radio saying he's in need of help.

Anyway, I thought it was a good episode and makes me look more forward to what else will go on this season and how they'll explore these characters and the earlier setting in ZA, I find the Abagail to be an interesting "location" for the characters, given the time and expense they went into in constructing the ship set I suspect the ship will be around for a while.

I still find Nick to be somewhat annoying character who's the one I least have latched on to. Christ, why is he still wearing that, now bloody, old man's Members Only jacket? Everyone else, apparently, had changes of clothes or something on the ship why doesn't he get some different duds?

I find Strand to be a very interesting character and the story is mis-directing us into not trusting him, he's got some mystery in him for sure, but I think overall he's got good intentions.

I wonder why Mom was so pissed off that they didn't take on the people in the lifeboat? I mean.... What is she smoking? They're barely got a destination in mind, they've got limited food and supplies and space, she thinks they can just take on 20+ people on that yacht, be able to control and contain them, and provide for them?

It's dark and sad, but Strand and Travis had the right idea. They couldn't be saved by them, there were too many to help on their yacht.

Nice "dealing with plot things" in Daughter mentioning that the boat is equipped with a desalinization system to provide them with drinking water. Someone up thread mentioned the problem of using the gas-powered yacht, well in the parent series the Group has had little problem getting their hands on gasoline 2 years after the apocalypse, I suspect our group will have little problems getting a hold of gasoline for the yacht, particularly if its range is 3000 miles. And if it's a diesel engine it could easily be converted to utilize biodiesel which would really open up their fuel options and resources.

Nick I can't stand, but Angsty Son is even worse. Yeah he lost his mother in a brutal way, but he's been sort of a pill during his entire time on the show.

The Salvadorian father I think is the second most interesting character. His daughter? Uhhh. She's there?

Mom is probably the more annoying of the characters given her moral high-ground act she's still playing given everything she's seen to this point. Again, going to the people on the raft, you'd think this woman who first-hand experienced the walkers (infected or whatever) and saw the things going on out in the world she'd know what to do and not to do and, again, not to do: Save a boat full of people you can't do anything with on your, though large in of itself, situationally small yacht.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

If I remember correctly, he told her 'see you soon' after she told him they wouldn't be coming for them. She must have given up enough information on their location that the pirates had a good idea where they're located.

Convenient conflict. As noted before, the ZA barely started and there's mass evidence Alicia's experienced with predatory groups (soldiers) and like the rest of the world, knew riots and looting happened...so who would just give information to a complete stranger? That family is not too bright.