1.04: Fear The Walking Dead - Not Fade Away

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Madison and Travis see different sides of the National Guard's occupation in their neighborhood; the family tries to adapt to the new world.

This episode will air September 20 in States and 28th in the UK.

 

[Jesse412]

Great song to open the episode. Interesting seeing the military quarantine set up and funny their leader was such a massive jerk. The pacing in this was much slower than the previous episode unfortunately. It was pretty cool seeing Maddie escape the safe zone in an attempt to investigate the flashing light in Chris' video though. Kind of funny seeing her slap around her junky son as well. I thought they did a good job establishing the military shouldn't be trusted. With only two episodes left I'm curious what's next.

 

[REBerg]

Man, this is just powerful drama. Powerful. Even more so than TWD. It's more relatable. I'm impressed.

 

[ctg]

I got so busy day, so I'll have one thing to say it was powerful to see that average people have no idea about what Martial Law effectively means. They are so blind and deft to everything going around. Just think what happened in Iraq and Afganistan over last decade and you'll see the result of effective military rule working in the small screen.

PS. I loved every minute of it and I'll leave you with Lenord Cohen's It's a Perfect Day.

 

[Droflet]

I'm glad that there are people here who are enjoying this show. I'm not one of them. Just seen episode four and I'm outta here.

 

[ctg]

I'm glad that there are people here who are enjoying this show. I'm not one of them. Just seen episode four and I'm outta here.

What made you to do that decision?

 

[ctg]

I rewatched this episode second time, before I went to bed and it dawned on me that this series has managed to convey in just four episodes that the people are worst in TWD universe. We don't need to know how bad the zombie threat will get as we have seen a massive horde just in last season occupying the power station and then everything around a small city.

In Los Angeles we don't know how bad the tread really is as we haven't seen the streets other than a very small glimpse through Maddie excursion into the Quarantine Zone. I never thought it would extend 9 miles from the border and everything in between would had been cleaned out. In fact, the soldiers claim they're saving everything to take the city, which makes me to believe they haven't cleaned everything. Especially as there are people out there.

What I don't understand is why the army is doing it? One of the shoulder badges indicate they belong to regular army and the other one indicates they're some sort of shock troops instead of regular grunts. Their four man teams armed with suppressed weapons says they know about dead people ability to follow sounds, while the half biowarfare kit says that they don't know anything about the propagation. Although I suspect they're also wearing the gas masks because of the awful stench wafting around the sunny streets.

Why it hasn't reached their neighbourhood?

I don't know. Then there's another thing. The memory boards on the street corners and the amount of trash in streets looks like a very large number of people travelled through there and they did find a time to post up pictures, notes, flowers and other stuff. Most likely that group guided somewhere like Chris narrates to his video. So why is that the executions and rotting corpses on streets are such a shocking sight to Maddie? Didn't she hear or see anything?

Anyways, it looks to me there's plenty of houses to loot in that valley, so the people of this camp should have plenty of supplies to survive until they're forced to move out. And if the army boys start to wake up to the reality, they also have plenty of trained men to make it as far as Rick's group has made on their way to Alexandria. But what is really certain, those chain links fences aren't going to cut it against a horde.

 

[Droflet]

What made you to do that decision?

Hmmm, well there seems little point, in my mind, in trying to find a way to explain, what to me is the bleeding obvious. Hey, you guys love this? Great. Please continue to do so. Someone said this was better than the Walking Dead? Well, I guess that sums it up for me. Hey guys, it's all subjective, isn't it.

 

[REBerg]

I have a feeling that the military presence in the neighborhood is more of a warlord setup than part of a larger effort being coordinated from "HQ." If that is not the intent, I see that as the direction it may go soon. The lack of information coming from the occupying forces is ominous. The unit CO practicing his golf swing while ignoring information from his civilian "liaison" was telling, as well as establishing the man's arrogance.

I also have a feeling of dread about the round-up and deportation of the ill. I can see a need to remove the possibility of someone dying inside the compound, which means the military unit must know that the dead will become zombies regardless of whether or not they have been bitten.

I seriously doubt that they are taking these people to a nice hospital to get medical help and be saved. I think it will be more like using them as test subjects, watching them transform after they die, trying to determine the cause of the epidemic.

I loved Nick's comeback when the doctor detected his elevated, morphine-induced heartbeat (or was it blood pressure?).

"You're a very attractive woman."

For a drug addict, the kid sure can think quickly Too bad the doctor didn't buy his explanation.

 

[ratsy]

I think I get what they are doing with the build up and the lack of any zombies in this newest episode, but I am really not enjoying the series so far. If I wasn't such a huge fan of TWD I probably would have stopped watching this one by now. I don't like the characters, with the exception of the mother. I know it will probably get better, I just was expecting it to be a little better by now. And with only 2 episodes to go in the short season, I doubt they can bring it around enough for me to like it. I really hope we see a horde of zombies show up at that weak fence. That would make me smile

 

[REBerg]

I think I get what they are doing with the build up and the lack of any zombies in this newest episode, but I am really not enjoying the series so far. If I wasn't such a huge fan of TWD I probably would have stopped watching this one by now. I don't like the characters, with the exception of the mother. I know it will probably get better, I just was expecting it to be a little better by now. And with only 2 episodes to go in the short season, I doubt they can bring it around enough for me to like it. I really hope we see a horde of zombies show up at that weak fence. That would make me smile

What!? You're rooting for the zombies? You really don't like these characters.

 

[ctg]

And with only 2 episodes to go in the short season, I doubt they can bring it around enough for me to like it. I really hope we see a horde of zombies show up at that weak fence. That would make me smile

Within those two remaining episodes we are going to see "National Guard Resolution" and "the dead taking over."

Spoiler: Episode mini-synopsis

1.05 - Cobolt - The National Guard's plan for the neighborhood is revealed; Travis and Madison make a difficult decision.

1.06 - The Good Man - As civil unrest grows, and the dead take over, Travis and Madison try to devise ways to protect their families.

 

[ctg]

I seriously doubt that they are taking these people to a nice hospital to get medical help and be saved. I think it will be more like using them as test subjects, watching them transform after they die, trying to determine the cause of the epidemic.

I loved Nick's comeback when the doctor detected his elevated, morphine-induced heartbeat (or was it blood pressure?).

"You're a very attractive woman."

For a drug addict, the kid sure can think quickly Too bad the doctor didn't buy his explanation.

Morphine levitates heart rate, not increase. It'll slow you down and wrap you around a nice chemical blanket (in normal cases). A lie, however, increases ones heart rate and so does arousal, so Nicky was quite clever on throwing that line. I'm not saying he wasn't, because he's one crafty little b*st*rd. Maddie did right for slapping sh*t out from him because that's exactly what I would do if I would find someone nicking Viv's drugs.

Nick, in his druggie mind, just don't get the cliff he's heading towards, because in couple of weeks time everything's going dry down. It's going to be worse than anything he has previously experienced if he survives being in the worst place possible. Hospitals, no matter what universe, is the worse place to be even if it's a "fortified" position. It'll collects sick and dying people, and the acting part is in the dying bit. So I would say good riddance to Travis ex-wife and nice doctor lady.

The doctor lady seemed to a research type, or at least in registrar level, if not a consultant. But at the same time she was showing deep roots on academical studies rather than being a normal GP. And it is right that she would showing in this time, because at the beginning there's still time to do studies even if it gets a wild when hordes arrive.

 

[Dave]

Hmmm, well there seems little point, in my mind, in trying to find a way to explain, what to me is the bleeding obvious.

Not to someone who thinks it's okay though? Is it too slow? Like @ratsy do you think the characters too unlikable?

This series is very different to TWD. Much more like the Army in "28 Days Later." I wouldn't want it to be the same. What would be the point in that? Is it better? I'll reserve judgement on that for a while longer. The second episode was the best so far.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Well here's my thoughts.

I did not like the time jump - it skipped important character introductions and I felt that the way they met some of the Army would be crucial in their emotional relationships.
I liked Frank Dillane - "You are a very attractive woman" was a great line and I think this character has a tonne of potential.
I did not like the fact that this is a Zombie show and this episode has exactly 0 zombies.
I did not like stupid people not understanding what Military Rule was.
I liked the backstory for the Latino Patriarch.
I did not like the army dudes - especially playing golf, too many Governor allusions in that scene.

Overall this episode was very "meh" to me and probably the weakest episode yet. I don't think this show is in the same league as The Walking Dead (if we were comparing the first 4 TWD episodes with the first 4 FTWD episodes.)

Hopefully we will see some hordes soon, for a pilot show with a large expected audience they haven't splashed out considerably on CGI or makeup/extra budgets so I hope we see something big for the season finale.

 

[Otis B. Driftwood]

I think the show is failing to deliver on its promised difference from TWD: it was to depict the collapse of society under the zombie plague that TWD skipped over.

So far, the only thing that really depicted the breakdown was the riot scene in Gabrielinos Plaza. And even for that, Travis' family retreats immediately into the barbershop and most of the scenes stay in there like a drawing room play. Whenever Chris tries to look out the window and give the camera/us a view of the street, Travis yells at him to get back! You can almost hear Travis saying "Every time you look out that window, the cost of this show goes up."

Now, the action has moved to a different kind of drawing room, a fenced-in neighborhood. There seem to be no living or living dead outside. The collapse is over and we got to see almost none of it. Where were the tides of marching dead? Where were the five-fingered shopping sprees in the Galleria? Where were people fighting over gas and water? Where were the healthy people getting on the LA Metro at one stop and staggering off as the hungry dead at the next? Where were the gangs turning from fighting each other to fighting zombies? We see the outside of fallen hospitals, but we do not see the chaos inside. We see one Guard unit, but never saw the fighting (or fleeing) that must have wiped out the police.

With the media blackout on FTWD, we get none of the tension Romero achieved with WGON or Snyder got with news clips in the remake. And even with his tiny budget, Romero achieved a far larger vision of societal collapse with the SWAT team at Housing Project 107. About all FTWD gives us is a panorama shot of the lights going out. Whoopee.

 

[Judderman]

I thought we would see a bit more about what is happening outside of the suburb, or at least news broadcasts about the chaos in different places. So I do agree somewhat with Otis that part of the point of the series is missed. But it seems information is hard to get hold of for survivors already. We have seen a night of chaos with zombies amongst protestors and then apparently a clear out of certain areas.
Are the military already outside government control? Can the government still contact this group, if government remains?
I do think this is a great series though, particularly episode 3.

 

[Judderman]

Morphine levitates heart rate, not increase. It'll slow you down and wrap you around a nice chemical blanket (in normal cases). A lie, however, increases ones heart rate and so does arousal, so Nicky was quite clever on throwing that line. I'm not saying he wasn't, because he's one crafty little b*st*rd. Maddie did right for slapping sh*t out from him because that's exactly what I would do if I would find someone nicking Viv's drugs.

Morphine will decrease heart rate so the lying cause for the speed up makes sense. Maybe a writer mistake that morphine would increase heart rate.

 

[ctg]

Morphine will decrease heart rate so the lying cause for the speed up makes sense.

Good thing you corrected me. Thank you. Not levitate, but alleviate. That's what I meant to say, but this stupid brain of my keeps making these mistakes. Grrrr

There seem to be no living or living dead outside. The collapse is over and we got to see almost none of it. Where were the tides of marching dead? Where were the five-fingered shopping sprees in the Galleria? Where were people fighting over gas and water? Where were the healthy people getting on the LA Metro at one stop and staggering off as the hungry dead at the next? Where were the gangs turning from fighting each other to fighting zombies?

I don't know but I feel really disappointed in that front as well, because there aren't that many who has either written (me including) most of the things when things went down, and there certainly isn't many movies depicting the same thing. I guess if they would had been given full fifteen episodes to this season, plus some more money to do special effects (just masks, not CGI), people would had been satisfied. But I'm not saying we don't see any evidence from those incidents as AMC has already given green light to fifteen episode long season 2.

 

[ctg]

Dave Erickson, the showrunner, talks about the reasons why there were no zombies:

You just did an entire episode without a single zombie attack. Did that make you nervous at all?

No, it didn’t make us nervous. Actually, it was something we talked about quite a bit because there were opportunities, especially in the sequence where Madison goes beyond the fence. But really what this episode is about to a large degree is the realization that the National Guard has arrived and that may not necessarily be a good thing. And it was really about trying to create this tension and anxiety centered around the occupation of a neighborhood, and what was that going to mean for Madison and the rest of her family. So no, it was a question of focusing on that element in the story and less on a walker attack necessarily. It didn’t make us nervous. Hopefully it didn’t make the audience nervous.

You mentioned when Madison when through the fence, and that was when I was expecting it to happen because I was thinking that you always have to have at least one zombie attack per episode, so I found this surprising in a good way actually, in the sense that I thought I knew what was coming, and I didn’t.

That was also part of it. Robert Kirkman has talked about this in relation to the comic and the other show. Ultimately the real danger is coming from the other humans. This episode was an opportunity to try and dramatize that element of it and really bring to question: What is the motivation of the National Guard? What’s going on on that side of fence? And essentially in that neighborhood she’s walking through, you have a group of holdouts and people who didn’t necessarily want to be moved and didn’t want to leave their homes. And you’re dealing with that tension, plus with the Guard, who are a bit more in-the-know compared to others in their neighborhood and for all intents and purposes more scared than the civilians they are supposed to protect because they’ve seen more of he apocalypse at this point. It really speaks to the discovery that Madison and Travis are going to make in this episode and going into the last two.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/2...-fade-away-dave-erickson-showrunner-interview