Fear the Walking Dead - Cobalt

I will say that I thought one particular scene in the Fear the Walking Dead episode, Cobalt, was quite well done. I have my share of problems with this as I have with the previous episodes. We are still stuck in the damn fenced-in suburbs for the most part but the signs of leaving appear to be on the horizon.

Ofelia’s (Mercedes Mason) military flirt, Andrew (Hatosy), is held captive in the basement of Daniel’s current “home”, taped to a chair, one arm slowly skinned until he gives up what the code name across the radio, Cobalt, means. Ultimately—Surprise, surprise!—the military plan to pull out in an evac and all civilians will be “affectionately terminated”. Daniel reveals that back in El Salvador (as does his dying wife before septic shock takes her) he was a monster, so his torture of Andrew, cold, calculated and free of moral disquiet, doesn’t appear to affect him all that much. While washing his hands in the sink, Madison asks him if he “said anything”, not taking him to task for his methods at retrieving what Cobalt meant. Travis later returns after a ride with the military (supposedly to get Daniel’s wife and his ex-wife) doesn’t go according to plan, mortified at the scene, a queasy Andrew admitting to him, with nudging by Daniel and Madison, that their neighborhood would be executed the next day. I just don’t understand why Andrew felt the need to withhold this, playing clueless to what the military was ultimately up to. Why would he suffer the torture when Ofelia’s wellbeing was obviously at stake? I don’t get why he wouldn’t just spill the beans immediately when it was clear Daniel had no qualms razoring his flesh without remorse or guilt. He was delaying the inevitable. I just felt this whole thing was to out Daniel as someone all too willing to use very violent means to secure information. It also gets to Daniel’s past in order to reveal what he has done. Later, Griselda (Patricia Spindola; departing the series), as she is dying, “speaks to Daniel” about what he was and how because she remained with him, willing to accept what kind of monster he was, that her fate was perhaps penance.

Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) emerges in his first appearance as a manipulative figure held in a fence-prison at a “hospital camp”, in a suit, concocting a plan of escape, giving over an engagement ring (and then his own) in order to keep Nick with him in the same “cell”. The neighbor that Travis tried to talk to a calm, just a weakened, sobbing emotionally broken mess is further driven over the edge by Victor who seemed to do this in order to have him carried off by the soldiers…more than likely to his doom. Victor understands Nick is a heroine junkie (Dillane up to this point has been presented as uncouth with his hair always disheveled) and feels he will be useful due to his nature of always needing that fix.

My favorite part has Travis, trying to orchestrate a peaceful resolution to the ongoing dissent in his community with Moyers, riding with them supposedly to the hospital camp to secure Liza and Nick (Griselda, Daniel plans to retrieve), eventually urged to look into the site of a machine gun as a zombie in a donut store (with a badge) set as the target. A test to pacifist Travis, who was just a few episodes ago teaching kids in English Lit class, if he can pull the trigger, he relents from doing so. He just can’t do it. Moyers and company rush into a building as another unit is under attack, with only two officers returning. I felt cheated because I wanted to see asshole Moyers overcome and eaten alive. Yeah, I’m a bit bloodthirsty sometimes I guess. But this is that really big first scene that awakens Travis to just how terrifying the situation is…he needed to understand the magnitude of this entire apocalypse. With what Andrew reveals, Daniel learning that he actually chained a building with a bunch of folks inside as the infection began to spread (going there to see for himself as the doors barely can hold the walking dead inside), and what Travis sees for himself, the military—or what is left of them—leaving/evacuating, this whole entire “protective zone” is but a fallacy. Moyers is no longer there, nor are his troops, so Travis and company will soon have to face the fact that they will need to leave or else.

Included is a sequence where Alicia (who dresses up in a gown and jewelry revealing how gorgeous she is all dolled-up) and Chris visit the abandoned house of an affluent family no longer there, with questions about where they went, all the existential pondering that this series and The Walking Dead dole out with great regularity. They smash up the house wearing gratifying smiles and retreat back to their temporary residences, soon realizing the military are no longer patrolling.

At the hospital camp, Liza notices that Dr. Exner is understaffed (two were moved supposedly elsewhere to help, but Exner flees from speaking about others once working as aids) and their situation has gotten worse as plenty of patients occupy the space available. Exner clearly is hiding a lot and trying to conceal pertinent information from Liza in an effort to get her help without protesting. If Liza had seen what Exner had, she might not have voluntarily come with her. The contentious relationship between Chris and Madison continues to leave Travis in an awkward position to try and navigate it away from anything worse. He has enough to worry about.

2/5