Fear the Walking Dead - The Dog

I will say that in this third episode, “The Dog, I felt those involved in the creative pulled off enough to emphasize that LA had fallen into absolute anarchy, where the expected rioting, looting, violence, chaotic behavior, and lack of law enforcement control soon results in all the lights, in a really cool exterior “leaving the city” shot, eventually fading into dark. Cliff Curtis’ Travis, driving his truck out of the city as it surrenders to utter calamity, sets a terrifying tone. I credit those behind the three-episode “city falls” arc that started the series for finally getting to this point where the attempt to hide in a local’s barber shop (Ruben Blades) are undermined because hoping to avoid an ever-growing onslaught of such magnitude is simply impossible. Plus, the series, just based on a budgetary need, couldn’t maintain long-term story in a big city. But at least Walking Dead fans had a chance to see one city fall. Now the Salazars (including Patricia Spindola, her leg crushed under a scaffolding that collapses onto her when attempting to flee the rioting herd) accompany Travis, ex-wife and son, out of the city onward elsewhere while Madison, Nick, and Alicia bide their time at home, playing Monopoly, with suburbia no different than LA…avoiding the virus and those effected is just not happening.

What I liked a lot was in all the chaos, as you might expect, is humans still alive and the infected among them, gnawing into some (like the case where an officer in riot gear is driven down to the ground, with his neck torn into by one of the dead) while others continue to carry on with their crazed and unabated criminality. And as is the case with Travis trying to ward off a neighbor lunging at him (after feeding from a dog) and Alicia narrowing escaping another neighbor when fetching Nick's meds, seeing those they once knew no longer themselves, something monstrous, is a lot to aborb. It is all quite a shock.

But we can't have a Walking Dead episode without some conversation that features the cliched line, "You can't fix everything..." This with ex-wife, Liza, explaining to Travis that Griselda Salazar and her crushed foot would eventually lead to tissue death and infection. Yeah, the ex-wife, kid from first marriage and his "new family", of Madison, Nick, and Alicia sure offers its share of awkwardness and complications. As was intended. Need the drama to associate with the spread of the virus, growing number of the zombie horde, and ongoing collapse of society as we know it.

 Then comes the inevitable hug between a couple as Travis promises Madison will never lose him...uh, oh. Condemned character might get by for a while but is sure to end up on the list of fatalities. Well, I know that Madison and Nick join the ranks in season 4. But this scene guarantees Travis is in deep shit.

"I'll never leave you again." - Travis.

"Gulp." - Me.

The military arrive and Travis tells Madison comfortably, "The calvary has arrived. It'll all be fine now". Or something to that respect. I laughed out loud. Patrick, husband to Madison's neighbor, Susan, arrives to his zombie wife, eventually shot in the head by a soldier, with blood splattering on him. "He's infected", says a soldier to Madison. Where did they take Patrick?

The Salazars stay put in Madison's home but Papa (Blades) tells his wife and daughter that "It is too late". Papa Salazar comments to himself after Travis convinces Madison to "spare" Susan a hammer to the head, "Weak." Travis didn't like that Papa Salazar showed his son how to load and aim a shotgun.