6. 1 x 06. Five Days at Walker Memorial

Explicit content warning

10/09/15 • -1 min

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast
Fear the Walking Dead 1x06. "A Good Man"
Podcast episode 06. Five Days at Walker Memorial Quinn Warner, Stephen Payne, and Bruce R. Magee discuss the season finale. We agree that is is a great end to the season. The growing tension from the season comes to a climax in this episode.

We finally get a big herd of walkers, which attack the army base and hospital. Also Travis reaches his limit, and we see the violence that has been brewing beneath the surface. Our metaphor for the week centers on what happens as the army leaves the sick and the medical staff behind during the evacuation. Dr. Exner makes a grim decision when she uses the bold gun to kill the patients who have been left behind.
Following Katrina, a similar situation occurred at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, when the doctors and staff at the hospital kept their patients going as best they could for five days, with charges of euthanasia emerging afterward. We speculate about the 2nd season and hope they won't spend too much time at sea.

Previous Episode

5. 1 x 05. Cobalt

5. 1 x 05. Cobalt.
Shawn Igou joins us again as we discuss of episode 5 of Fear the Walking Dead. Bruce takes a victory lap for suggesting that Daniel Salazar had belonged to the death squads in El Salvador during the 1980s. Ok, he took several victory laps.

The gang likes this episode quite a bit. The focus again is less on the zombies themselves and primarily on the breakdown of human society. We welcome the arrival of a strong black character named Strand (played by Colman Domingo). He is a well-to-do "closer" who uses his ability to read people to manipulate them.
The army decides to stop trying to preserve its corner of civilization and switches to Operation Cobalt. Daniel Salazar reveals that he did indeed belong to the death squads in El Salvador's civil war, and he dusts off his torture skills to figure out where his wife has been taken, and to find out what Operation Cobalt is. At the end of the episode, Cpl Andrew Adams, the soldier whose arm Daniel has flayed, reveals that the army plans to abandon their enclave, killing everybody on their way out. Bruce and Stephen agree this is great TV, but worry that fans will learn the wrong lesson about torture. It hasn't been very long since watching the torture scenes in 24 influenced rulings coming from the Supreme Court.
Madison is a surprise this episode. When she learns that Daniel is torturing Andrew, she's upset. However, when Daniel asks her a couple of times if she wants to get her son Nick back from the army, and she goes along with his plan. Travis, however, is stuck in his pre-apocalypse mindset. He still sees walkers as human and is unable to shoot one even when army men place a sniper rifle in his hands. Liza starts showing her potential when she finds Griselda in the hospital, sits with her while she dies, and then uses a bolt gun on her head to keep her from turning. Meanwhile, Alicia and her step brother Chris bond through youthful hijinks. They break into the nicest house in the neighborhood, get drunk, dress up in nice clothes, and broke glass and china for fun. And are they starting to be attracted to each other? We try to figure out whether it's icky to have step-siblings falling for each other.

Next Episode

7. 2 x 01. Going Galt with zombies.

Fear the Walking Dead: A Podcast
Fear the Walking Dead 2x01. "Monster"
Podcast episode 07. Going Galt with zombies. Stephen Payne and Bruce Magee discuss the beginning of the new season, which gets off the a fast start with our characters abandoning the land to try their luck on Strand's yacht.
Quinn couldn't join us today, so it's just Stephen and Bruce. This episode starts off well, with the bombing of Los Angeles driving zombies to the beach and forcing our group to flee on the yacht. For much of the episode, the yacht seems like a somewhat safer option, but it becomes clear that dangers are as powerful on the sea as on the land. Something needs to drive the crew back to land just to keep the show interesting. It wouldn't be very interesting television if the crew spent the apocalypse riding around the ocean watching Gilligan's Island reruns. We discuss the role of Strand as the current leader of the group. As a member of the 1%, he's been preparing for some kind of catastrophe. He makes it clear that it's his boat, his rules. We discuss the way that this week's episode treats the presence of the monsters as an opportunity to go Galt, i.e., for the 1% to leave civilization for their own paradise. Of course, in this brave new world without government or a legal system, Strand's ownership of the yacht only lasts until someone with a gun disagrees. We also talk about the development of other characters, especially how Travis has moved from being the "mayor" of his subdivision last season to being focused on the survival of his family this season. The group has already started making the transformation that has taken place to the people in The Walking Dead as they figure out how to survive in this new world.