Late check out.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
The way last week's midseason premiere was structured, you might have made the assumption, like I did, that this week's episode would leave Nick behind and focus on one of the other story threads. That wasn't the case, however, because while we did catch up with Madison's group, much of the episode still remained strongly focused on Nick and the new survivor camp in Tijuana.
One thing I appreciated, overall, was that the people Nick's now fallen in with actually sort of had a reason for carrying crazy religious beliefs about the walkers that surround them. Alejandro, played by Paul Calderon, apparently got bit by one of the "infected" and didn't turn. That was enough to make everyone accept him as their leader as they, much like Celia, worshipped death and revered the zombies.
Now...is Alejandro faking? Or did the part of him that got bit get cut out of him so fast that the infection never took hold? Or are we actually starting to find people who may be immune to the outbreak? There are some interesting avenues here. What's disappointing, however, is Nick falling right back into a nutty cult after his time with Celia.
Granted, the Mexico setting lends itself toward a more Catholic/Biblical take on things with regards to how people will react to the dead walking the earth, but it just feels like Nick can't escape any of this and is being too heavily pushed into this type of story - especially after his harrowing journey last week seemed to humble him to the point of cleansing him of all the Celia nonsense. Now he's right back in the thick of it.
Still, Nick remains an interesting, resourceful character. His foolish fearlessness has proved to be an asset in the zompocalypse - to the point where Strand knows enough not to worry about him. Even if Madison can't exactly bring herself to see things that way. His trek with Luciana, to the one-stop shop for water and goods run by a violent gang, was telling in the sense that Nick may have made a stupid move in the name of making a young girl happy, but it also showed us how quickly he can turn the tables on someone when he's in trouble. It's that mix of clueless and clever.
At least Nick was able to talk his way out of his dumb move. Over in the Madison story, where the quartet had discovered a hotel that they foolishly deemed to be mostly safe and clear after a few front bell dings, Madison and Strand made the decision to drink heavily. So you can take you pick of dumb choices here. You could get angry at Strand for playing the piano or Madison for throwing serveware against the wall, but the ultimate bad decision was to get drunk in a world that requires one to be alert at all times.
That being said, I enjoyed the moments between Madison and Strand a lot. I already liked Strand as a character, but their time together actually helped me like Madison, for the meanwhile. Her lines about her depressed late husband and his suicide and how Nick was born "lost" just like he was made you feel for her as someone who just could never keep the ones she loved safe.
It was the show's choice though to have the drinking be the reason for a massive zombie attack. The two of them could have just had their booze and bonded peacefully, or the show could have found another way to bring the dead down on them, but the fact that they were to blame for it just kind of adds to this show's burning pyre of head/desk moments.
"Los Muertos" had some really cool visuals - like an old broken down bus acting as a barrier/gateway to an area of walkers that exists right outside the Tijuana camp (people could cross through it to leave...or to sacrifice themselves) and those hotel walkers mindlessly hurling themselves off of balconies so that they could plummet down closer to the piano sounds. Those were really cool aspects of this chapter, though leaving us with a cliffhanger didn't really feel right here. The second half of the season just started. It's too soon to leave us hanging like this. Especially since we haven't even caught up with Travis and Chris yet.
The Verdict
"Los Muertos" took the Abigail out of the equation, gave us some quiet moments with the members of Madison's group, and then showed us that Nick had, once again, managed to link up with some survivors who possessed rather peculiar and fanatical ideas about the undead. Overall it was good, though I wish Madison and Strand's drinking hadn't been the cause of their attack - and that the episode didn't leave us hanging the way it did.
Editors' Choice
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