Tijuana or Bust.
Warning: Full spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead's midseason premiere below.
Fear the Walking Dead returned for the remainder of its strained second season with a strong, solid solo episode for Nick. Now, don't mistake my positiveness for "Grotesque" as an indication that big things happened or that there were huge story developments. This was a (much needed) time out for the show, one that focused on Nick as he attempted to traverse the Mexican desert on foot.
I'm a fan of quiet, reflective episodes of The Walking Dead. Or, in this case, its spinoff series. They make for good palate cleansers and, in the case of Fear the Walking Dead, a nice pause that allows the show to reset in the wake of its ensemble getting split up and scattered across Mexico.
In my mind, I can figure out why Nick, a recent junkie, is the way he is and why he feels such a bizarre kinship with the walkers, but it never truly tracked on the show - especially the moments when he seemed to buy into Celia's spiel about the zombies being some sort of beautiful next stage of divine life. That never worked and it just made Nick seem flighty and gullible when, to the show's credit, he'd been one of the more keen and cunning characters. You know, drug addiction aside.
But here, thanks to some alone time and a trio of effective flashbacks, Nick started to come to life more. Ironically, yes, as he shuffled toward death. Oh, and it did amuse me that, thanks to the dog bite, the show found a way for Nick to hobble even more. He always had that awkward junkie foot drag, coupled with the fact that he got hit by that car in the pilot episode, but for him to be given an actual limp was pretty funny in the grand scheme of things.
Nick's trek, which was near impossible to begin with, quickly derailed after he lost his water and supplies to a screaming mother with a ball bat. Then it was all scorching sun, guys with guns, hungry dogs, and walkers as Nick just kept moving. No matter the direction, really. Toward the end, after trying to eat cactus and drink his own urine, Nick fell in with the walkers and just sort of gave into fate. Even when it meant trudging forward and not flinching in the face of whizzing bullets.
This show's previous use of flashbacks gave us some much needed insight into Strand. Here, with Nick, the look back and his life pre-zompocalypse wasn't as informative, though it did help us understand what it was like for Nick to grow up with a depressed (and ultimately suicidal) father and why he relapsed that final time and wound up in that Silver Lake church. And that story, when paired with his present day odyssey, helped paint a picture of a young man who'd already chosen, before the world went to hell, to quietly self-destruct.
So will Prison Break's Danay Garcia and the rest of that small Tijuana survivor community help Nick look for a new lease on life? It's entirely possible that Nick craves a family environment - just not made up of his own family. And who could blame him, really? We've already seen how this new world of horrors has worked to undo the show's ensemble on just about every level. This is a blended family that has most definitely not come together in the face of crisis. Now, with the show separated into three stories, we have a chance to see if these characters can shine without the burden of group dysfunction.
The Verdict
Though "Grotesque" introduced us to a few new characters and brought us into a new community, it was really about spending some quality time with Nick and getting into his headspace a little more. And it worked. It wasn't exactly riveting stuff, but it did show us that this series stands a better chance of dusting itself off now that the ensemble's been split up.
Editors' Choice
→
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire