Recap
As the night and waves roll over the beach, we see a figure in the black waters of the ocean, making its way to shore. Before long, we realize that it’s Nick, and he’s naked, towing his clothes close behind him in a plastic bag. He quickly scans the skies as he dresses, staying out of sight of a passing helicopter, as the camera pans back to see a fence that extends out to sea, and two other boats with searchlights, and the helicopter, searching intently around the murky waters. As Nick is finally fully dressed, we see him pass a group of tree branches and rocks that spell out the words “save us”, a sign that lays before another sea of sorts: a sea of tents, RVs, and makeshift shelters. Nick searches the tents, pounding on a water jug to attract nearby zombies, and leads one to a nearby tent where Nick makes quick work of him, dispatching of the noises that may attract other nearby zombies. He quickly opens the zombie up, taking a moment here and there to gag, and uses its blood, like in the last episode, to cover himself in its blood and entrails, making himself virtually invisible to the other zombies.
We jump back to the boat, as Travis is disgusted by Strand and what he did in last week’s episode, cutting loose the raft that they pulled briefly, and not saying a word about it. Travis is so upset about it that he wants to go find Strand and throw him overboard, but Madison quickly gets in his way to the door, stating that they need him. “We need his house, we need Mexico.” Madison states that they need to start over, and with everything already going to Hell in a hand-basket, they need to find a place where they can start over. Travis tells Madison that he was the one who told them they could stay in the raft, that they would be safe, but Madison tells him that Strand was the one who cut the line, not him. Travis is starting to lose trust in Strand, now questioning if the place in Mexico even exists. Madison says that he hasn’t lied to them yet, but Travis asks her if they’re going to gamble their family’s lives over that.
We find Chris on the deck, unable to sleep, and drinking a soda when Ofelia finds him. She asks him why he doesn’t sleep, and he states that theres to much noise in his head. He asks her if she’s ever been to Mexico, and she states that once they crossed the border into the United States, her parents never really left the neighborhood. They spent so much time in their shop, and she spent all her own time taking care of them. Chris asks Ofelia if she had any relationships, and sheepishly she answers that she had a few. Confidently, Chris responds that he’s seeing a girl from Pomona, but they stopped seeing each other after his mother moved them to LA. Chris looks off in to the sea, getting lost in the void, when Ofelia assures him that he’ll find someone else, because “there’s still some girls left on the planet.” As they exchange a relaxed smile, Chris suddenly notices a raft rowing towards the boat. He quickly grabs his gun, pointing it at the raft. The people in the raft begin to cry out for help, to which Chris asks Ofelia if he should shoot them. As they near the boat, Chris asks the same question, but without a word Ofelia helps the pregnant girl on the boat, blood streaming down her legs. Chris begins to holler for his dad, as the rest of the crew awakens and comes to where the commotion is happening.
Travis, taking the proper precautions, asks where their boat is, but they respond that they lost the motor on it, and have been traveling by raft. Strand, hearing all the commotion, quickly goes to his locked chest on the bridge, locating the assault rifle he had stashed away, but realizing that Daniel took the clip out of it, calling him a “paranoid fool.” As Travis and Daniel try to calm the man down, Alicia, awakened by the noises, walks carefully towards them, and asks one question that makes everyone’s stomach drop: “Jack?” Daniel turns to Alicia and asks her what did she do, to which Jack responds by knocking out Travis and Daniel, taking their weapons, while the woman hits Madison’s head on the sink, binding her with a cord as quickly as she can. As the rest of the group is bound up, the guy in charge, named Reed, hears a noise coming from the water. They oddly know the names of everyone on the boat and surmise that Nick is the one coming on the raft in the distance. Reed tells Jack to shoot him, but Alicia pleads with Jack not to. Reed ends up losing his patience and decides to do it himself, shooting at the figure, and at the raft, causing air to begin to leak out. He states that if he didn’t get him, “the hypothermia will.”
We jump to some news footage of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, as the chopper surveys thousands of homes underwater. We see Strand at a bar, wearing a suit, speaking to another man about his father. The men quickly exchange pleasantries about family, and soon begin discussing the effect Katrina will have on their investments. Strand states that he’s now bankrupt, due to the amount of properties he had that are now underwater. The other man talks about having to go and speak to the folks who are facing all this disaster. He states that he’s an opportunist, to which Strand responds that he may actually be an optimist, but the man settles on calling himself a parasite. After many more drinks, we find Strand helping the man to his room, as he stumbles in a drunken stupor. Strand helps him get his shoes and coat off, to which he finds the man’s wallet, and quickly pockets a few of the cards he finds. We then time jump to the current time where Strand is in the middle of a sinking raft, trying to dry out a satellite phone, as the water continues to pour in, being shot and not having much time before the raft goes under. Reed is still demanding information, threatening to shoot Chris if someone doesn’t tell him who has the key to the boat. Ofelia tells him that the man he shot in the raft was the man who had the key. When Reed doesn’t like what he hears, he is about to shoot Chris when Travis promises that he can start the boat without a key, that he can hotwire the boat to start. Madison is brought into the room by the girl, and Reed tells her to try to get a hold of someone named Connor, as they go and see if Travis can do what he says he can do, taking Alicia along with them. Jack takes Alicia off to the side, offering to loosen her binds. He is quick to point out that this was never meant to happen, but Alicia responds with the fact that he baited her. He tells her that Reed works like that, but the man named Connor will civilize the situation when he gets there.
We find Nick on the streets of some area, covered in blood from head to toe. He pulls out a piece of paper with a scribbled address on it, its edges soaked in the blood still dripping from his fingertips. As he continues his journey, he sees a zombie in the distance, and decides to walk just like her, attempting to blend in. To his surprise, she doesn’t even turn his way, and continues past him. We jump back to Strand in a hotel room, as he hears a knock at the door. He opens the door to find Thomas Abigail, the man who he had helped to his hotel room. Thomas saunters in, taking note of the room and the clothes that Strand bought with the stolen cards and cash he took. The gentleman, named Carlos, with Thomas tells Strand the amount of credit card debt he had collected in Thomas’s name: $36,000. Strand tells him that he spent $30,000 on buying credit card debts, stating that that’s where he started, and within five years, he’ll be back to where he was. Thomas tells him that he seems like a man who can create opportunities, and tells him that he’ll expect to be paid back. Strand obliges Thomas and tells him that he’ll pay him back with interest. When Strand thanks Thomas for the pardon, Thomas corrects him by telling him that he didn’t pardon him; he obliged him. Back in the raft, Strand is still struggling to get the satellite phone to work, shivering from the cold water. He suddenly drops the phone, unable to retrieve it as it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
Travis, underneath the console on the bridge, is trying to get the boat to run. Reed shortly tells him that if he can’t do it, to save them both the trouble and tell him. Travis tells him that he can, but that because the system on the bridge is computerized, they have to go to the engine room to get the boat started. Back where the rest of the group is, Madison asks Daniel if he can get free, to which he tells Madison to keep the girl distracted. Madison begins to ask the girl about her baby, the due date, and what sex it is. The girl, after answering a few questions, becomes weary, asking Madison if it’s her baby shower or something. Travis, underneath the boat, is trying to buy time, as he slips a tool into his sleeve, and begins to work on the wires. In Alicia’s room, Jack contacts Connor, telling him that there’s a guy on board that can rig the ship to start. Alicia begins to ask how many people were there before her. Jack explains that he’s not like them. Alicia begins to contemplate if there’s any difference between Reed and Strand, stating that they’ve done worse on the boat already. She tells Jack that maybe they were meant to find each other. She tells Jack that she’ll go with him anywhere, as long as he protects her family.
We find Nick still strolling through the neighborhood, looking like the prom queen from Carrie. He soon finds the address of where he’d been looking for, and as soon as he knocks on the door, a man comes around, pointing a gun at him. The man, who happens to be the same gentleman, Carlos, who accompanied Thomas’s visit to Strand earlier, points the pistol straight at Nick’s head. Nick quickly tells the man that he was sent by Strand, showing him the paper. Carlos, recognizing the paper, puts his gun down, telling Nick, “It’s about time.” He grabs a few bags and tosses them in the back of a car, telling Nick about the housing development he’s been wandering through. Nick asks him if he’s the man who’s going to get “all of us” across the border, to which Carlos replies suddenly with, “What do you mean ‘all of us’?”
Back on the boat, Daniel is still working furiously to cut the binds off his wrists and tells her that he needs more time. Madison asks the girl when was the last time she’d felt her baby move. The girl responds that she’s always on the go, and doesn’t notice it as much. Madison begins to tell her how she had lost a child, between Nick and Alicia, and how one minute she remembered feeling her move, and the next day, nothing. The woman explains that she’s healthy, and her baby is healthy, so she’s not worried. Madison then asks that if her baby passed, that there’s a possibility that the baby may turn, but Ofelia asks that if the baby turned, wouldn’t she have felt it. The girl suddenly flies into a fit of rage, putting a gun to Madison’s chin and telling her that she’ll shoot her in the head, then throw her overboard, if she doesn’t shut up. As Travis and Reed make their way from the engine room, Reed tells the girl that she needs to calm down, and have a seat, as Travis secretly leaves a crowbar in between the seats of the couch nearby.
We go back to Nick and Carlos driving in the car that they put bags in, as it comes to a stop, blaring Reggaeton music. Nick is trying to understand what kind of arrangement they have to get everyone across the border. Carlos is explaining to Nick that he only had an arrangement to take two other people across the border, but Nick has faith in Strand that he has some other arrangement made to get everyone. Nick asks if Carlos has known Strand long, and Carlos tells him that he’s known him for years. Carlos’ mother is currently at the Baja house, where they are heading. We jump back to Strand and Thomas, sunbathing near a pool, as Carlos’ mother is tending to the two. Strand is giving her orders, to which he recognizes a hint of distaste for Strand from her. “Like mother, like son,” Strand tells Thomas. Strand is trying to discuss business with Thomas, but Thomas is more occupied with trying to relax, and enjoying the view. Thomas tells them that they are preparing a future, for themselves and their families, in a place like this. “This place makes me feel like the rest of the world has fallen away, and we don’t need it.”
We find Connor finally making his way to the boat, just as Travis gets the boat going. As he makes his way to where everyone is bound up, he takes notice of how beautiful the vessel is. Reed brings Travis down from the bridge, to which Connor tells him that he’ll be taking Travis and Alicia with them. Travis asks if he’s bringing his whole family, but Connor tells him he only needs the two of them. As they are taken away on the other boat, leaving the rest of the crew behind, along with two others from the other boat, Madison tells them that they can take the launch to shore. As she argues back and forth with Reed, they hear an approaching raft coming in, as Nick and Carlos are inbound. Nick quickly recognizes that something is wrong on the boat, and tells Carlos, who tells him to switch places with him. As he does, Carlos pulls out an assault rifle, taking expert aim and quickly shooting the two from Connor’s boat. Reed, in shock, makes his way to the end of the boat, but not before Madison quickly stabs Reed right in the chest. Nick makes his way on to the boat, along with Carlos, demanding to know where is Strand. Madison explains that Strand jumped ship when the others came on board, and they shot at him and his raft. She’s frantic about getting Travis and Alicia back from Connor, but Carlos makes it plain and simple: they can’t get into Mexico without Strand.
We jump back to when Strand made his way to LA, as Thomas argues with him the reasons why he shouldn’t go. Strand tells him that he’ll only be there for two days, but Thomas pleads with him not to go, grabbing his hand closely. Strand tells him that he’ll be back soon, leaning in to give Thomas a kiss. Strand smiles and leaves, leaving Thomas all alone. We jump back to Strand, barely alive in the raft, struggling to stay afloat, as the raft makes its way to him. It’s Madison in the raft, and she pulls him out of the water, now fully understanding why he’s the key to getting into Mexico.
Review
Tonight’s episode, titled “Blood in the Streets”, was a unique part of the series, as it shed some light on who Strand was before the major event. Chronicling the relationship between Thomas and Strand, ultimately giving us the reasons as to why he’s able to get into Mexico, and whether the place they’re going to truly exists, the episode gave the audience what it’s been wondering for the better part of the series so far, and sadly, I don’t think it paid off.
I am one for unique storytelling, and using diversity and equality as a story motivator, even the main plot device, but the story in the episode seemed a bit flimsy. A man, who had stolen thousands of dollars from you, is suddenly the guy you want to invest all your time, and, eventually, your heart into, because he’s …well, Strand? I’m not too sold on that, especially if the entire premise of the success of the group is hinged on a longstanding love affair? I’m one to be a little bit of a romantic, but this is really reaching.
Overall, tonight’s show was ok. The inclusion, finally, of Jack and his group worked well, as we see the fruits of concerns from earlier episodes. Using them as another antagonist on the high seas is turning this more into a pirate show than a zombie show, honestly, but in the end, the show gave us a valiant effort in providing a solid story, but sadly, failed on execution.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 10/9p.m on AMC.