A Promising Start
Fear The Walking Dead has had a pretty strange run since it came onto air. Its quality has dipped and peaked, with the excellent third season’s flames extinguished by a lacklustre fourth. After a year hiatus Fear The Walking Dead returns with a promising start to Season 5, boasting glimmers of promise in the midst of non-stop zombie action. We begin with a plane crash which whips past two boys who manage to shoot a deer but see their gun seize up when confronted by a walker. As the boys head for the wreckage, flames and bits of plane lie spewed around the crash site. Our survivors are inside the plane and as the two boys appear to be surrounded by walkers, Alicia jumps in at the last second and saves them. Morgan unstraps himself from the passenger seat and hurries to help as John shoots a zombie inside the plane and their ears ring from the ricochet. Unfortunately, Luciana has been impaled so June rushes over to tend to her while Morgan and Alicia hold the line. As more walkers approach the wreckage, Alicia notices they’re in a high radiation zone. With bodies piling up and seemingly no end to the killing, the gang free Luciana, sawing off enough of the pole to move her, and band together to take her to safety. Just as they’re about to leave, the two boys’ sister arrives in a car and saves them all. Meanwhile Vic, Charlie and the truckers get the message about the plane crash and head off while the crash victims see the true extent of the horror in store for them. The road ahead is blocked by a line of zombies tied up with their intestines and hanging walker heads acting as a warning to stay away. Of course, our group don’t heed the warning and drive through the undead. They arrive at an abandoned building, a remote trucker stop, where one of the boys asks Luciana about toys while she lies weakened on the side. The group quickly realize they need to get the pole out and hastily hoist the metal out of her shoulder, clutching the gaping hole with both hands to stifle the bleeding. As hope seems lost, Morgan finally gets through on the radio to a new person. The L in the C&L. The man appears to have duped them, sending them to a truck stop miles away with the same eerie message from last year’s storyline – Take what you want, leave what you dont. As the group’s faith in their cause begins to waver, Morgan speaks to Alicia outside; a rallying call to carry on despite the odds. While Vic watches some of Althea’s tapes, he comes across one featuring an interview with Daniel. He’s alive. As Vic takes a deep breath, this can only mean bad things going forward. Meanwhile, Althea goes back to the crash site, convinced there’a a story hidden in the armour of one of the walkers she killed earlier in the day. She rips the helmet off, squinting through the pouring rain and checks the pockets, finding a map and strange markers. As she radios back to base, someone sneaks up behind her and knocks her out. Fear The Walking Dead gets off to a great start with its returning episode, with surprisingly grounded logic and a well-paced story. There’s a good dose of mystery here and the way this one is developing, looks set to be a really interesting season. Of course, we’ve seen this time and again from this show, with a storyline starting out strongly and petering out after a few episodes. Go into this one suitably weary but Season 5 certainly has the framework and foundation set to be the best season yet. Whether it’ll keep up the great work remains to be seen but for now, revel in the fact Fear appears to be back on the right track.
