‘Fear the Walking Dead’ recap: Battle of the optimists vs. the pessimists

To start things off this week on “Fear the Walking Dead,” Chris gets his first up close look at a zombie while a riot happens outside the barbershop his family is hiding out in to avoid rioters. It’s so odd to see zombies mix in with regular people, but the riot is going on strong even with the zombies there.

At Madison’s house, she’s busy dealing with Nick begging for more drugs and Alicia asking tough questions.

At the barbershop, emotions are running high as everyone tries to decide what to do about the riot, but they’re forced to run out when a fire starts in the building next door. Poor Chris immediately sees a zombie eating a cop’s face. Oddly, the rioters continue to be totally unaware of the people eating faces nearby.

Madison’s only idea to keep everyone distracted is to play Monopoly with them. Alicia and Nick make fun of this idea, but then immediately pick their old favorite playing pieces. They are having a more peaceful night than Travis and company, but that’s probably not going to stay the case for long.

In the chaos of the riot, Mrs. Salazar is injured when a piece of scaffolding falls on her. They manage to get her out from under it, and thankfully, they’ve just made it to the pickup truck. Somewhat miraculously, Travis is able to drive away from the riot. They try to take her to a hospital, but complete chaos reigns, as the zombies have caused major havoc, and police are shooting them down, and they have to keep driving. As they do, the last parts of the power grid turn off.

Back at Madison’s house, Nick is trying to talk Madison into leaving without Travis by saying insulting things about how he’s joined his real family, but Madison wants to wait and also try to avoid telling Alicia the truth. It’s not going to last for long, because a barking dog warns them that a zombie is approaching the house. Nick, ever shifty, remembers a neighbor has a gun, so they go over to grab it. Officially on Team Keep the Smart Dog.

In perfect horror movie fashion, the family breaks into a darkened, possibly empty house, plaintively calling names as they go. Now would be a good time to explain to Alicia not to trust familiar faces if they look a bit dead-ish. She sees a zombie going inside the family house, which they’ve cleverly left accessible with a wide open door. The zombie then eats the poor dog. Right as this transpires, Travis pulls up, so they have to run outside and warn him away from the house.

But it’s too late, Travis has already wandered inside searching for her. He’s followed by his family, and Madison and her kids take a mysteriously long route back to the house.

But she gets there eventually, while the zombie is attacking Travis. She tries to shoot the zombie, and Travis foolishly tries to get her to wait, but Daniel runs in and saves the day by blowing the zombie’s head off. Alicia has gone back to get the shotgun shells Madison’s family cleverly left behind, and immediately gets attacked by a zombie. She manages to get away, but then quickly puts together what really happened to her boyfriend, Matt.

Madison really wants to leave in the night, but Travis talks her into staying until morning. In return, he has to drag the neighbor’s body out of the house. Daniel wants to burn the body, but Travis resists out of respect.

He gets to then have a very awkward conversation with his ex wife Liza, who points out that Griselda’s foot injury is going to kill her without medical care.

The Salazars are having their own familial drama. Ofelia asks her father about the mysterious “cousin” who’s supposed to be coming to help them, since she knows all of their family is still in El Salvador. She wants to go with the rest of the group, but her father is resistant.

Then Liza and Madison have a great bonding moment where Madison asks Liza to kill her if she zombifies. Weirdly, Liza doesn’t ask for a similar favor in return. Seems like a good idea to plan for who has to kill who in case of an emergency.

Travis is going to the effort of digging a grave for the dead neighbor while Susan, the zombie neighbor, growls hungrily at him.

Daniel teaches Chris how to use the ammo for the shotgun, but Travis isn’t happy about the lesson. He doesn’t like guns.

Madison wants to kill neighbor Susan, but Travis talks her out of it, because he still believes there’s a chance people can be saved from zombiedom.

Nick tries to get more medicine off of his mother, but she’s left most of it with the Salazars.

Ofelia tries once again to convince her family to go with them, but Daniel won’t do it and insists they’ll get through this.

Madison and Travis’ families finally depart the home. Is anyone else suspicious of why Alicia took so long to get out of the house?

But they don’t get very far before Madison stops to try and warn Susan’s husband away from getting too close to her. Before they can, though, soldiers show up and shoot Susan in the head. So it seems martial law has taken over. The soldiers take everybody’s names, and brusquely refuse to answer any questions.

Travis optimistically says that since the cavalry has arrived, things are going to get better, but then they watch the soldiers load bodies into a garbage truck.

Daniel, ever the pessimist, instead thinks it’s already too late to get away. It’s weird to not root for nice Travis, isn’t it?