What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

 

Fear the Walking Dead

Zombies clamor to get into a store while a dude shops. He leaves the back way, because zombies aren’t the brightest things. He stops suddenly, and we hear John tell him, that’s right. John has a gun pointed at him. John says he saw his flag and knows who he is, and they have a particular person in common. John holsters his weapon, but says he’s quicker than dude on his worst day. He’ll attempt to shoot him in the hand, but there are no guarantees he’ll walk away – or walk away alive. He can keep his hands raised, answer one question, and live. He keeps hands raised and turns. John shows him a Vulture flag. Morgan tells dude not to be stupid; John will beat him. He tries to draw his gun anyway, and John shoots his pinky finger off. John throws him the flag to wrap his hand in. Dude asks what he wants. John says, answers.

Alicia asks if Al rigged her truck herself. Al knows where she’s going, and says her guns aren’t for hire and her bullets aren’t for sale. Alicia asks, why not? Al says she stays behind the camera. How about if they stick to their deal; a ride for their story. She’s heard some of it, but she wants it all. Alicia tells her to ask what she wants, as long as gets them there.

John wants to know where dude and the Vultures are meeting up. Dude says he’s not with whoever John thinks. John pats him down and finds a map. He says he’s seen before, from a guy in an El Camino. John asks, what happened to her? He says dude is carrying Naomi’s gun. Dude says he doesn’t know, and John shoves his gun in dude’s face. Morgan tells John to let him go. Morgan tells dude there are people headed there who want to kill him, and to steer clear. John tells Morgan to hold on to the pistols for the time being –  just in case. Morgan says he knows it’s hard. Does he know where they’re taking them? Morgan says they’ll find them, stop them, and ask what he needs to know abut Naomi. He wants to know she didn’t suffer.

Before

Naomi picks shards of something out of Alicia’s arm, and asks what she found. Alicia says a few canned hams and a lot of dead. She goes to cleaned up, and Madison thanks Naomi. Naomi asks if they’re going out tomorrow, and Madison says there’s not much choice – no matter how dangerous it is.

Victor asks Nick what new and exciting locale are they going to? Nick says they’re going to find a place with seeds and fertilizer. Lucy asks where the truck with the food came from, and Victor says, in a garage. Someone must have loaded it to make an escape, but never made it. Cole says he’s going to get ammo, and Victor follows him, thanking him for the cover. Cole says Victor saved him time by showing him who he really was before he thought Victor was someone else. Victor asks why not tell them, but Cole says he’s just not sure what Victor would do if he did. Cole leaves, and Madison asks if everything is okay. Victor says people are getting irritable because there isn’t enough food. Madison shows him a liquor bottle, and says she found it in the back of the pantry. Does he want to – he doesn’t let her finish before he says, yes.

The Vultures hang in the parking lot, while Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung plays over their loudspeakers. Victor says, they don’t give up easy, and Madison says, no, they don’t. Victor asks why she saved him after what he did. She says she wasn’t going to leave him drown. He says she didn’t just pull him out. She nursed him back to health. She could have saved him and left, but she waited for him after everything; why? She says she knows who he is, and she likes drinking with him.

Madison finds Viv holding a gun on Naomi, who was trying to drive out. Naomi says she can explain, and Madison tells her that she doesn’t need to sneak out. She says she wasn’t leaving; she was going here. She hands Madison a pamphlet. She says they might have seeds and food, military rations. She used to be there. Victor asks if there are still people; people who know her. She shakes her head, and Madison asks why she didn’t tell them. Naomi says it’s dangerous. She didn’t want anyone to get hurt. Madison and Victor decide to go with her. Luci tells Nick that they’ll be back.

Naomi speeds along the highway. A sign says, food – gas – lodging, and Madison suggests they park for the night. Victor says they need all three things. They park at a motel, and Madison says, let’s clear it. They go into the office. It’s dark, but we hear zombie noises, and Madison knifes a couple in the head. She sees some guns and canned beans. She says, they killed each other over some cans of beans. Victor shows up with some vending machine food, and they take a break to eat. I wonder why the bean killers didn’t raid the vending machine.

Naomi says Madison and Victor have been a lot of places together, and Madison says it was a long trip from Mexico. She’d started from LA, and it seems like a lifetime ago. Victor asks where they’re going tomorrow, and Naomi says, an abandoned FEMA shelter. Madison asks what happened, and Victor wonders how she knows supplies are still there. Naomi says it was abandoned a long time ago, and no one knows about it. Victor says, except for her. Naomi confesses that she was going to go on her own, but she intended on leaving the map after the gate was closed. Madison asks, why? and Victor says, because she’s a coward. Naomi says, he’s right; she’s a coward. He tells her to hand over the keys. Now she won’t leave because she can’t. Naomi says she didn’t have to tell them, and Victor thanks her for showing them who she is. Madison says it does count for something, and suggests they get some rest.

Madison wakes. Naomi isn’t there, and she tells Victor to wake up.

Naomi is on the road again. She stops at a school. She heads inside, stepping on the FEMA Checkpoint sign. The door is locked, and she knocks on the glass to get the zombies’ attention. She sneaks inside behind them. This is about as much help as you get from FEMA when there isn’t an apocalypse.

Madison thinks maybe they can catch up with Naomi. She wonders why not tell the truth if she wanted to leave. They all have things to be ashamed of, but can take the opportunity to make up for it. Victor admits that the truck with the food was his contingency plan; he’d been stocking it for weeks. People don’t change, and when they’re pressed and cornered, the artifice falls and the curtain flops. They show you who they really are. Madison asks if she should have left him to drown, and Victor says that’s what he would have done. She tells him, lucky for him she’s not him.

Naomi looks around. She comes to a room for children. She sees a crib, small furniture, and kids’ artwork. She tries to keep a grip. She goes to a storage bin, and opens the combination lock on it. There are guns and medical supplies inside. She looks through a notebook that has planting information in it. She finds keys with a tag that says JIC on them. She packs some stuff in her knapsack, and quietly walks behind the throng of zombies at the front. If just one sees her, she’s screwed. She sees a closed door, and freaks a little. She sits down on the floor, even though now is not the time. Uh-oh, here they come. She jumps up, and jets right past them. Good thing they don’t move like those guys in 28 Days Later. She runs smack into an impaled zombie, and now there are zombies on either side of her. By her reactions, I think she knows them. She starts to climb some scaffolding, kicking them away. Now she’s stuck, the crowd beneath her, reaching up. She cries.

Madison and Victor come into the school. Naomi says the truck is at the loading dock. It has what they need. She tosses the keys to Madison, and says Victor was right. Victor says they can’t get to her. He uncovers some rope, while kicking back a zombie. Madison pikes the zombies at the bottom of the scaffolding. Victor says he’s got her; she can do it. Naomi pulls herself back up, and grabs onto the rope. She pulls herself across toward Victor. He slips, and there’s suddenly too much slack in the rope, but he recovers quickly. Madison comes to help him. It’s pretty creepy looking down from Naomi’s vantage point, with all the zombies reaching toward her and moving underneath. She makes it to the other platform, and the three of them run out. Victor padlocks the door.

Naomi tells them that she needed try to make up for what she did. It needed to be her in there; not anyone else. They’re good people. She thought she could be safe there with her daughter. Madison says she doesn’t have to tell them. She owes them nothing. Naomi says her name was Rose. When Rose’s father died, Naomi wore it wouldn’t happen to them. She found a place with food, water, and people who knew how to survive. A woman named Ellen taught her how to make it. She gave JIC classes to be prepared – just in case.

One night, Rose’s cough turned into pneumonia. They didn’t have the antibiotics needed, so Naomi hid Rose in the pantry and locked the door. The antibiotic run took three days. She didn’t eat or sleep, but she found the amoxicillin. By time got back… Naomi breaks down. Madison says it wasn’t her fault. They wouldn’t have been able to keep that many out, even if she was there. Naomi tells Madison that she didn’t tell anyone the truth. She was afraid they’d get kicked out; she’d seen it happen at other places. Rose died before she got back, and turned. Then, everyone else did too. She did this. Madison says she didn’t have to come back, but Naomi says it had to be her. She couldn’t run from it any longer. Maybe some can find way to live with it, but she needs to keep what they have going.

They leave. Naomi says the truck is prepped, in case anything went wrong. They were prepared for everything, just not this. A zombie is flailing around in the truck, and I wonder if it’s Ellen. Madison knocks on the driver’s window, and while the zombie is preoccupied with that, Naomi stabs it in the head from behind. Victor says she did what she had to do; what life seemed to be telling her to do. He did too, but Madison taught him something else; that they can start over. They all can. We see a plant growing out of one of the fertilizer bags.

Alicia, Luci, and Nick walks out to where Mel is. He asks if there’s a problem, but they just want him to listen. He might want to make room. They have food, supplies, and fertilizer; they’re going to rebuild and replant. The Vultures have picked over a fifty-mile radius; they must be running low too. Mel tells the group to pack up, and let’s go. They’re going to take longer than they can wait. Madison drives up with truck full of stuff, and Naomi in the car behind her. Mel tells her to be careful. In his experience, the really the really bad stuff, you never see it coming. They drive in, and the Vultures leave.

Luci asks if it’s enough, and Nick says it is. Madison looks at the JIC keys, and puts them on the dashboard. Cole says he didn’t think they’d pull it off, and Victor says, neither did he. Madison knows him better than he knows himself. He might have been premature in telling Cole who he is.

Victor thanks Madison. She says they won today, and he was a big part of it. He suggests they leave it at that. Madison looks out with the binoculars. It’s all clear in the parking lot. Alicia comes out, and Madison wants her to do something, no questions asked. She tells her to park a truck out back with supplies in it, and keep it quiet. No one needs to know. Alicia asks why, and Madison says, just in case. She gives her the keys, and I wonder who’s highlighting Alicia’s hair.

Now

Standing next to the road, Alicia sees a truck with the binoculars. Victor and Luci arm themselves. Alicia says, they’re coming. Victor asks, how many, and Alicia says, one. Morgan and John get out of the truck. Morgan says they came to talk, and Alicia tells them to get on the ground.  Victor asks what they’re doing there, and Morgan says they came to help. He says, they’re not coming. They found them, and told them to stay away. Alicia says, bad idea, and Morgan says, they still have time. They don’t have to do this. He should have told Nick; what they’re doing is only going to make things worse. Victor says, perhaps they didn’t heed his warning after all. Here come the Vultures.

The caravan stops in front of them. Alicia and the others draw their guns. The Vultures get out, guns drawn. Mel says, hey, who told them to be there, and thanks the guy in the blue shirt, meaning Morgan. Mel tells Alicia, sorry about her brother, and she says, really? She’s not sorry about his. Mel makes some interesting, twitchy faces. Morgan says it doesn’t have to go this way, and Mel says, yes it does, but he doesn’t have to be in middle. He stands between Alicia and Mel, and Mel tells him to get out of the way. Madison radios, asking, where is everyone? Mel says, they didn’t tell her? and Morgan says, no. Mel says they aren’t going to like this. A Land Rover drives up. John asks where they got it, and Naomi gets out. John says, Laura? He moves toward her, and Alicia says, no!

Mel is confused, and shoots John. Morgan runs to him, and Naomi drops to her knees.

Next time, Naomi says, it’s not safe: Morgan says, this has to stop: Madison says, no one is gone until they’re gone; and Luci meets Charlie.

👰 I confess, I watched the Royal Wedding. I didn’t get up before the crack of dawn to watch it live, but checked it out later. I’ll never get up before the crack of dawn for a wedding again after Prince Charles and Diana Spencer. I did it for them, and we all know how that turned out. It must be weird for Meghan Markle, suddenly going from making movies to having movies made about her. Like a skabillion other women, of course I wanted to see all the fashions, but most important, the dress. Meghan Markle’s, now Duchess of Sussex’s, dress. It wasn’t a wow. It was from Givenchy, but very plain, long sleeves and a boat neck. Although I do love a boat neck. While Princess Diana floated in a cloud only she could carry off, Kate Middleton’s gown has been my favorite of more recent royal brides so far. That being said, I reasoned that she might have wanted the focus to be on Queen Mary’s tiara (which was stunning), and the sixteen-foot veil, which had the individual flowers of the fifty-plus commonwealths embroidered on it. Along with Meghan’s state flower, which I suppose was nice of them. I would have loved to have gotten a better view of the veil. It was hard to see the detail on most of the time. Anyway, it was fun to see what all the guests wore as well, including the always adorable Queen Elizabeth, and the grandeur of the whole thing. I especially loved the fairytale carriage ride at the end. Probably the best thing about it, is how the young royals have kept the beautiful traditions, yet bucked some archaic ones. Meghan is an American actress, half African American, and divorced – even one of those things would have been unheard of not that long ago. Too bad it comes a little late for King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.

😔 Sigh…