What I Watched Today

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

 

Fear the Walking Dead

[Then] Madison is out in the woods. She slips under a zombie alarm. She tells someone not to turn around, and hands where she can see them. She doesn’t know them, but saw their vehicle, and has a good idea  of what they’re capable of. They don’t know her either, and they’re not going to. She tells them to toss the keys, but they drop them, saying they’re not tossing sh*t. It’s Al, and Madison shoots the cup she’s holding. Al says that was her dinner. Madison says it wasn’t an accident. She’s lost everything, and has nothing else to lose. Al says she thinks she’s been through a lot? She has no idea.

[Now] Zombies scrabble at Al’s truck. The camera pans out, and there’s an unbelievable number. John is still breathing, but Naomi has to get the bullet out. Everything she needs is inside. Morgan asks if Al can get closer. Al asks Charlie to keep filming. One day someone will want to know what happened.

[Then] Madison is holding a gun on Al, who’s tied up in the back of her truck. She says the sooner Al gives her the keys, the sooner she can get out. Al asks if Madison knows how many times she’s been zip tied? If Madison wants something, she has to give Al something. Madison sees a box of Al’s tapes, and asks what they are. Al says that’s not how it works. Madison says there are people out there who need her; the truck will make it easier. Al says she interviews people she comes across, and Madison thinks maybe she talked to them. Al tells Madison to cut her loose, and they’ll talk about a deal. Madison wants the keys and the tapes. Al says she tried to do it the nice way. She’s freed herself, and grabs Madison. Al wakes up on the floor of the truck, and says, sh*t. Madison is driving.

[Now] In the stadium parking lot, Al says she can’t get much closer. The zombies will get jammed in the wheel well, and they won’t be able to get them out. Morgan says he’ll move fast, and Al says it’s going to be loud. John tells him not to go; he got Morgan into this. Morgan says John got him out of something; now he’s getting John out of this. Naomi says she’ll be right back, and kisses John’s forehead. Al opens the gun window, and guns down a good number of zombies. Naomi and Morgan make a run for it. They’re barely inside, when the entrance blows up.

Al radios, asking if they’re all right. Morgan says they’re good in here. Charlie calls to Al from the front seat. We see Alicia in the stadium, with a gun trained on them. Al tells Morgan they need to hurry. They’re here. They found us.

[Then] Parked under a bridge, Madison looks through the interviews, hoping to see Nick and Alicia. She gets frustrated, and pounds the dashboard. A zombie comes to the window. She rolls it down, and pikes the zombie in the head. The zombie falls to the ground, and Al is there with a gun, saying, remember me? Madison gets out, and Al tells her, everything better be there and working. Madison says it is, and Al says Madison is going to tell her a story, starting with who she’s looking for.

[Now] Alicia, Victor, and Luci shoot at Al, who shoots back. Victor tells Alicia to radio Al, and she does, saying it’s not going her way. She knows how much ammo Al has, and it won’t last forever. She thought Al just wanted a story, and Al says she thought she’d mix it up today.

Morgan and Naomi go through the zombies in half-darkness, killing them as they go. The shooting continues outside. John falls unconscious, and I freak, thinking he’s dead. On the radio, Naomi tells them to keep applying pressure; he can’t lose more blood. Al tells John it’s not going to end like this, and he says it’s okay. Charlie films everything. John tells Al that when it’s all over, to stop running from people, and Morgan should do the same – or not. Morgan knows what he means.

Naomi grabs supplies. Morgan radios that they’re coming back now. The truck rocks with a blast, and Alicia asks how Al likes it. Al says, nice try, bitch. Her truck is built like a tank in a tank. The door falls off, and Alicia is standing there with a gun. Al asks if she’s going to help with the door, or what?

[Then] Al asks if Madison always uses a gun to get what she wants, and Madison says, if that’s what it takes. Al wonders what makes it okay, and Madison assumes she hasn’t lost anyone she’s cared about yet. Al asks who was it, and what happened to her? Al guesses it was her kids, and asks if someone did something to them or did they do something to her? Madison wonders why any of it matters, and Al says, because it’s the truth, facts, reality. Just admitting that there is one reality, and they share it. That they’re connected by a single, screwed up world. That’s the truth, and it can change things. Madison asks, how? Al say she’s been doing this a long time; since before things went bad. It was always bad, but it got worse. She was in a village on the other side of the world, and there was a warlord who called himself Twisted Round, who thought he owned the place. He was shaking people down for things they didn’t have enough of to start with. No one talked because they were too scared, but she talked someone into talking about it. In the end, they found out he didn’t have an army or guns, and didn’t last much longer. The only thing he had going on was that the truth wasn’t coming out – until it did. She knows she doesn’t have the story Madison is looking for, but someone might be interested in hers one day. What happened to her kids? Madison says she made them a promise they’d be safe, and she wasn’t able to keep it.

[Now] Al asks Alicia not to hurt Charlie. Alicia asks, why not? Charlie hurt her. On the radio, Naomi asks if Al copies her. Alicia tell Al to say it’s safe to come out or Charlie dies. Charlie killed her brother, and she’ll do it. At the stadium, Luci and Victor aim. Al tells Naomi it’s safe. Al looks at John, and asks if she can get her camera. John secretly turns the radio on, so Morgan and Naomi hear what’s going on in the truck. Victor says they’re not coming out. Alicia and Al struggle in the truck.

[Then] Al tells Madison that she doesn’t have to give the details; just the truth. Madison says she promised to find a place to live. Something that wasn’t just walls; they’d had those. What she was looking for was different. She was looking for a place where her kids wouldn’t have to do what she did to Al today. Al asks if she found it, and Madison says she thought she did. Al asks, what happened?

[Now] Alicia pushes Al down, and her head hangs out the door into the crowd of zombies, who grab at her. Charlie gets the radio, and tells them to hurry. Naomi says she’ll go, but Morgan tells her that they don’t want to kill him, and hands her the radio. He tells her to let him know what to do to keep John going. In the truck, Charlie grabs Alicia, and they end up on the floor. Al gets the gun, and Alicia sees the cup o’ noodles soup. She asks where Al got them, and Al says there was a semi with a bunch of them; she traded with them for an interview. Alicia grabs the tapes, and sees one that says Amina. Al asks if she knew her.

[Then] Madison tells Al it doesn’t matter; what she was looking for might not even be possible. She says for certain things, you don’t need a camera; it just sticks. She talks about renting a house in the mountains one summer. It had big windows and one morning, a bird flew into one. It was injured, and the kids kept it in a shoebox, naming it Willomina, Amina for short. They nursed it for weeks, taking turns staying up all night. Whatever they did, it just seemed to get worse, but her son was a sensitive boy, and her daughter decided it would live. Every morning, Madison dreaded what she might find, but one day she heard chirping, and Amina was flying around the living room. She lived because her kids didn’t give up on her; they gave her a chance when no one else would. There’s not a whole lot of that left. Al says, no, there’s not. Madison says that’s why she needed a different place, where things were different. We see Alicia watching her interview on the camera. Madison can’t imagine that part of them dying, and says you do what it takes to keep it alive. Alicia tells Al, eff you. Al looks at her and says, Madison never tolf her their names. She asks if the stadium was the place Madison was looking for.

[Now] Alicia goes into the stadium, and sees Morgan. She points the gun at him. He says he’s just trying to help his friend, and she says he can, after he steps aside. He doesn’t understand, and Naomi says she does. Alicia’s mom is dead because of what she did.

I’m getting all the feels, and realizing that I’m one with Al.

Morgan says she’s been doing this a long time. She’s thinking this is who she is, and what she’s got to do. He says let her save John. Alicia says she doesn’t get to; she doesn’t get anything. Naomi says, Alicia brought her there; she helped her. Alicia says she’s not that person anymore. Morgan says she can be. She just has to decide to get out. He says he tried to get away from people; everything and everybody. He thought he had to. Someone told him that he’d end up with people again, and he didn’t want to believe it, so ran halfway across the country to prove them wrong. Now, he’s standing between a gun and someone he just met. Things can change. They did for him, and can for her too. Alicia starts crying. Morgan says they already have; he’s not dead. He asks her to step aside for her brother, but she says she won’t step aside for Naomi. Naomi says no matter what Alicia thinks she lost, what her mother wanted for her is still in her, and she sees it. Alicia puts the gun down, and Morgan holds her. He tells Naomi to go to John, and gives her the gun.

[Then] Al writes Amina on Madison’s tape. She says, deal, and cuts Madison loose. She asks where Madison is heading; where her kids might be. She doesn’t need details, but wants to figure out how far it is when she gives Madison food. Madison says they got separated outside of El Paso. Her kids escaped, and she barely got out. Naomi gives her some noodle cups, and Madison asks what she owes her. Al says, nothing. She gave Al a down-payment, and can tell the rest of the story when she finds them. Al says she moves around a lot.

Madison drives. She sees a station wagon, and stops. She puts the radio on, and hears Alicia say, mom. She finds Alicia, Victor, and Luci at the motel. She tells them that she’s been to every motel between here and El Paso; they had to be at one of them. She sees Nick and hugs him. Victor asks where she got the MSG jackpot. She says from someone up the road, and he tosses Alicia a cup o’ noodles.

Madison shows them the stadium. Victor says it’s a little big, but she says she’s not just of them; they’ve been thinking too small. Nick asks if she wants to bring people in. She says someone helped her when they didn’t have to. She thinks it’s time to do the same.

[Now] Al drives in silence with Alicia in the passenger seat. Naomi has John hooked to an IV. Victor asks why Madison didn’t tell them about her. Al doesn’t think she was proud of how they met. She quietly asks what happened to Madison. Alicia says if she wants the rest of the story, pull over.

Naomi tells John it’s going to be okay. She tells him that her name is June. Now he knows. He says it’s his favorite month.

Al films, as Alicia, Victor, and Luci contribute to the story, while sitting around a fire. She asks them to tell her about that night. What she did. What they remember. Alicia says she and her brother were in the parking lot – surrounded.

We see the zombies around their car. Victor says they’re not leaving them out there. Madison, Luci, and Victor try to get to them. Alicia says, they cleared a path, but they had to get to the stadium. Victor says it was easier said than done. Madison told them to stay inside. She said the walls would hold, but they didn’t believe her. They didn’t have the same faith that she had in the place. Luci say she doesn’t think anyone did. Not when they saw what they were up against. We see zombies on fire, zombies getting shot, and Cole shooting at them. Alicia says they decided to run. Victor says, Madison tried to stop them. Alicia says they couldn’t get back Mel took their car. We see him driving, with Charlie in the passenger seat. Charlie says he found her in parking lot. They were closing in on her, and he saved her. Al asks what happened. Victor says the people were trying to get away. They didn’t. All the people she brought in were going to die. Naomi says she tried to talk them out of it. She believed the walls would hold, but she couldn’t change their minds. She was going to stay, and when she went to get supplies, she got back too late. The caravan was overrun, and the dead came at her. She ran until she couldn’t anymore. Alicia says, she joined the Vultures. They thought she was still inside; they thought she died. Naomi says she thought they all died. When the Vultures found her, she didn’t think she had anywhere else to go. Victor says she did what she thought she had to. Alicia says, none of them could get out of the parking lot. She couldn’t get beck to the stadium; there were too many dead. Victor says, Madison had another idea.

We see Madison standing with a flare, drawing the zombies away from them. Alicia says when they realized what she was trying to do, they tried to go back, but there were too may dead between them and Madison. Victor kept Alicia from running after Madison, saving her life. They’d reinforced the walls to keep the dead out, and Madison knew they were strong enough to keep them in. They followed her inside. Luci says it was more than they could count. We see them, and it’s a lot. Victor says she led the dead inside, so they could get away. She tried to go through tunnels, but there were still too many outside the gates to escape. So she locked herself in.

We see Madison run out of bullets. Alicia radios. Madison says she was afraid to lose this place. She thought they needed it to stay who they are right now. She tells Alicia, no one is gone until they’re gone. She faces the dead, and throws the flare. It starts a fire. Nick and Alicia watch from the car in horror.

Alicia says it was never about the stadium. Victor says it was about the people. Luci says, it was about them.

They drive away. Victor says she gave up her life, so they could live. Al turns off the camera. She writes Madison on the tape. Victor passes out cup o’ noodles to each of them. A new group is formed.

A folk song plays as the noodles are passed out. I find out later, it’s called *Love, Love, Love by The Mountain Goats.

Next time, zombies in a hella wicked storm, and Alicia wants to be left alone.

*Some things you do for money; some you do for fun, but the things you do for love, come back to you one by one.

😵 Why Does Weekend Time Go Faster?