What I Watched Today

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

 

Fear the Walking Dead

The storm continues. Morgan calls for Alicia. He pikes a zombie and checks the cab of a truck, but it’s locked. He opens the back, ready for anything, but nothing comes screeching out. He goes in through the back, and sees the take what you need boxes ready to go. He looks through one and finds a pocket knife. He sits with some water and a protein bar. Best. Protein. Bar. Ever. By the look on his face.

The next day, there’s less of a storm noise, but more of a zombie noise. Morgan cracks open the back door, and a zombie looks in. He kills it, and walks out to a new morning. It looks like the storm has passed. He sees he’s at a truck stop. He bangs on the mini-mart door and cautiously steps inside. He calls, hello, but hears nothing.

Morgan sees coffee pots ready to go, and everything is clean, neat, and well-stocked. He flips the light switch, and lights come on. He hears a woman’s voice over the radio asking, that you papa bear do you copy? Over. Then, do you copy? Over. Morgan answers, hello? She asks who this is, and says he hitched a ride accidentally in the back of a semi, and found himself there She asks which location he’s at. He thinks Mississippi. She tells him to make himself at home. Take what you need, and leave what you don’t. He asks what this place is, but she’s gone.

Morgan goes through the aisles, taking a few things. He looks at a map, and sees how far he is from Virginia. He loads up a thermos with coffee. Next, he checks out the bathroom, which is the first place I’d have gone. He looks in the mirror, and marvels at the faucet, which has running water. There’s real toilet paper, and even a magazine by the toilet. While he’s making use of that, a man tries the door. This would be my luck. Even in the apocalypse, with only a handful of people around, there’s a line for the bathroom. The man tells Morgan to get out. Morgan asks for a minute.

When he opens the door, there’s a man in a wheelchair holding a gun. The man says, all his life, people like Morgan have been using stalls for people like him. He’s never asked the question, but he’s asking now – why? Morgan says it seemed like little apartment. The man says, it is, especially with the sink. Everyone likes it a little homey. He asks Morgan what’s in the bag, and Morgan says someone told him to take it. A woman on the radio. Morgan asks if the man could lower his gun. He says, sure could, and points it lower. Morgan says, take what you need, and leave what you don’t. He thought that’s what it was here for. A woman walks in, and says, it is. She asks Morgan to excuse her brother. He’s a little jumpy. The man is African American, and the woman is Caucasian. Morgan says, brother? and she says they’re twins. Morgan asks what they do there. We find out their names are Wendell and Sarah.

Outside, Sarah tells Morgan that they pack, drive, and deliver. They keep doing what they always did. They’d been living on the fringes, and now all that’s left are the fringes. When the road gets bumpy, just keep going. Wen tells Morgan they have everything there, even satellite TV, if anyone was still broadcasting. Morgan asks if there are more of them, and more places like this, and then says, they don’t have to tell him; it’s not his business. Wen asks where he’s heading, and Morgan says he’s heading back east; Virginia. There’s a place where people are trying to start over; build something better. Sarah says they just saved his ass from a hurricane. The worst she’s ever seen; levees broken, roads washed out. Morgan says he has people back there. Wen says he lost his Nelly, and knows Morgan’s pain. Morgan asks if he can convince Sarah to drive him. Wen says they’re not much without the truck. Morgan says he understands, but he’s going to have to try.

Wen gives him directions, and says if Morgan is lucky, they’re still standing. Morgan says there aren’t a lot of people doing things like this. Wen says people used to look down on them, and told them the boxes wouldn’t do any good, but they have a code. They’re keeping it alive. You gotta help people when they need help, then keep on truckin’.

Morgan drives until there’s a downed tree with a downed zombie under it. He kills the zombie, and looks around. Another zombie is flailing around in quicksand. Morgan sees one of the boxes, looks inside, and smiles. He continues on foot.

He starts to cross a bridge, but it’s out,* and he runs back. He runs for a while, like something is chasing him. He uses the radio to call Wen, asking if he knows which roads are clear. Wendell asks why, and Morgan tells him the bridge is out; he’s coming back. Wen asks, what about his friends? Morgan gets choked up, and repeats the bridge is out, and he’s coming back.

He must be traveling as the crow flies. There’s one pecking at a zombie now.

Wen tells Sarah, half a point. She almost hit that bird. Morgan radios the truck stop, saying he ran into trouble. He asks if there are more places like where they are, but Sarah says they’re the last outpost on the frontier. She calls Morgan MoMo, and says, sorry. She knows helping those people meant a lot.

Morgan drives for a while. He sees a man running across a field, yelling for help. He has a hood over his head, and his hands are bound behind his back. And he’s being chased by five or six zombies. Morgan tells him to hang on. The hooded dude starts smacking into the zombies, and all of them fall. Morgan runs across the field, and pikes them one by one. He tells the guy (we find out later his name is Jim) he’ll be all right, and takes the hood off of him. Jim asks, how long does it take to run across a field? Morgan picks him up, and cuts him free, He tells Morgan that he was kidnapped. Morgan asks what they wanted, and Jim says, recipes. He brews beer – the goddam staff of life. I beg to differ, but it’s good to have a passion.

In the car, Morgan asks if Jim is part of group, or is it just him? Jim says, just him and the brewery; Auggie’s Ale. He grows hops, and whatever he can manage on his roof. Morgan asks who he’s making it for, and Jim asks if Morgan has a point to his life or is he looking for one? Morgan says he’s just trying to get back home. Jim says he’s got something. He’s got the future. They’re going to infest the planet again one day. Everything they lost, they’re going to rebuild. So he makes beer. Does Morgan think he’s nuts? Morgan says, actually, no. He’s going someplace where people are trying to rebuild; in Virginia. He’s meeting some folks who are going to give him a lift. He asks Jim if he wants to come.

The truck is stopped in the middle of the road. Morgan and Jim get out of the car. I have a bad feeling about this, Beavis. Jim wonders where they are, and Morgan says, in back. Jim sees them, and starts to run. Wen cocks his gun, and says he’s not going to lower it. Sarah says Morgan found him; thanks.

Jim and Morgan ride in the back of the truck, hands bound behind them. Wen asks Morgan if the place he’s going to in Virginia is close to DC. Morgan asks who the truck belongs to, and what happened? Sarah says they left him by the side of the road, where he’d been dropping a box. They figured out he always dropped them by a road marker ending in four; It was easy to snag his rig. If you can’t protect what’s yours, it ain’t yours. Morgan says they could be helping people, and Wen says the universe gave him a reason not to. Sarah asks where the place in Virginia is. Jim wonders what all this has to do with him, and Sarah says she likes beer, calling him Jimbo. Wen thinks he should try a new twist on his name.  Wen says they have the truck, the maps, and journal the guy kept. He wants to get there as much as they do. Where is it? Morgan says nothing, and Wen says he has a thousand miles to change his mind.

In the back of truck, Jim says he could make this work on a small scale, The chick said she’s a fan of his work. She came to see if there was any stock left, and finding him was a bonus, but he can make it work. He asks Morgan to tell them where he’s going, and Morgan says he can’t be serious. They kidnapped him, and the tied-up Morgan for trying to stop them. Now he wants to throw in with them? He’s as bad as they are. Jim says where Morgan is going, there has to be a bargaining system. Morgan says he’s not taking them anywhere near there. Jim explains that he was supposed to be rich and about to cash in on his microbrew, when those dead things started stumbling around. They took it away from him, and he wants to get it back. He says all civilizations had beer. They need him. If they want the world to come back together again, they need beer,

The truck stops short. They’re stuck. Sarah opens the back, and says they’re too heavy. She has to start unloading. She starts tossing stuff out of the truck. Jim thinks if the place is Virginia is all Morgan says it is, they can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement, with Sarah getting all the beer she can drink. Sarah unties him. She says, what about you, MoMo? Want to stay tied? A group of zombies comes ambling through the woods, and Wen says he doesn’t like it; there could be more nearby.

The start to get back to the truck, and when Jim tries to help Morgan, he knocks Morgan over. Morgan tumbles down the hill, and lands in front of the zombies. He tries to scramble back up, but his hands are still tied, and he slides back down. He manages to jump onto a convenient car roof. He sees Jim on the bridge, and asks if he can get some help. Jim, Sarah, and Wen watch him. Sarah turns on the radio, and says Jimbo is boned him help him. Is he going to tell them where he’s going? The zombies surround the car. Morgan gives her some directions, and says once they get there, he’ll give them the rest. Sarah asks how she knows he’s telling the truth, and Morgan asks how does he know she’ll get him off this thing? She says, the whole way, and he finishes the directions. Sarah asks, who’s going first? Jim says he’s been living in a brewery since this started. Sarah says, sorry. He made it this long without them. He’s got this. Morgan says they can’t just walk away. Sarah says, sure they can. Morgan did. On the bridge. He said he was going to help his friends, but he’s not the only one pretending to be something they’re not. They leave him with zombies clamoring at his feet.

Night falls. Morgan is sitting now, and the zombies scrabble around him. He talks into the radio, saying they don’t have to do this. He knows they can hear them, so he’s just going to say it – he could have crossed the bridge. He could be on his way back to Texas, but he’s not. He’s had time to think, and he’s a coward. He helped people back there – thought he did – but it wasn’t enough. He can see that. They needed something he couldn’t give them; or didn’t think he could. He got scared. Scared if he went back, he’d just make things worse. He says, so don’t come back. Not for him. He can’t ask that, but maybe come back so he can do the right thing. Hands reach up around him.

Morgan gets up, and kicks a zombie away. He slips and goes down onto the car roof, and they grab at him. Dammit, did he lose a shoe? Yes, he did. He paces, as much as you can on a car roof. He suddenly leaps over them, back onto the hill, but slides down again. They grab for him. He sees the remains of a take what you need box, and a metal street sign. Morgan kicks at the zombies, and gets to the box. He cuts himself loose with a knife, grabs the sign, and starts picking them off.

As he walks, Morgan radios the truck. He asks if they’re still listening. There’s something he wants them to know. What they said about the boxes not doing any good, and rotting in the road – they were wrong. Excellent story writing.

Morgan walks. I hope he gave the them directions to hell. He sees the truck. Wen says there is no Exit 77. Morgan asks how long it took for them to figure it out. Wen says, a couple hundred miles. Morgan asks where Jim is, and Sarah says, in the back, sleeping it off. Morgan says they’re going to let him pass, and Sarah wants the right exit. He says he’ll tell them, but they’re going to be his ride, but they’re picking up some people first. Or he can just continue on foot. It won’t be first time.

Morgan tells Wen that he said the universe gave him a reason not to help, but he thinks it’s trying to tell him something different now. Wen asks if they’re going to pick up some people. Morgan tells him to take the rig straight back to Virginia, and they’re going to make stops along the way.

The truck rolls on. Sarah puts a box by the side of the road. Morgan talks into the radio. He says he doesn’t know their name, and doesn’t know where they are. He doesn’t know if can they can hear him, but he talked to a friend at a truck stop. Wen puts out the next box. Morgan says now he’s with some people, and they have his truck. Jim puts out a box, and adds a beer to it. Morgan says he’s headed to Texas, and they’re giving the truck back. Wherever they are, keep looking. Hang on because they’re coming.

A large African American woman shuts off a radio, and laughs. She says they’re on the road again after all, talking to a zombie impaled on the wall of another truck stop. She writes on his face with a felt tip pen – take what you need, leave what don’t – and says it looks like they’re going to Texas.

*Note: I thought Morgan was seeing something I wasn’t, but it turned out the bridge was not really out. He just said that because he was a-scared. Also, I thought I recognized the crazy lady at the end. It was Tonya Pinkins who played Livia on All My Children back in the day.

Next time, Morgan climbs a water tower, Al’s truck gets stolen, and the weird lady tells Morgan that things are tough and he should be careful.

🐕🐶🐩 Calling It a Three Dog Night…

It’s been a ruff week. My husband has been working his tail off, so I’ve been on my own with both dog duty and dog doody. And today being National Dog Day, I was at their bark and call, bur I wouldn’t have it any other way.