Hats off to Alicia. In this week’s Fear the Walking Dead, the plot that she hatched to turn the hotel into a home was so brilliant — and so daring! — that it was worthy of Rick Grimes. But was she able to execute her plan? Read on and find out…
‘SHE KILLED MY DAUGHTER’ | Beginning with a flashback, “Pablo & Jessica” revealed that Madison and Strand managed to escape from the walkers that cornered them in the bar by using Nick’s patented smear-zombie-guts-all-over-you technique. Upon discovering that their truck was missing, Maddie wouldn’t believe that her daughter would leave her… until Victor reminded her that the teenager was damn self-reliant. “Yeah,” her mom ruefully acknowledged, “I made her that.”
Following their reunion with Alicia and introduction to Elena, Madison and Strand learned that the wedding guests controlled the hotel’s food stores — enough supplies to last months. Quicker than you could say, “What are we waiting for?” Maddie and Victor had gotten past groom/widower Oscar’s brother Andres to plead their case. If they cleared out the walkers, Maddie argued, they’d have a chance at the hotel to have a home again. Ultimately, though Oscar and mother-in-law Ilene refused to help, the former did at least hand over the keys, which were, literally as well as metaphorically, you know, key. And another thing: If the operation was a success, Ilene wanted Elena gone.
‘I’M NOT LOSING YOU… EVER’ | Off Maddie’s mostly successful negotiation, Strand — his emotions rawer than we’re used to seeing — clarified that, whatever they made of the hotel, it wouldn’t be home. That was what he’d had — and lost — with Thomas. Later, Hector suggested that, since walkers can’t open doors, they could just leave them where they were. No way, Jose, Alicia replied. If one got out, it was be Armageddon, Part Dos. “We gotta clean-sweep this” — even if doing so meant going room by room, floor by floor, for what would seem like ages.
During a break from dispatching and dragging out one walker after another — with the help of some wedding guests — Maddie apologized for making Alicia raise herself, especially after her dad died. In response, her daughter assured her that she had nothing to be sorry for. Just then, Alicia saw a sign warning of riptides and got the brilliant, dangerous idea to lead the walkers off the pier and let them be swept away. Though Alicia wanted to attract the walkers rather than wait to pick up Maddie in the rescue boat, her mom assured her, “You’re not losing me.”
‘THAT’S NOT YOUR WIFE, NOT ANYMORE’ | The crazy scheme miraculously working like a charm, Madison, Alicia, Elena and Hector celebrated that evening at what appeared to be a lovely banquet with the wedding guests — well, except for Ilene and Oscar. Excusing himself, Strand sought out the widower, who was standing guard — as no doubt he had many a night — outside the honeymoon suite… in which his zombified bride Jessica was “argh”-ing.
At first, Oscar wouldn’t even think about letting Strand put a final end to his wife. “Death parted you,” noted Victor, haunted by his own grief. “Your vows give you leave.” However, eventually — after Strand gave a heartbreaking pep talk about the person one can become once out of mourning (or as out of it as one can get) — Oscar relented and allowed Victor to put Jessica out of her misery. In a way, he probably put Oscar out of some of his misery as well.
‘I DON’T BELIEVE IN MIRACLES’ | Meanwhile, at the Colonia, Nick attempted to make up for his screw-up with Marco by cutting the drugs that Alejandro traded for supplies in order to stretch the stock. When Alejandro balked, fearing Marco & Co. would be able to tell, Nick retorted, “You’re a pharmacist, I’m a junkie — trust me.” As the odd couple bonded, Alejandro told Nick that he’d been bitten trying to save a junkie who’d been mistaken for a walker and attacked by a mob. After the pharmacist was pulled out of the melee by Luciana, both of them were surprised that the Grim Reaper never came knocking.
Later, Luciana learned that the person for whom she’d been looking when we first met her — her brother Pablo, it turned out — wasn’t just dead but “in pieces.” When Nick offered her comfort, it nearly resulted in a kiss. That evening, when she stopped by his new trailer — a thank-you from Alejandro for buying the Colonia time — Nick asked if, as the pharmacist suggested, she’d been testing him. In response, she gave him one of the sexier TV kisses in recent memory.
So, what did you think of “Pablo & Jessica”? Even those of you whose comments generally range from “I hate this show” to “God, do I hate this show” have to admit that it was a pretty solid — and emotional — hour? Er, don’t you?
