Walking Dead Recaps

Fear The Walking Dead Recap – MM 54

Nick Clark Ready To Detonate: Maybe he could also blow up this whole season, oh wait, Scott M. Gimple already did! AMC.

Fear The Walking Dead’s ratings are plummeting like a stone, or like many stones, collapsing after a dam explosion. The previous showrunners had no idea how prescient their season 3 finale was, as the current showrunners blow Fear apart piece by piece.

Wherefore Art Thou, Daniel?: Salazar is MIA in this train wreck of a season. AMC.

The first quarter hour of season 4, episode 14 is a flashback to the story of the Filthy Woman, who now has a name, Martha. Is there anyone else out there who doesn’t care about Martha’s backstory, not to mention how weakly written it was? I just want this ludicrous character to go away. I would rather find out what happened to Daniel Salazar after the dam explosion. But he had nothing to do with Scott M. Gimple and his minions’ (Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg) distorted and cavalier vision of what they thought this season of Fear should be, so I assume we’ll never see him again.

Last night’s episode was another waste of time, with Morgan’s crew trapped inside a zombie filled hospital, and Alicia trying to get Charlie to a beach (why she’s doing her brother’s murderer any favours, is beyond me).

Martha’s Boring Backstory

At the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, it looks like Martha and her husband were in a car accident. Her husband is trapped in the car, much like “Polar Bear” in last week’s episode and she tries to get someone in one of the vehicles who are whizzing past her to stop and help but to no avail.

Her husband dies, and she buries him. As time goes on, Martha has a psychological breakdown and starts killing the people who are leaving the “take what you need” boxes. Thus (yawn), her new mantra is born, since no one helped her and her husband, no one should help anyone else.

Miraculously and implausibly, no one dies in Martha’s SWAT van firing spree but Wendell’s wheelchair is destroyed. Foolishly, Morgan opens the door at the back of the truck and Althea runs toward her SWAT van (surprise!) only to find Martha and one of her zombie pals waiting for her. Alas, Al is unharmed when the others come to her defense and Wendell shoots Martha in the shoulder. Then the truck explodes and Martha drives away.

In the next scene, Alicia and Charlie end up finding the burnt-out truck and decide to head east.

Lazy Writing Continues

Morgan and company travel down the highway, dragging Wendell, as he’s lost his wheelchair. June hopes they can stop somewhere so she can help anyone who has been injured and, low and behold, we witness even more lazy writing as Morgan immediately sees a hospital sign. Jim doesn’t want to go into the city but he has no choice when everyone else starts leaving, so he follows.

When they get to the hospital, they notice walkers are slamming against the windows and Morgan realizes they won’t be safe there for very long. They find a radio and Sarah turns it on. Wendell says he understands why Martha doesn’t want to help people, because he ended up paralyzed due to saving a kid who was almost hit by a car. Years later though, when he wanted to become a Marine, the recruiter laughed in his face.

Walkers, Walkers, Everywhere

When the group tries to leave the hospital, the entrance is engulfed in walkers. As they head up the stairs to escape, they find more zombies there. They eventually find a level devoid of walkers and block the door to the staircase. Morgan suggests they take an elevator to get upstairs and Sarah and Al look for a generator to get the elevator working.

Morgan and Jim have a close encounter with a couple of zombies but seem to escape it unscathed. Al and Sarah manage to find the generators but more walkers arrive. Althea tells Sarah to leave and stays behind to start the generator and hopefully that’s the last we’ll see of her.

Wrong Man With The Plan

Back at the elevator, they all manage to get in when the doors open, just before the walkers surround them. Up on the roof, there are no walkers but there’s also no way down. Whose bright idea was it to go up to the roof anyway? Oh yeah, great plan, Morgan.

Al isn’t responding on the walkie when Sarah tries to talk to her and June checks out a wound on Jim’s back. He thinks it was because he fell through glass but instead it’s a walker bite (even though he fell through face first). Bye, bye Jimbo!

Morgan blames himself for Jim’s impending death but really, will anyone miss this whiner for anything other than his beer recipe? Although, I could have used a cold one after sitting through this horrible episode.

Wake Me When This Season is Over: Alicia Clark, hopefully one of only three survivors at the end of season 4. AMC.

Alicia and Charlie’s car runs out of gas but Alicia is determined to get Charlie to a beach. They follow what sounds like a river or a stream and suddenly we recognize where they are and hope that Charlie will step into the water – that alligator is hungry! Instead, she finds John Dorie’s hat and as the show ends we hear a “Holy s**t!” from Alicia as she looks across the water. She has obviously spotted John Dorie and Victor Strand.

If Alicia, John and Strand are the only characters who survive this season, I’m more than good with it.

One note: I planned to never watch Talking Dead again but I took a quick glance at it last night. I was surprised that the host, Chris Hardwick, didn’t actually get down on his hands and knees and ask actress Tonya Pinkins to turn around as he gushed about how great Martha’s backstory was. I’d love to know how much money this ass-kissing sycophant makes.

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