Fear the Walking Dead’s “Do Not Disturb” released the BAMF we knew was waiting inside Alicia, gave us a brief glimpse of the employee of the apocalypse, and reminded us that Chris is on the fast train to being as crazy as Lizzie from The Walking Dead. Look at the flowers, Chris.
Alicia Clark: BAMFness Initiated
This is what I’ve been waiting for. The awakening of Alicia Clark.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, Alycia was a sword wielding BAMF over on The CW’s The 100. And ever since her unfortunate death on that show and subsequent arrival on Fear the Walking Dead, I’ve been waiting for her to show off those skills. This episode finally gave it to me.
Alicia was showing off mad butterfly knife skills that had me fanning myself. She followed that by jumping into an elevator to outrun some creepy hallway zombies. Then when she teamed up with Elena, she was killing walkers, luring them in, and shimming across a narrow ledge to get to another room! There was so much BAMFness flowing out of her that I couldn’t keep my eyes of her. Even opening the doors, after Elena handed the keys to the wedding party, was savage as hell with a touch of ‘oh my god, I can’t believe she did that, marry me’ that I couldn’t resist.
And it wasn’t just all the stunts that had me all heart eyed for Alicia. There was a confidence pouring out of her that made me stand to attention. She was poised and alert when she was counting how many walkers were in her hallway. She was ready and willing when she stepped out of her room and made that leapt into the elevator, holding on for dear life. She was going to survive this place and find her mother no matter what.
Nothing was going to stop her. (Not even the little inkling of fear that crept around her mind telling her that she might not find her mom or Ofelia.)
Alicia’s ability to compartmentalize is what makes her different from Nick and Chris. All three of them are youths trying to survive and learn who they are at the end of the world. The difference is that Alicia knows who’s on her side no matter what, that she has to grow up and do what must be done without losing herself, and that she can do this. (It’s that confidence again!) She won’t go down the same path that they are on because she has the things that they have lacking. In the long run, Nick and Chris will have a harder journey ahead of them in comparison to Alicia’s, and I’m okay with that.
Let Chris run around killing chickens and lonely farmers. Let Nick join a cult, yes I said a cult, of people that believe they are above death. Alicia’s just going to be at her hotel, clearing it out, and preparing for whatever is coming next with her family by her side.
Employee of the Post Apocalypse
Elena Tobar, played by Karen Bethzabe, is a survivor. She knows what she has to do and when sacrifices have to be made. Even if that sacrifice is locking up a whole wedding party to save the rest of the hotel. Did the rest of her hotel guests die in some way or another? Yes. Did she try her best to contain the problem? Yes.
That right there, is employee of the month/year/apocalypse material.
Even after everything went to hell, Elena stayed. This is her home. She knows these halls, rooms, floors, better than her own house. Why leave? She also knows that the people that she tried to save can be her protection now. In a way she’s still corralling a bunch of lost tourists down to the rooms that she’s assigned to them. Except this time they’ll bite her face off if she doesn’t bring them extra towels.
Her introduction in “Do Not Disturb,” and subsequent team up with Alicia, shined a light on her past choices and how she feels about them. She blames herself and feels great shame for what she did to those people. They deserved a chance to survive. But the circumstances, aka crazy sickness running around turning people into zombies, left her with no choice. She made the hard decision, but she made the right one.
Teaming up with Alicia, Madison, and Victor is an opportunity to teach others the way of her home and secure it against whatever is coming next. You’d have to be blind to not see that this hotel, this location, is prime material for an invasion. This time by other humans that want what Elena has secured.
Chris Has Gone Crazy: Part 2
Chris has always been lost, adrift and trying to find a place in this world. And for a brief moment we thought that he had found a connection with his father. They were talking, joking, and bonding over Chris driving for the first time. It wasn’t much but it was a start in grounding Chris and his fear boner for killing walkers.
Now it’s all gone down the drain thanks to the all-American boy band rejects they’ve teamed up with in “Do Not Disturb.”
They were a problem from the first time Brandon laid eyes on Chris and his walker killing skills. He had a fear boner for the dead and somehow he could sense that Chris had one too. Suddenly Chris didn’t have to worry about trying to understand why he liked killing walkers or why he was different because these people were just like him, disconnected and adrift in the apocalypse. He bonded with them even after Travis could sense the danger that clung to the all-American boy band rejects.
Then Chris killed the lonely farmer who just buried his family.
They could’ve worked to stay there, formed some sort of compromise to work the land, but Chris was trigger happy and ready to prove to his new friends that he could handle himself like he did when he first met them. That’s when Travis lost him. There’s no jail in the apocalypse, no place you can lock up your kid in hopes of reforming him. And in many ways, Chris reminds me of Lizzie from The Walking Dead. Maybe the only way to stop the freight train of crazy that is Chris is to make him look at the flowers before he ends up killing others or his own father.
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
