Fear the Walking Dead
“Another Day in the Diamond”
April 22, 2018
Alright, so getting to meet all the new kids — Morgan, Shannon, and John Dorie — that was fun, but what did happen to our (mostly) boring original protagonists on this show, exactly, and why are they looking all rough and needing a good hair wash? And, also, too, where’s Madison?
Well, apparently, after Nick blew up the dam, and Madison, Strand, and Alicia were all separated in the ensuing flood, but they somehow not only survived but also found each other and made their way to Texas where, for the past year, they have been living in a fortified baseball stadium with a bunch of other people whose names you don’t need to remember. They’ve got a nice way of life there, too, with beds and showers and maple syrup and livestock and crops. It’s fancy!
Madison has made a new friend, a preteen named Charlie, who has been separated from her family and doesn’t really want to talk about it, not yet. Charlie gives Madison the general direction where her family’s settlement was, and they talk about salmon, I don’t know.
Later, Madison builds a room for Charlie, while Alicia worries about the fact that her mother never seems to sleep.
Out on the field, after yammering about Robert Johnson, the crossroads and selling his soul to the devil, also known as FORESHADOWING, Charlie asks Nick about his turnips which seem to be suffering some sort of blight. She then asks about how much food they have in the stores, but Nick urges her to not worry about it. They’re fine, everything is fine, they will always be fine, forever and ever amen.
Meanwhile, Madison is determined to go out and look for Charlie’s family, despite the fact that the very general direction Charlie pointed in is outside of their radio range. She, Strand, Luciana and Alicia load up a truck with snacks and guns, and Nick asks Luciana to bring Charlie a new book back if she finds one, he’s sick of hearing about Robert Johnson, thanks.
In the car, Luciana worries about the fact that Nick won’t leave the baseball stadium, but Madison reminds her that she wasn’t there when Madison found Nick, he was FUCKED UP. And now he just needs to feel safe. Nick calls them on the radio to inform them that weevils are destroying his turnips but they lose the signal before Luciana can ask him if he wants them to look for pesticides. Actually, that is a good idea, Luciana, and you should just go ahead and make the executive decision to do exactly that. You’ll thank yourself later.
Madison’s group drive into a small town that is eerily empty. There, she drops off Strand and Luciana to explore while she and Alicia head over to a torched camp that has been set up near some oil tanks. As Strand and Luciana make their way through the town, they find that it has been completely picked clean of everything — even the lightbulbs. But even weirder, there are no zombies. Like, anywhere. Strand also wonders why Madison saved him after he betrayed her and Luciana is like, “HEY, HERE’S AN IDEA: ASK HER.”
Meanwhile, Madison finds an open can of food at the camp — which also bears a flag similar to the one from the trailer park, but reading “457” — and calls to Strand to warn him that they might not be alone. Madison soon finds herself held at gunpoint by Dharma sans Greg, and Dharma demands Madison’s car keys. Instead, Madison clicks the radio call button a few times, sending a distress signal to Strand and Luciana, and is like, “Hey, Dharma, we’ve got a camp, why don’t you come live with us? You’ll feel a lot better once you wash your hair.” Dharma declines and grabs Madison’s keys. But before she can get away, she’s surrounded by Alicia, Strand, and Luciana who apparently were just not that far away.
Dharma runs to the top of an oil tank and Alicia and Madison chase after her, trying to convince her that they just want to be friends.
Dharma falls through the roof of the tank BECAUSE WHEN WILL PEOPLE FINALLY LEARN THAT THERE ARE NO SAFE ROOFS IN THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE? And of course the oil tank is filled with oil zombies, obviously the oil tank is full of oil zombies. Madison leaps in after her, fighting all the zombies, fighting all the zombies, fighting all the zombies until finally Strand and Alicia can open the tank and free Madison and Dharma.
And then they just … hang out there until it’s dark? For some reason? Luciana finds a copy of The Little Prince while Dharma explains that she wasn’t a part of the camp, she just came across it after it had been abandoned. And then they hear some zombies banging from inside another tank so they decide it’s time to leave.
Back at the baseball diamond, Nick finds Charlie playing with one of the radios and he’s all, “don’t get your hopes up, but if your family is out there, my mom will find them.” BECAUSE FORESHADOWING.
Later that night, Nick hears some music from beyond the gates, and he decides it is important that he go out right now in a truck and find where it’s coming from. However, as he starts driving he begins to have dam explosion flashbacks, and he ends up crashing the truck about 20 feet from the gates. Well done.
The truck is surrounded by zombies, obviously, but Nick is saved by a sniper at the gates and his family as they roll back into the stadium at just the right time.
Back inside the stadium, Madison informs Charlie that she didn’t find her family before explaining that she did find their camp (although how she knows that was Charlie’s family’s camp is NEVER EXPLAINED), and asks who attacked it. But Charlie ain’t talking.
Elsewhere, Dharma bandages up Nick’s head as she was a nurse in a previous life, and Madison invites her to take a hot shower and WASH HER DAMN HAIR ALREADY.
Outside of the stadium, Nick, Strand, and some other guy push the truck back into the gates while Luciana stands guard — but she sees something in the distance and screams at them to RUN! As they run back inside, a huge caravan of trucks, buses, and RVs arrive and park themselves in the lot. A dude takes out a bicycle with a boombox strapped to it and begins playing the music Nick heard earlier while riding the bike around in slow circles in front of the parking lot zombies. He eventually leads them into the back of a semi-trailer, before locking it up. He then makes one of those number flag for it: “12.” Huh.
Another dude pulls out a folding chair and an ice chest and pops open a beer while staring down the gates until Madison finally has enough and heads out to talk to him.
The guy in charge offers Madison a beer, but she declines, noting that she saw what he did to the oil tanker camp. He protests that it was an industrial accident before yammering about Nick’s turnips.
And that’s when Guy in Charge calls out to Charlie who — SHUT THE FRONT DOOR — is his mole. After praising her for a job well done, he sends her into the bus. Guy in Charge then explains to Madison that they need to turn all of their stuff over to him and his group, and Madison is like, “How about nah.” So Guy in Charge is like, “No, that’s cool, we’ll just wait for you to starve. Weevils suck.” Oh, and he introduces himself as Mel, but Madison is not interested in shaking his hand THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
The next day, Madison and her family build Dharma a bedroom, Nick finds more weevil damage, and Luciana goes out to the parking lot where she leaves the copy of The Little Prince for that traitor Charlie.
And now, in the present, Alicia, Nick, Strand, and Luciana — but crucially not Madison — have Morgan, John and Shannon on their knees. When Team Original Cast find the “51” flag in the truck, they assume that Team New Cast are members of “The Vultures” but Team New Cast is like, “Dude, no, we just found it at a trailer park, although now that you mention it, we don’t have a good excuse as to why we took it with us.” And so Team Original Cast demand that Team New Cast show them where they found it. Road trip!
Don’t have a lot to say, trying to get to the next DRAMATIC and SHOCKING episode before Sunday’s episode airs. GOTTA RUN!
Fear the Walking Dead airs on AMC Sundays at 8 p.m.