Season 2, Episode 5: Captive
PLOT: Our heroes on the Abigail try to figure out how to rescue Travis and Alicia from the clutches of Connor while dealing with a captive of their own.
REVIEW: I'll be honest, the revelations in last week's episode were so underwhelming that Fear the Walking Dead squandered a lot of the goodwill I had toward it. As much as I want this show to be awesome, it gets tough to root for a show that keeps shooting itself in the foot. Going into this week's episode, I was needing Fear to win me back. While Captive is less disappointing than Blood in the Streets was, it still leaves things on shaky ground for me.
One of the letdowns of last week was how pathetic the villainous Connor (Mark Kelly) and his people turned out to be. Multiple episodes of worrying about these characters built up to the reveal that they're just a bunch of inept nobodies, and they continue to be shockingly worthless and not at all intimidating this week. The best moment of this entire episode is when the Abigail's impaled captive Reed (Jesse McCartney) makes a desperate attempt to scare Daniel (Ruben Blades) and Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie), only to have his methods thrown back in his face. Every time Connor's people have the chance to get the upper hand, they let it slip through their fingers. They could have been so much more interesting than this.
With the mystique of Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) having taken quite a blow in Blood in the Streets, the show's biggest wild card is now Chris, and there were some interesting things done with that character in Captive. I think we all knew as soon as Chris was left to guard Reed that that situation could only go in a bad direction. Chris is so off-balance, it wouldn't even be surprising if Reed had managed to talk him into turning against the others on the Abigail. Instead, there's a bit of an intriguing mystery to what goes down. Was it cold-blooded murder and lies? Or was it an honest mistake? I don't know, but I don't trust this kid at all.
This episode also gave us the final answer of who would be the sole survivor from Flight 462 to join the cast. It was the obvious answer, and while I do think that her character could be made into something special as time goes on I can't say that the interactions between Travis (Cliff Curtis) and 462 passenger Alex (Michelle Ang) here were all that engaging for me. She should have been going after Strand anyway.
Captive wasn't as strong as I would have liked it to be, but it kept my attention through the shadowy antics of Chris, some solid moments with Daniel, and an entertaining climax. That climax is also one of its weaknesses, though, because Connor and his people suck! This is a group of bad guys so dumb that they go into a prisoner trade without any weapons at hand. This leads me to hope that maybe Connor's crew weren't the frightening figures lurking on the sea with a .50 caliber machine gun. Maybe there are bigger, badder villains still to come.
Maybe I'm grasping at straws, still hoping for Fear the Walking Dead to stop fumbling its storylines and live up to its potential.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: There aren't exactly a wealth of choices here, so of course it would be when Chris's attempt to "stop someone from turning" backfires… but then turns out to be something of a blessing.
GORY GLORY: Again, there's not much to work with, but there is a zombie bite delivered to a character who very much deserved his early exit from this show.
FAVORITE SCENE: "In my time, I've known men who inspire fear. Do you know what they have in common? They never say how frightening they are."
FINAL VERDICT:
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