Any Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead fan knows that things aren’t always what they seem when the groups stumble upon what seems to be safety, shelter and people. In “Sicut Cervus,” the group makes it to Mexico, but things aren’t as they seem. Victor, always the skeptic, finds out a lot quicker than the rest, while Strand makes a tough decision and Chris seems to have lost it.
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What’s Up in Mexico?
At a church service in Mexico, the priest gives a sermon and then leads the parishioners outside, where they pick up weapons as if ready for a fight. Thomas pulls up and begs them to stop what they are doing. Soon, they all start bleeding from their eyes, and the priest looks at Thomas and blames Celia.
Bienvenidos a Mexico
Meanwhile, on the Abigail, they are approaching Mexico pretty quickly. Strand explains that Luis will make the payment and it will be smooth into Baja. Except, two guards board the ship and Strand makes everyone hide in the lower deck. The group emerges after they hear gunfire to find the guards dead and Luis severely injured. Victor makes sure each guard is officially dead, but Ofelia and Nick won’t let him kill Luis, who gives them a coin with a symbol to give to his mother. Victor doesn’t want to hear it, so he tosses the coin and leaves him to die on his own.
Eventually, they make it to land and start their trek to Thomas’ property. They find his truck at the church with the walker parishioners. As they attack, Victor hesitates when a child attacks him, so Ofelia rescues him. Nick kills another child but is very upset about it — and rightfully so. And Chris hesitates when Madison is attacked, letting Alicia eventually step in to rescue her mother.
They reach the compound soon enough, which is surrounded by a cement wall. Behind the walls are a working farm and a huge mansion. Celia welcomes them and brings Strand straight to a dying Thomas, who was bit. Her staff welcomes the rest of the group, who makes them leave their weapons with them.
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Something isn’t Right
Immediately, Victor senses that something is up, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Madison also senses something is up with Celia but has enough problems of her own to worry about her just yet. Nick bonds with Celia pretty quickly, though.
Instead of joining the group for dinner, Victor walks around the grounds. At first, he spies a child dropping a dog into a chute. Then he finds a boy speaking to someone. When he confronts the boy, the child says he’s speaking with his mother behind a gate. When Victor enters the cellar, he sees a bunch of walkers behind a metal gate, a la Hershel from The Walking Dead.
Later, Victor confronts Celia about her little secret, as she’s preparing some communion wafers, and Victor realizes she poisoned the whole church. She claims she didn’t kill them, but rather Victor and the group killed them. You know, after they already died and turned. Crazy woman!
What’s Up with Chris?
While they were on the ship, before Mexico, Travis confronts Chris about what happened with Connor and asks why he shot him. He says he doesn’t believe Connor was sick. Chris immediately gets defensive and wants to know why Madison and everyone else doesn’t like him. Perhaps it’s because he’s a ticking time bomb ready to go off at any second?
At the compound, Alicia confronts Chris about why he hesitated back at the church instead of saving Madison. Chris begs Alicia not to tell anyone and threatens her to keep quiet. She, of course, tells Madison, who fights with Travis about it. Travis just wants to help Chris, but I’m not exactly sure what Madison wants to do about it.
While Madison and Alicia sleep, Chris walks in their room, lamely attempts to wake Alicia up and then proceeds to the nightstand where he picks up a knife. He’s interrupted when he hears gunshots, and the ladies wake up.
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Saying Goodbye
Strand stays by Thomas’ side until the very end. He tells Thomas they can go together, as he’ll ask Celia for a little help with that. This way, they both can be together for eternity. However, after Thomas passes, Strand doesn’t eat the poisoned communion host. Instead, he grabs a gun and shoots Thomas in the head.
New Threats
It seems the group is facing even bigger threats and some walkers. I can only assume Strand officially killing Thomas will not sit well with Celia, who seems to think the walkers are simply what comes next, rather than an ending. Her excuse for keeping the walkers was simply that they are family — just as Hershel used to say on The Walking Dead.
While we’ve seen this storyline before, I think it will force the group to really unite to perhaps take over the compound. At least, that’s what Rick Grimes would do. But Madison isn’t strong enough to be the next Rick. Perhaps Victor can take that role?
And Chris just needs to go. The last thing the group needs is a bratty teenager who is trying to fit in during the apocalypse.
I’m really curious to see what will happen on this Mexican compound. I’m happy they are off the boat, and I hope they don’t get back on. Instead, I’d like to see them take over the compound somehow and live happily ever after. Oh wait, that won’t happen on Fear the Walking Dead!
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm on AMC.
(Image courtesy of AMC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
