AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead
Season 2, Episode 5: “Captive”
Directed by Craig Zisk
Written by Carla Ching

* For a review of the previous episode, “Blood in the Streets” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Sicut Cervus” – click here

We open on someone cooking steak – it’s Connor (Mark Kelly). Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) looks around nervously, as Patsy Cline croons in the background. They have a little chat after serves up one of his apparently famous New York strips. Seems they’ve got a “selective” little community going on there. But at the moment the generator goes out. And Alicia winds up locked in the cabin. She manages to sneak a way out to see they’re docked at a huge port. A massive open space.
Well Jack finds her out there and rushes her back inside. She wants to see Travis (Cliff Curtis), so she can make sure he’s okay. I don’t know why Alicia keeps trusting Jack. I hope that’s just what she says, and not how she actually feels.

Over on the boat with our survivors, Reed (Jesse McCartney) has a brutal wound, to which Daniel (Rubén Blades) tends with some field medicine. All the while Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) gets taunted by Reed about his father. This Reed is a real dick, and has a huge pair on him to talk so boldly while a) hurt and b) in the midst of people he tried to hurt/kill. He says Connor will not be happy, lots of threats. They’re brothers after all. But of course Daniel isn’t the least bit impressed having seen men far worse and far more terrifying than this little idiot. I love Blades as an actor and this is possibly one of his best parts, to be honest. Not just that, Daniel as a character fits in well because he’s someone who’s been through very tough times and that’s informed his behaviour in this current apocalypse filled with zombies.
Now Daniel and Madison (Kim Dickens) have their plan, to use the brothers against one another. Only problem is that while Madison obviously wants to get her family back, Luis (Arturo del Puerto) has a window of time to get them across the Mexican border. Lots of tension and complications. Poor Strand (Colman Domingo) is still lying up after his swim in the ocean during the previous episode. For his part, he gives Madison half a day to take care of business.

 

On the other boat, Jack is assigning Alicia some work. Now I start to get the feeling she’s playing him, thankfully. There’s a sinister bit of stuff happening on that boat: “This is the world now. This one lives, that one dies.” Alicia is meant to pick a boat for annihilation. Really? That’s grim. Meanwhile, Travis wakes up in a grungy little space down below deck somewhere. And then, Alex (Michelle Ang) appears. She is certainly not happy with Travis, even if it was never his fault. Though he feels responsible because of negotiating them out onto that raft. Regardless, things aren’t looking too fun from where Travis is standing.
Back with Madison and Strand, she makes clear not to send Nick (Frank Dillane) out alone anywhere on any missions again. “He knows how to move through this world,” says Victor. While Madison doesn’t like it, Victor sees a tough and “capable” side to her son. I wouldn’t get between her and either of her children, as she makes clear to him. You just know there’s a fierceness in her waiting to come out over threat to her family. Even for Travis she would more than likely kill.
Hoping to avoid her people getting annihilated, Alicia ends up with Jack on her side. They pick a ship to put Connor on. And down in the bottom ship, Alex reminds Travis: “You knew the right thing to do. And you chose. You chose the other.” The two of them have a deep conversation, which brings up Travis having to kill his ex-wife. I love Cliff Curtis. He is possibly the most underrated character actor in the game today, endlessly talented. Here he gets to show those chops off. Great writing in this scene, as Alex and Travis go back and forth on what humanity “can become“, or what it can’t.

 

Reed is still taunting. At the same time, Chris is getting tougher, on the outside and the inside; at first, and up until recently, I found him slightly annoying in certain ways. Now he’s evolving. Signs of some developing writing. So now he’s confronted with Reed bringing up his mother, all sorts of things. The tension in this scene mounts to an impossible degree. Nick shows up to close the door, but Chris reveals he’s disappointed in himself for freezing up, allowing those people on the boat. I really love Nick, too. Dillane plays him well and he is written well; he is a junkie redeeming himself in the post-zombie apocalypse. Wonderful character development.
At the bottom of the boat Alicia tells Travis about the boat coming back. But he has faith in Madison. That’s another aspect of the whole story I love, the strong bond between Madison and Travis. They are a great couple. So now Travis is left alone on the ship after Alicia and Jack plan to get going.
Madison finally calls over to Connor. That situation is getting intense, quick. The hostage situation has become heated: one hour clock. A trade off is set. Then from nowhere, a gunshot. It’s Chris – he did something preemptive. And now the hostage situation gets even wilder, as Reed is dead. He tells Madison he did it because “that‘s what happens now” and that Reed was turning. In a jam now, though.

 

Ofelia: “It‘s what we do now: spill blood, clean it up, spill it again.”

Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) almost gets a bite when Reed comes back to life, his brain still not gone. Luckily her father pins the new walker up against the wall. A very surreal moment happens afterwards, as Daniel has the Reed zombie hooded and tied up, and he hears a voice tell him to take the gun; a flashback to tough days in war?
In other news, Alicia did play Jack. I knew it. More to come.
And Nick is arguing with his mother. Essentially, she worries he’s found his new addiction. He questions why she won’t let him go do the trade off: “Because you want to,” she replies. Quite telling.
The deal is underway. When Madison goes to do the drop, she unleashes Reed to his brother, which begins a big mess. Travis even whips out a heavy duty headbutt; all right, dude! Zombie madness lets loose, as one bite leads way to the next, and so on. This is a great action sequence. Also, Alicia gets back to Madison and Travis. So glad she made it out safe, and left that Jack(ass) behind.

 

Thrilling episode, all around. Next up is interestingly titled “Sicut Cervus”, which ought to be another solid chapter in this fun Season 2. Stay tuned with me, fellow fans!