AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead
Season 5, Episode 2: “The Hurt That Will Happen”
Directed by Jessica Lowrey
Written by Alex Delyle

* For a recap & review of the Season 5 premiere, “Here to Help” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Humbug’s Gulch” – click here
Strand (Colman Domingo) makes a video in case he doesn’t “make it.” He’s leaving the SWAT vehicle behind, along with a tape marked SKIDMARK, for where they were meant to meet. After walking a while he comes to a gate. He finds himself at gunpoint. On the other end of the gun is none other than Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades)— he’s the dude with the plane. Strand wants to make sure a “Pavlovian response” doesn’t get him killed. “You still talk too much,” the older man tells him. He’s got a cat named Skidmark there with him. A tense, strange meeting after all this time.

Elsewhere, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Morgan (Lennie James), and John (Garret Dillahunt) are headed off to try and find out where Al (Maggie Grace) went. Back at the garage, June (Jenna Elfman) is patching Luciana (Danay Garcia) up, trying to make sure her injury heals properly.

At a warehouse, Daniel brings Strand to his “treasure trove.” He doubts the man’s actually attempting to help other people. He’s seen the selfishness that helped Victor survive this long. We know Strand has changed. Hard for Daniel to comprehend, given their history.
Alicia keeps trying to take on too much responsibility. She wants to save everyone, otherwise she’s blaming herself. Morgan knows this isn’t a good way to live. He’s been there. He learned the hard way you can’t live that way in the post-zombie apocalypse. He and Alicia find a truck that shows signs of being used recently. They head off the road into the woods, searching for more signs of human activity. Morgan hears crows. They’re in a trap hung from a tree. Two zombies are underneath getting shit on. Morgan goes to kill them and gets caught in a rope from the trap.

A woman in a Hazmat suit holds a gun on him. She tells him to strip. She says not to talk, just to take off his clothes. Alicia comes out of nowhere, tackling the woman. They find out her name is Grace (Karen David). A year ago, one of “two pressurised water reactors” failed, killing a bunch of people, poisoning them with radiation. Meaning the walkers in that area are highly dangerous— more so than usual.

Is Grace a friend? Is she the one who attacked Al? Or is there another person out there?

“You’re not locked in.
There is a way out.”

John and June search for the kids in the van, noticing a sign for Camp Cackleberry that was on the vehicle. They hope to find them, each determined to see “sunshine in a dark place” rather than to give in to a cruel, hopeless world. They head up through the gates of the camp. They see someone’s been there recently. The ground’s littered with ammo shells everywhere. Further up, there’s a building full of walkers.

In radiation territory, Alicia can’t trust Grace enough to be safe. She nearly puts herself in danger to do some zombie killing. She manages to get the job done, but it’s painfully clear she’s a woman with nothing to live for, or so she sees it. Grace manages to find one of the walkers she was looking for— turns out, she’s looking for the people who worked with her at the plant. Dozens remain.

Luciana and Strand get talking over the radio. She calls the others to let them know and goes outside to get better reception. She makes it back indoors before walkers get her. Just barely. Out on the road, Alicia laments not being able to do anything for anybody, other than killing any “dangerous thing” she comes across out in the world. Morgan tries to tell her he once felt that way. There’s light at the end of that tunnel. He tells her to not lock herself away from people. Rather, he suggests to “open the door” to others, to the possibility of goodness. In the meantime, they have to say goodbye to Grace. She’s got a degree of radiation poisoning and refuses to be around other people too long. She’s staying out there in the radiated wasteland, to do whatever good she’s able to do.

Back at the garage, the group find a bunch of decapitated zombie heads— the walkers who were previously outside the door, trying to get at Luciana. Quite the message.
But, from whom? Is it whoever’s got Al? Regardless, it ain’t good.
Over at the warehouse, Daniel’s sending Victor away sans plane. He won’t risk giving something to Strand, sure he’ll only go and “hurt people” like always. He threatens to kill Victor if he sees him again. This sends our man back out into the dark, no real weapons on him, to walk back to the SWAT vehicle.
Daaaaamn, Daniel.
A great episode. Love to see the radiation in there, making the zombies even nastier than usual. It’s a great little twist. Not enough zombie movies / shows explore some of the real world devastation that’d be out there— such as destroyed radiation plants, et cetera— waiting to cause more trouble for survivors.

“Humbug’s Gulch” is next time.