TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead (Season 2, Episode 12)

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Season 2, Episode 12: Pillar of Salt

PLOT: Troubles at both the Colonia el Porvenir and the Rosarito Beach Hotel seem to set members of the two communities on a collision course.

REVIEW: One of my favorite things about George A. Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD is the fact that Romero not only shows us the steps of how his characters take over a shopping mall during the zombie apocalypse, but he also then takes time to show them enjoying the fruits of their labor, hanging out in the mall and having fun in its various places of business. In a minor way, this episode of Fear the Walking Dead does the same thing – we've seen Madison (Kim Dickens), Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Strand (Colman Domingo), and their new companions take over the Rosarito Beach Hotel, and now we get to see them enjoying it. They don't just have to stay inside and have drinks, either. They can even go outside to the beach for some fishing and surfing. We don't get to see a whole lot of this before things go south at the hotel, but it was appealing to me as it was happening.

Even after the Rosarito group hits a bump in the road, though, things are looking promising for the future. With Madison stepping up as leader of the community and laying out some rules, specifically rules about in-fighting at the hotel, it looks like they have a shot at making things last a while at the beach hotel, and I hope they do. It doesn't seem like a safe place to be at for very long, but I want them to see it through for as long as possible.

The survivors at the Colonia el Porvenir get their time in the spotlight as well, but that place is a total bore, even with the trouble Nick (Frank Dillane) has gotten them in with his dunderheaded drug deal with nearby criminals. It's increasingly obvious that the days are numbered for at least one of these communities the show is following, and it really needs to be the Colonia that falls. It has to be. Community leader Alejandro (Paul Calderon) and his "I survived a zombie bite" nonsense and his sermons have got to go.

Sometimes I feel like a broken record in these reviews, having to reiterate my distaste for things like the Colonia storyline and the overuse of the "zombies won't attack you if you mask your scent with zombie guts" survival method (which gets used again here! Every damn episode!), but these are the things it's giving me week by week, and it's not like this show presents all that many interesting new aspects in any given episode.

Since the main characters split in different directions at the end of the mid-season finale, it looked like the separate paths they took led them to places that were quite far from each other. Viewers who were looking forward to seeing them continue down those separate paths will probably be disappointed by Pillar of Salt, because when one of the Rosarito inhabitants runs into some serious trouble it becomes clear that the characters aren't as far-flung as it may have appeared. Seeking medical supplies, Madison ends up at the market run by the same criminals Nick is having issues with, and it isn't long before she realizes her baby boy is within miles of her set-up. It's looking like the characters may all be reunited by the season finale, which is surprising to me. I thought they would stay separated for a while longer. As long as this reunion means the collapse of the Colonia and continued success for the Rosarito, I'm fine with it.

One character who might not be reuniting with the others any time soon is Ofelia (Mercedes Mason), who we finally catch up with here after she abandoned Madison and the others without a care a couple episodes back. Ofelia does seem to be heading far away from the rest of the characters, and she's having flashbacks while she goes. Flashbacks to her mom and a would-be fiancé. I don't know what sort of pay-off there might be to these flashbacks, but at this point they mean about as much to me as Nick's flashbacks to the death of his father – absolutely nothing. I don't care about these things.

Like last week's episode, Pillar of Salt feels like more of a stepping stone than anything else. The community building moments aside, it's not a particularly interesting or satisfying episode on its own, but it's clearly moving toward something bigger. With just three episodes left in the season, those bigger things can't be too far off, and hopefully they'll be more entertaining when they arrive.

BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: Way too often this show puts me in the position of having to say something positive about their repetitious scenes of people moving through zombie hordes while covered in walker guts. There's such a scene at the beginning of this episode, and since it's the biggest zombie moment in this episode I have to mention it in this category, but it's out of necessity, not because I was wowed by seeing this scenario play out for the umpteenth time.

GORY GLORY: Not much to choose from here, but Ofelia does pull off a nice walker kill with a claw hammer.

FAVORITE SCENE: The scene which provides the hilarious moment where Madison hears of a ratty-haired gringo who brings people drugs and immediately knows it's a description of her son.

FINAL VERDICT: