TV Review: Fear the Walking Dead (Season 2, Episode 6)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Season 2, Episode 6: Sicut Cervus

PLOT: The Abigail finally arrives at its destination in Mexico, but the safe haven the passengers have been trying to reach might not be so safe after all.

REVIEW: After getting sidetracked and incovenienced by some very underwhelming villains, the passengers of the Abigail have finally made it to Baja, and while one of them perishes in the process of trying to reach the shore, that's still less trouble than I was anticipating. As it turns out, all that talk about needing to keep the number of passengers low and not being able to pay for everyone's passage into Baja was much ado about nothing. Everybody the Abigail has encountered since the season began could have rode into Baja together and most of them probably would have been fine. While it's annoying that the characters don't address this fact after the way ship captain Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) has acted about picking up extra survivors, I can't complain too much because the reason everyone is allowed to reach land is because the area is considered too dangerous to be concerned with. Extreme danger is always a good thing for this show.

I also can't mourn the loss of Luis (Arturo del Puerto) too much. We barely got to know him. His shooting skills at the end of Blood in the Streets made me think the character might have some potential, but no. He was done before he even got started.

The place the characters have been striving to get to is the walled-in, gated estate of Strand's boyfriend Thomas Abigail (Dougray Scott), and while the grounds appear to be safe Abigail has still managed to get himself bitten and is nearing death. This turn of events actually provided some touching character moments, allowing Strand to show more warmth and humanity than I ever expected to see from that guy. The choice he contemplates making toward the end of the episode was somewhat shocking to me. This is the same Strand who leaves people adrift in the ocean?

Celia Flores (Marlene Forte), mother of Luis and surrogate mother to Abigail, is a very interesting addition to the show, a likeable presence but also a mysterious one. What's with all the owl symbolism? Why did Daniel (Ruben Blades) just toss Luis's owl coin into the sea? And what's with Nick (Frank Dillane) having trippy flashbacks while staring at an owl carving?

Celia isn't the only mysterious one around here, as the show continues to tease us about Daniel's troubled history. He's start to lose it, having poorly timed flashbacks and becoming distant. This is concerning to me because he's one of the best characters on the show, we can't be losing him. We need him operating at 100%.

Also mentally unbalanced is Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie). With every episode, this kid gets more and more dubious, and it's starting to get out of hand. Now that we know Strand isn't a villain but rather a guy driven by love, and since the seafaring Connor and his people dropped the ball at being worth a damn, it's Chris who is emerging as the greatest villain this show has going on, murdering people, threatening them, and putting his family in danger. Someone needs to walk him out into a field to look at some flowers before his nonsense goes too far.

When he was introduced, Luis said something about death being the start of a new life, and that's a belief his mother holds as well. As Sicut Cervus neared its end, things got quite familiar. I'm sure Nick and Daniel weren't the only ones having flashbacks tonight, as Fear the Walking Dead season 2 suddenly became similar to The Walking Dead season 2. Of course, this concept goes back to the classics; like Herschel and Celia, people in George A. Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD were also harboring zombies. I liked how this episode also echoed DAWN in the suggestion that zombies will find their way back to places that were important to them – in Romero's film, that was the mall, and Celia here expects Luis to be arriving at the estate.

It is odd that Fear is following so closely in the footsteps of The Walking Dead by doing the "keeping the dead" thing all over again, and I don't really buy that Nick is so impressionable that he would so quickly be persuaded into sharing Celia's point of view, but I am interested in seeing where this situation goes and how it will differ from the events at Herschel's farm.

People hoarding zombies is definitely something I can imagine happening in a zombie apocalypse, and these shows will always get a pass from me when they're directly reminding me of Romero. There were some quirky, oddball elements to this episode, but I still found it to be more enjoyable than the last couple episodes were.

BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: It may be Herschel's barn all over again, but the reveal of the caged zombies was a great "Oh shit" moment.

GORY GLORY: Nothing here really stood out to me as being particularly glorious, but it's always fun to watch the characters take down a horde of zombies, as they did with the parishioners.

FAVORITE SCENE: I loved the cold open at the church, with the preacher coming to the conclusion that God isn't responsible for the zombie apocalypse. What follows the sermon was great as well.

FINAL VERDICT: