For almost three full seasons now, the biggest problem that Fear the Walking Dead has had is its unabashed adoration of Nick Clark. The show can’t approach the character with anything resembling even-handedness, which is why he was shirtless and blood-splattered for almost all of season two. Whenever Nick is on screen, FTWD wants you to know that you are looking at God’s perfect angel, the one man best-equipped to survive the apocalypse. “Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame” does little to dispel this notion; what it does instead is show that this compulsive hero-worship extends to anyone with the last name Clark. (Travis’s last name was Manawa, so he had to fucking go.) More than anything, this episode feels like a missed opportunity. It aimed to explore the various relationships that the Clarks are establishing with the Ottos, but all it really did was show us that everyone else at Brokejaw Ranch is a bumbling moron. I think it’s best to structure this review in a way befitting the episode, so we’ll look at the pairings we were offered.
Madison and Troy
This is the grouping I was most excited about in “Burning,” to the point where I got excited at the idea of Madison and Troy hooking up. They met in such an unconventional manner, with her nearly blinding him, and there’s still a decent bit of dimensionality to their relationship (which turns weird, but we’ll get to that). Troy seems to be warming to Madison, while she still doesn’t trust him, and, as she explains to her kids, she’s only going along with his militia so she can better understand him; sort of a “keep your enemies closer” approach. But she plays her hand too quickly, usurping command from under him and giving orders to his men (at least she got an apology from that guy who tried to mansplain the apocalypse to her).
It’s when things take a strange Oedipal turn that this falls off the rails. Troy is understandably upset at Madison wresting control from him, even though Madison had the better idea at the time. So she uncomfortably asks him “Do you wanna be a mama’s boy, Troy?” before taunting him by telling him that his own mother hated him (where she got this information I have no idea, but it really seems to strike a chord in Troy). Later, she wakes up to him straddling her, his knife at her throat. This takes their relationship into psychosexual territory that I’m confident the show will handle poorly; Troy feels he has to kill Madison because he wants to be her son but also wants to fuck her. There are good ways to explore this – Bates Motel played with the same concept, and was much more successful – but here it just comes out of nowhere, because Madison has never presented herself as a maternal figure to Troy. It’s not a bad idea on its surface, but Fear would have had to lay the groundwork for this development a few episodes ago. But the show didn’t do that, so it doesn’t work here.
Nick and Jeremiah
This one is a real snoozer. After two old folks die in the cold open, Nick takes it upon himself to clean and fix their burnt-down house. Naturally, he’s great at this, as Jeremiah comments on. The two get into a quasi-philosophical debate when Jeremiah refers to an old pistol as “beautiful” and Nick replies “Isn’t that a contradiction?” I wish there was a warning bell in the FTWD that would sound whenever the show veers to close to The Walking Dead, because as of this conversation Nick seems dangerously close to becoming Morgan, and at any given point Morgan is the worst character on TV.
Nick fixed up the house so he and Luciana could have a romantic, candlelit dinner. He wants them to stay, which is at odds with what she wants, and the show tells us this by having every second or third line of dialogue for Luciana be a variation on “It’s time to go.” So he wakes up, she’s gone, and hopefully this closes the book on the most boring relationship on the show. And what a waste, I might add, of a once-promising character in Luciana. She started out tough and capable; she was Ripley, not Newt. But as soon as she met Nick she became weak and simpering, and leaving him was the first act of agency she’d gotten all season.
Strand and Salazar
After the two met back up in “Teotwawki,” I said I was excited for the show to team up its two best characters. Well, thanks for proving me wrong once a-fuckin-gain, Fear the Walking Dead. For one, the show still refuses to tell us how Salazar escaped the fire (when Strand asks, the answer he receives is “I was spared”), and I’m starting to think it never will.
What works about this subplot is that it stays true to character – Strand is stalling because he knows Ofelia isn’t at the hotel, but he knew saying she was would save his life; and Salazar, upon finding out she’s not here, leaves Strand to a group of hungry walkers. It would have been almost dishonest for these two to become something like friends, so at least the show succeeds in retaining this bit of characterization. One thing I am not excited about, though, is the prospect of several episodes of Salazar looking for Ofelia. She’s been missing five episodes now, and it’s too late to salvage this. The boldest move the show could make at this point would be leaving her fate undefined – Salazar never finds her and we’re never told what happened.
Alicia and Jake
Alicia spent “Burning” in a Sofia Coppola movie. After a few days of partying, she tells Gretchen “I think I’ve had my fill,” and although the show insists she’s tired and hungover, not to mention living on a post-apocalyptic ranch, Alycia Debnam-Carey never looks anything less than flawless. So she hits it off with Jake, after he quotes Ecclesiastes to her, they randomly have sex, then have a meandering conversation about art by a lakeside, then she jumps into the lake while indie music plays. I have no idea what the hell this was about.
A Few Thoughts
- That was a pretty racist portrayal of a Native American, no? He executes people by leaving them to be eaten by crows. If there were any doubt he’s going to die soon, the character’s name is “Walker.”
- I will say, that was an amazing shot of the crow eating that guy’s brain out the back of his head. Horrifying in its implication and presentation.
2/5
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