Man, what a letdown. Fear the Walking Dead made some real progress this season, and turned in episodes that ranked among the best of the series (“We All Fall Down,” “Blood In the Streets”). “Shiva,” sadly, is not one of those episodes. It’s the show indulging its worst tendencies, both in regards to characters and story. It was, more than anything, frustrating in the peculiar way unique to this show.
As far as the story of “Shiva” is concerned, well, there isn’t much of one. In the wake of Thomas’s death, Celia orders everyone to leave, and gives them a day to do so. Of course, she’s soon talked out of this by – who else? – Nick. I am so goddamn sick of Nick and the show’s unabashed adoration of him. FTWD thinks that Nick is its Daryl Dixon, but Daryl had half a season of character development, while looking for Carol’s daughter Sophia, before he turned into the badass with a heart of gold (who I’m also kinda sick of, but that’s neither here nor there).
Nick, though…at this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if Robert Kirkman and showrunner Dave Erickson showed up as themselves to talk about how great Nick is. What do Talking Dead guests talk about? Nick? It’s probably Nick. There are no less than three scenes tonight where Nick shows up covered in blood like something out of a Nicholas Winding Refn film, because someone decided that Frank Dillane looks really sexy with blood on his face. For Christ’s sake, Celia just comes right out and calls Nick “a remarkable soul” and tells Maddie “The only reason you are here is because I see the light inside him.” Jesus, that’s heavy-handed. It doesn’t help that Nick is becoming the kind of self-righteous douche who wants to call the walkers by their actual names. At the end of “Shiva,” Nick tells Maddie, “We destroy everything.” Like what, Nick?
Okay, next on the hit list is Celia. Marlene Forte is fine in the role, but the character is a pastiche of other “dragon lady” types we’ve seen in TV and film a million times. There’s a little bit of Cersei from Game of Thrones, some Kristin Scott Thomas from Only God Forgives, and so on. She started out promising, but there’s really nothing original about her, or the Abigail estate for that matter. The walkers being held behind bars is straight from season two of The Walking Dead, and Celia’s personal army is reminiscent of the Governor. She’s not the villain the show thinks she is – unless the show thinks she’s a character we’ve seen before.
Salazar doesn’t fare much better. As the one character who’s always reliably had his head on his shoulders, it’s dispiriting to watch him lose his shit. It would be a lot more effective if it didn’t seem to happen overnight. All of a sudden, Salazar is hallucinating his dead wife, calling Celia a “demon,” denouncing the estate as “unholy,” and setting the conflagration that razes the estate. This could have been a fascinating character transformation, but it was handled so poorly that it just seems like Fear the Walking Dead is deliberately sabotaging its smartest character. Don’t worry, I’m sure Nick will save us! ALL GLORY TO NICK.
Lastly, we have Chris. Holy shit, he is on a roll lately. Chris has always been the worst, and FTWD‘s second season has multiplied that with every episode. Travis tracks him down, only to find Chris holding a young boy hostage, demanding that Travis let him run away. “I’ve seen the way they look at me,” he complains, and can you blame them? Chris doesn’t exactly help his case, threatening a young boy and his father at the same time. At the end of “Shiva” Travis and Chris go off alone, while Nick nobly tells Maddie that he couldn’t find either one.
I’d be lying if I said that “Shiva” makes me excited for the latter half of FTWD’s second season. Especially if it’s going to devote so much time to Travis and Chris hanging out, which I can’t imagine anyone is excited about. With such purposeful, deliberate character sabotage, I find myself wondering just what exactly Fear the Walking Dead wants – or expects – us to get excited about.
“Shiva” score: 2.5/5
Fear the Walking Dead season 2A score: 3/5
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