"Fear The Walking Dead", Season 2: Review of the midseason finale and date for the start of the second half

Yesterday we got to the midseason finale of «Fear The Walking Dead» Season 2. A bit of family drama, a schizophrenic flashback and a lot of drivel – with that, «Fear The Walking Dead» says goodbye to the summer break without much fanfare and cliffhangers. When the series starts again in August, it has to set clearer accents in order to continue to convince.

"Fear the Walking Dead" delivers zombies, flames, destruction and drama in its first midseason finale, but unfortunately without a meaningful combination of the elements. All aspects are so distributed and partly geographically and unfocused that there is no conclusive picture. The episode begins as calmly as it ends. After Strand showed his last mercy to his friend in the last episode, he has to leave the premises. Celia's beliefs are undoubtedly shared by all but the newcomers. From this perspective, Strand didn't save his friend from the horrid infinity as Walker, but denied him an afterlife in the new world. Meanwhile, Daniel is preoccupied with his past. In the beginning he was the competent and scary man for the tough decisions, but after arriving at the winery Daniel gradually broke down. Under the tough surface, a conflict with personal pasts has long been simmering, which, together with differing views on fighting the zombies, has now become a dangerous mixture. Daniel may have been rooted to the flames for a long time after radically saying goodbye to his wife's ghost and his past, but we'll see him again after the summer break. Just like Celia, we see him fleeing the wine cellar at the end, so the lady of the manor must have survived this fiery hell.

Meanwhile, Travis tracks his son beyond the confines of the safe winery to a home where Chris has taken another man's son hostage. Chris' storyline is definitely the most controversial of the entire series to date. Chris' doubts are justified. Although Reed has increased the fears of the already insecure son, Chris also knows in principle that the zombie apocalypse will result in a reduction to the nucleus of society, the family, and the porous structures of the patchwork family were a reason for Doubts about Travis' commitment to his son. The fact that Chris now has the direct assurance of his father's support, with all the consequences that entails, will calm him down, normalize him and lead him back into the group, even if father and son are left alone in the mountains for the time being. The next episode in August will show how things will continue for her.

Basically, the separation of the characters probably means that we can expect individual episodes with a focus on character development after the summer break. In principle, there is nothing reprehensible about it, it would only be desirable if this were not designed to be quite so obvious. The separation of the characters seems believable, since the rifts became deeper and the differences bigger in the last few episodes. Especially the smoldering conflict between Nick and his mother offers interesting approaches. While the walkers in the original series and especially in the comic recede into the background after the initial apocalypse and are reduced to a natural disaster that only serves as a framework for the actual drama, «Fear The Walking Dead» offers a much more in-depth approach. This allows the character of Nick and not without reason. Nick is the first person we see and he also has the first contact with a walker in Los Angeles. His perspective on the zombies is central and so the two-episode detour to Celia's winery is also necessary, because it is Nick who accepts and welcomes her. She only sees the zombies as pitiable creatures who have taken the next step - unintentionally and at the same time innocently - and are now extremely hungry. This hunger, this desire, against better judgment, is well known to Nick as a former junkie.

The zombie as a junkie is definitely not a new interpretation, but the simultaneous mercy, pity, concern for the fate of companions after the victory of the zombie virus - all this seems promising and new approaches for the further course of «Fear The Walking Dead», if you dare to pursue it and think it through to the end. Nick walking through the horde as a bloodied zombie and feeling more accepted and at home there is definitely one of the most gripping images of the entire series universe. If "Fear the Walking Dead" still manages to raise more than one character to this level, Kirkman and Co. could get the curve. We are excited to see how things will continue after the summer break on August 21st! For the second half, the team promises some interesting new characters, especially those of Hispanic descent...