Fear The Walking Dead – Do Not Disturb

By: Kelsey Juntwait

Talk about a “zombie bride.” This week’s episode of “Fear The Walking Dead,” entitled Do Not Disturb, started off with an explanation everyone was anticipating and flashbacked to what exactly happened during that abandoned wedding. Pre-apocalyptic couple Oscar (Andres Londono) and Jessica (Schuyler Fisk) are exchanging “I do’s” south of the border when catastrophe hits. The bride’s mother (Brenda Strong) strongly suggests wrapping up the wedding and heading back north, clearly clued into a “sickness” that is spreading. Elena (Karen Bethzabe), the hotel manager, assures her they’re safe there and that it’s all rumors. As father and daughter are sharing a dance though, the father collapses, wasting no time turning. This proves the “sickness” is no rumor at all. Taking his first bite out of his daughter’s neck, chaos begins. Elena, trying to call for help with a dead phone line, realizes the severity and danger of the situation. She makes a quick-witted decision to contain it from spreading, locking the wedding party doors, bringing new meaning to “in sickness and in health.”

Back in present day, we’re finally given a taste of what Travis (Cliff Curtis) and Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) have been up to all this time. Attempting to find shelter and quickly running out of water, the two are struggling to move forward. Finding a deserted car, Travis puts his mechanical skills to good use while Chris begs to go scavenge a taco joint for supplies. Chris pleads, “I can protect myself, you know that. I’m good at this,” while Travis replies, “That’s what worries me,” letting him go anyway. Chris, gaining way more confidence than probably necessary, is finding this apocalypse quite comfortable.

Hearing arguing in the back of the taco joint and the owners bleeding out behind the counter, Chris knows he may have just walked into danger. As infected approach, noise attracts the guys arguing out back to see what’s going on where he finds three men, with guns. Chris saves one of the men from an infected, grabs a can of beans and some water and quickly sneaks out. Hopping into the car, warning Travis a group of infected is coming, they take off. Peering through the back window at the man he just stole from, but also saved, he decides not to mention this to his dad.

Travis is dealing with a significant injury on his leg so he gives Chris the wheel where he mentions, “Good time to learn – no traffic.” As Travis is checking out his brutal injury, they come across an infected in the road. Chris swerves, avoiding the infected, leaving viewers still questioning his character. The two begin discussing what’s the next step. Travis, staying hopeful, says, “We can get back what we lost.” Chris reminds him “not everything.” With an empty gas tank, the two pull over and set up camp for the night. Pulling out the can of (stolen) beans, a few familiar yet uninvited faces appear.

The three guys from the taco joint introduce themselves as Brandon (Kelly Blatz), Derek (Kenny Wormald) and Baby James (Israel Broussard). Assuming they’re there for vengeance, viewers are surprised when the three actually compliment Chris on his “badassery” and decide to set up camp with the pair, creating an apparent alliance. They swap stories of their experiences, who’ve they’ve met and what they’ve been through. The three guys are trying to get back home, but Travis presents the reality of the situation – San Diego and Los Angeles have been bombed by the military. Asking how many they’ve all killed, Chris seems to take the lead with seventeen kills. Travis, assuming it would be bad to stay with these three who are encouraging Chris, mentions they’ll be on there way in the morning but Brandon offers them a ride to the next town.

The ride proves to be nothing short of nauseating for Travis, hearing his son joke around with Derek and Baby James in the front of the truck. Sitting in the back with Brandon listening to his optimistic description of the future and even describing himself as a “God,” Travis can’t help but to question his intentions. Noticing a farm, they pull over and Travis hopes to convince Chris to stay there – without there new friends. Making their way to a barn full of chickens, the owner of the farm comes barreling in with a shotgun telling them to get off his property. Exchanging unfriendly looks, a language barrier prevents them all from understanding one another. While Travis tries to explain to the owner that they’ll leave, Chris doesn’t hesitate to shoot the man! This proves he’s still as crazy as he was standing over Alicia’s (Alycia Debnam-Carey) bed earlier this season.

Cue Alicia who is stuck inside a hotel room that’s surrounded by the infected. Glancing through the room’s peephole, she engraves into the door how many of them surround her. Butterfly knife in hand, she prepares herself for a fight so she can get back to Madison (Kim Dickens). Glancing through the peephole once more, an infected stares back, preventing her from opening the door. She waits it out. Once things get quieter in the hall, Alicia opens the door where she makes her way to the stairwell. Running into hordes of infected in every direction though, she’s forced into the elevator shaft where she grabs on for dear life to the rope as the infected reach for her. Climbing up, proving to be stronger than any of us expected, she meets a familiar face from the beginning of the episode – the hotel manager Elena. Pulling her onto one of the floors, Elena (Karen Bethzabe) chokeholds Alicia with an axe, demanding to know where “Hector” is. Elena mentions Hector is her nephew and the other guests (a/k/a the ones she locked in a room to die) kidnapped him, attempting to lure her out. Elena explains to Alicia that this hotel is a maze and she’s the only one who knows how to run it. Her and Hector (Ramses Jimenez) were containing the infected into certain wings before he went missing. Alicia, on her own mission to find her group, suggests they team up together to find them all saying, “The shit my family’s been through; six of us is equal to a dozen. We do that or we die up here,” she adds.

It appears they agree on this plan. However, when they get out into the hallway, Elena disappears while Alicia is leading the infected into an empty room. Now trapped on a balcony, Alicia watches Elena shut the hotel room door, preparing to fight them off by herself. As viewers were losing hope, Elena appears on the balcony next door and helps Alicia over, just in time. Losing time, the two end up back downstairs and in the wedding scene where it all began. Running into the other hotel guests who prove to be pretty angry and holding Hector hostage, Elena gives up her keys in exchange for her nephew. When the exchange is made, Alicia releases the horde of infected that are locked up to distract the other guests while her, Elena and Hector take off to find safety. The three find themselves trapped at a locked door with infected approaching. In true apocalyptic fashion, the door is opened at the very last minute by…you guessed it: Madison and Strand.

Which only leaves us with one burning question for next week: Where the HECK is Ofelia?