Fear The Walking Dead – Sicut Cervus

By starrymag | May 18, 2016

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

 

With the mid-season finale next week, this week’s episode answers the question that most of us trusty viewers have been wanting to know: What happens when the group makes it Mexico? Let’s find out!

 

“Where is our God?”

 

As the episode opens at a church in Mexico, the priest gets up to talk about the outbreak and what it has meant to their community. The dead rising and humanity coming to an end, the priest encourages his parishioners to take a stand and defend their village any way that they can, leading them outside to grab weapons.

 

Thomas Abigail (Dougray Scott) comes up in his truck, pleading with the priest to not take the path of violence. As Thomas and the priest are talking, the parishioners start bleeding from the eyes and falling to the ground, dying.

 

“Tell me what happened.”

 

While Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) and Travis (Cliff Curtis) discuss why Chris ended up killing Reed, Madison (Kim Dickens), Strand (Colman Domingo), and Luis (Arturo del Puerto) spot boats coming towards The Abigail in the distance. These are the men that Strand and Luis were supposed to meet and pay for their way back into Mexico. And since these men were only aware of Strand and Luis being the sole two, Madison is told to get everyone else underneath the boat to hide during negotiations.

 

When everyone convenes in the boiler room, Daniel (Ruben Blades) translates the conversation happening on deck. As Strand and Luis hand over the money, the other men think that the boat is too big for the both of them and are ready to inspect The Abigail, which would spell disaster for the group. Shots are fired and the group goes back on the main deck to find Luis and the two men who came aboard for payment on the ground. Daniel quickly makes the rounds to stab the men in the head, but avoids stabbing Luis because Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) stops him. Luis pleads to not die and instead hands Daniel a peculiar looking coin to give to his mother.

 

“We’re close now.”

 

When the group docks and makes their way into Mexico, they see the dead bodies in front of the church. As Strand looks closer, he sees Thomas’s truck and runs into the church in search of his lover. Unfortunately, the rest of the group encounters the parishioners that have reanimated, having to fight them off.

 

During the encounter, Daniel freezes up killing an altar boy trying to bite him while Chris watches Madison struggle against another parishioner. Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) witnesses Chris watching and instead takes the action of saving her mother. With the dead parishioners handled, Strand leads the group to the compound.

 

“Bienvenidos”

 

Once inside the gates, Thomas’s mother Celia (Marlena Forte) greets them and her staff instructs the group to drop their weapons before they are shown to their quarters. Celia takes Strand to Thomas, who has been resting in his room with his arm bandaged up, a bloody bite mark showing through the gauze.

 

Strand sees the bite mark and profusely apologizes to Thomas, feeling partially responsible for his lover’s demise. Thomas will hear none of it, just grateful that Strand has made it back to him before he dies.

 

“I saw what you did.”

 

Alicia is in the common room watching recorded shows when Chris walks in. When Alicia confronts Chris on watching Madison being attacked and doing nothing, Chris feigns innocence. That innocence doesn’t last for long before Chris turns on Alicia, threatening that she’ll be sorry if she tells anyone.

 

Meanwhile, Nick (Frank Dillane) finds his way to Celia in the kitchen, hungry from their travels. Celia fixes him a bowl of food and Nick confesses to Celia that he is just tired of killing, tired of running, tired of it all. Celia explains to Nick that they are visitors in the world, that the reanimated are what comes next.

 

“Will you look after him when I’m gone?”

 

Madison walks into Thomas’s room, where Strand is there reading to him and explaining how Madison was instrumental in getting back to Mexico. Thomas asks Madison to look after Strand when he dies. Later, Strand tells Thomas that when he dies, he has decided that he wants to die with him. He does not want to live without him.

 

Also later, Madison and Travis finally discuss the issue that has been a point of contention between them: Chris. When Madison finds out from Alicia that Chris was watching her struggle for her life, she can’t help but feel this is a problem. Yet Travis pleads with Madison to help him get through to Chris, as he was there when Nick had his drug issues. Unfortunately, Madison refuses to budge and decides to spend the night with Alicia, while Travis goes to stay with Chris.

 

“Tell them I’m dying.”

 

Ofelia goes to find Daniel for dinner, but he declines. Daniel seems almost haunted by everything that has happened up until this point. From the coin on the boat, to freezing up on killing the altar boy, to even just being on the compound.

 

When Daniel goes for a walk later, he sees a young boy placing a puppy down into a bin of sorts. Upon further investigation, the boy is then seen talking to someone outside of their door. When Daniel questions him, it is discovered that Celia has reanimated corpses in a holding cell. It was also discovered when Daniel confronts her, that at the beginning of the episode, she was the one who poisoned the parishioners when they went up to take the Eucharist during communion.

 

“That was lovely.”

 

Celia decides to spend some time with Thomas in his final moments, Strand sitting in a nearby chair. She is aware of the plan for Strand to die with her son, even going so far as providing the both of them with two poisoned Eucharist wafers to aid in the process. While she had her reservations about Strand before, she now finds him worthy to be with her son, as he is willing to die to be with him.

 

She leaves the room to go sit outside, where Nick joins her. Earlier, while with Ofelia as she prayed, Nick had flashbacks to being in the church from Season One, where he remembers seeing the epidemic break out. Nick and Celia decide to talk about what comes next.

 

“What is it you want to know?”

 

Strand is present when Thomas finally dies and begins to prepare for the next step. In one of the bedrooms, Chris is seen getting up out of bed, obviously on a mission. Strand locks the door to give him and Thomas privacy, the wafers still sitting on the table. Chris walks into the bedroom where Alicia and Madison are sleeping, spotting the knife on the bedside table.

 

He goes over to grab the knife, ready to hurt them when a gunshot is heard, waking up Madison and Alicia. They spot Chris with the knife and question him, causing him to flee the bedroom. In the final scene, Strand is seen next to Thomas, holding a gun. A pillow has been placed over Thomas’s face and upon further inspection, he has been shot in the head.