Episode Title: Captive
Original Airdate: 5-8-16
Time for revenge on the high seas…or just off the coast of Cali. Whatevs. On the Abigail, Daniel tends to an impaled, but still alive, Reed, to get info about his brother Connor and where he might have taken Alicia and Travis. Strand allows Madison to take half a day to rescue her family, in exchange for having pulled him out of the water and saving his life, but his buddy Luis is getting more and more agitated about getting to Mexico.
At port, Jack shows Alicia around a tuna boat and decides the job best suited for her within this group of pirates would be to find unsuspecting boats on the radar and call to them on the radio. Essentially “do unto others” as he did to her. It’s all a big ruse to scavenge supplies and add a few necessary people to their ranks.
Meanwhile, down in a cage, Travis is confronted by a vengeful Alex. She tells him how she she had to strangle a dying Jake so he wouldn’t suffer anymore. And when she was near death, Connor plucked her out of the water, and she easily spilled all of her knowledge about the Abigail as her ticket to ride. She blames Travis for her desertion in the middle of the ocean and Jake’s death, and he freely admits that it was his fault because he knew all along what Strand would do.
Back on the Abigail, Madison makes contact with Connor who is surprised to hear her voice, considering his other people were supposed to take everyone else out and bring the boat to him. She offers an exchange: his brother for her daughter and husband. Just then a gunshot is heard. Chris decided to makeup for letting the pirates on the Abigail in the first place, and he shot Reed, who had been taunting him during his captivity. Unfortunately Chris didn’t do a great job. Though he shot Reed in the face, and killed him, he missed the brain, so Reed comes back as an Infected. Daniel realizes this is good thing as they can still make the exchange with a writhing Infected wearing a sack on its head better than dragging a stiff corpse along. And the plan actually works. Madison throws a turned Reed at Connor, who is then bitten by his former brother, Travis fights his way to freedom and Alicia jumps to safety to escape with her family, leaving behind a baffled Jack who thought they had a real connection.
Another solid episode this week as this plot wraps up with the pirates. I appreciate that it didn’t drag out further, something that would probably happen on TWD, I feel. It was a small arc that was introduced, put on the backburner, but left an ominous looming threat until faced several episodes later. It worked really well and I like how it all played out overall. I’m not sure this is the final word, since Jack, Alex and the pregnant girl (still haven’t caught her name) are still alive, but this bit is done for now. I would still like to see more of Alex down the road. I was glad she came back, and if we can’t have her as part of the group, she’d make a great villain, who would be one hundred percent justified in her hatred for our main survivors. It would be fantastic if they could play that out.
The other stand out in the episode was Daniel, who had a great scene with Reed as he was tending to his wound. I found it a great contrast to the scene last season when he tortured the soldier to get information about the military’s plan for LA. This time around, he had Reed literally in the same position, but he was taking care of a man threatening him and his daughter, yet was still able to get ample information without letting his prisoner realizing what he was doing. It’s the first time I’ve actually warmed to the character. Of course it was almost all negated when he left the emotionally and mentally damaged teenager to sit outside Reed’s door, but Daniel did warn him not to engage. Now if only we could get anything out of Ofelia.
With this story line wrapped for now, let’s see what happens in Mexico. Hopefully it will be handled just as well.
Channel: Superhero 