Episode Titles: Wrath (14) and North (15)
Original Airdate: 10-2-16
Season 2 ended with back-to-back episodes, and they did not disappoint. At the Colonia, Nick sneaks off to meet the Narcos, knowing they’ve discovered the compound’s location. He tries to reason with them, but they give him until the next morning to clear out the Colonia before they show up and kill anyone who’s left. While trying to convince Alejandro of the danger coming, Nick is attacked by a newly Infected patient of the infirmary. Alejandro is bitten in the process, and he must finally confess that he is not immune to an Infected’s bite. An angry Luciana takes charge and decides the Colonia’s faith has protected them this long and will continue to do so.
Nick decides to leave. Once outside the walls he sees a helicopter land on the North side of the border at what might be a refugee camp. He convinces Luciana to lead the residents of the Colonia there. The Narcos show up the next morning to a deserted Colonia, and in their enthusiasm, shoot off their rifles, drawing loads of attention. A dying Alejandro stayed behind to remove the “dam” (an old bus) between the Colonia and its wall of Infected. Soon the Infected swarm the compound and overtake the Narcos. As Nick and Luciana cross the border with their group, they are ambushed by a shower of gunfire and camo-wearing Americans, their fate to be determined.
At the hotel, Madison discovers Brandon and Derek have been let in and are being real jerks to everyone else. She finds out that the boys were in a car wreck and their driver died in the accident. After some thought and talking to Strand, Madison decides to not tell Travis that Chris is dead, as he needs to know that there’s a chance his son is alive somewhere out there. However, as Brandon and Derek are being escorted out of the gates due to their horrible attitudes, Travis sees them and demands to talk to them. They originally tell him that Chris was thrown from the truck in the accident, but contradict themselves and say they had to pull him out from the wreckage to bury him. They finally admit that he was severely injured and they didn’t want him as a burden, so they killed him. Travis loses it and beats both of them death, also seriously injuring Oscar who tried to stop him. Elena and Hector insist Travis must leave, so Madison and Alicia agree to go with him. Meanwhile, Andrés (Oscar’s little brother, a 1st Year Medical Student who’s been playing grown-up doctor, lolz) has to help relieve the pressure in Oscar’s brain by cutting open his skull. It all goes horribly awry and Oscar dies. A distraught Andrés and Hector decide to kill Travis, but in the scuffle Alicia stabs Andrés in the heart and Strand rescues Travis, Madison and Alicia from the angry mob, escorting them to the front door to escape, but ultimately deciding to stay behind himself.
The other three make it to the former warehouse of the Narcos, with Madison hoping to find some sign of where Nick might be. They find the murdered family the Narcos tortured for the Colonia’s location, which gives them the info they need. They arrive at the deserted Colonia the next morning, after the Infected have wiped out the Narcos. They find a still dying Alejandro in the bus and he tells them Nick just left and is headed to the border.
These were two pretty good episodes to finish off Season 2. Nothing with Nick and the Colonia was surprising: it was always pretty evident that Alejandro was lying about his “bite” and that they could not stay at the compound for very long. I do like that it all came to an end due to evil humans taking it over, instead of the Infected swarming (as seems to almost always happen to any “safe” place in TWD.) Nick has now stepped up as a leader, which I certainly didn’t envision this time last year when the show premiered. I am a bit surprised Luciana survived the finale, as I thought surely she’d be a likely death. Though she did get shot at the border, she was still breathing by the end. As for this new harsher border patrol (of which I could make endless Trump jokes, but I won’t), I am interested to see into what danger Nick has led his new charges. It won’t be good, but he seems to have an endless supply of lives, so I’m not terribly worried about him at this point.
I have mixed feelings about the hotel drama. Everything with Travis was excellent. He has always been the keeper of peace, but as soon as he got the truth out of Brandon and Derek, he went nuts. And I believe that. I genuinely believe that losing your only child could make anyone do a total 180 like that. Watching him beat those two jerks to death was extremely harsh, but so incredibly satisfying at the same time. That was handled just fine. What I take issue with is the aftermath. I understand Elena wouldn’t want Travis around after seeing what he was capable of, and of course Madison and Alicia would leave with him. It’s Oscar’s fate that has me perplexed. Oscar (the groom from the doomed wedding) was hurt by Travis during the beat down. His brother Andrés (who would never be able to do the things he did after just one year of med school, by the way) has a right to be upset, but Hector’s reaction made no sense. Oscar was one of the guests who hated Elena and Hector for what they did, eventually taking him hostage to get Elena’s keys, and yet Hector was acting as though he lost his best friend. So his teaming up with Andrés to go kill Travis felt like it was out of no where, even painfully forced. As for Strand’s decision to stay, I’m not surprised, but I don’t know what good he expects to happen after helping Madison, Alicia and Travis escape. He’ll probably be king of Mexico by the next time we see him.
And now to get serious: it’s time to talk about Chris. Chris was never a good character. He was a standard moody teen in the beginning, mainly due to his parents’ divorce and Daddy Dearest finding a new family. Then the apocalypse happened and he went to full on sociopath in no time. His arc was either too rushed or too unbelievable to begin with (haven’t made up my mind). I am certain he had to die. He was too far gone to continue on the show with Travis and the rest of the group. The only way he could have lived is if he disappeared for a couple of seasons and popped back up later in a bad way. Killing him off was the best option. But when you get down to it, as they showed him lying in the middle of the that desert road, with a broken leg and a gun aimed at his head by one of his new “friends,” he really was nothing more than a scared 16-year-old who realized far too late that he put his trust in the wrong people. So though I never cared for nor appreciated his character, watching Chris die was still very jarring and a little heartbreaking to watch. And somehow it was made even more so by the fact that we didn’t see it “live,” but rather as a retelling from Brandon and Derek. Because the “flashback” technique made all that much more final somehow.
So there was a lot more good than bad ending this season. And I had a genuine emotional reaction when Chris died…my first for the show. I do feel they’ve been wasting time showing bits of Ofelia (who made it to the border in the desert and got captured, much like Nick). I think maybe they shouldn’t have brought her back at all until something more substantial had happened, and then given us a flashback episode to catch us up in Season 3. At this point I don’t know or care why she’s still around. Hell, they might not know right now either.
Here’s hoping they continue with some of the good they’ve built over the second half of Season 2 and figure out how to make the rest better in Season 3.
Channel: Superhero 