Not Fade Away
Directed by Kari Skogland
The neighbourhood attempts to get back to a sense of normalcy after the National Guard arrived and set up a perimeter. Travis takes a jog and waves to his neighbours, while the Salazars continue to treat Griselda's injured leg.
Chris sits on top of the Clark house and records a video message through his camera. He notes that the military has assured the residents that they are safe, but that everything outside has fallen. As citizens file along past erected metal fences, Chris notes that it's been nine days since the lights went out.
He looks towards the horizon and notes a flashing signal in the distance...
In their house, Madison and Travis argue about the day's tasks, and she complains about having the house co-opted for a refugee shelter and medical clinic by the military. Alicia tells them both to knock off their act before going outside with Ofelia.
Travis walks outside and tells Chris to come down, but the latter tries to tell him about the signal he saw. Travis tells him that he's seeing things before they leave.
Outside, Travis, Alicia, Ofelia and the rest of the neighbourhood gathers around the commanding military officer, Lt. Moyers, who is reading a statement. Moyers tells them that their neighbourhood is one of 12 "safe zones" that have been established, and that they're the "lucky ones". Although the residents complain about a curfew, Moyers tells them everything will be okay before leaving.
Ofelia strikes up a conversation with a sergeant while Alicia looks on, while Travis is called by Moyers to help convince one resident, Doug Thompson, to pass his medical evaluation.
While Travis attempts to calm down Doug's fears that he can't tell his family how bad things are in society, Alicia watches her mother and Chris attempt to repaint the walls after Peter Dawson's attack. She goes next door to Susan's house and rifles through the elder woman's personal mementos before breaking down in tears.
Elsewhere, Liza is acting as an impromptu nurse for a number of families, including Hector and Cynthia Ramirez. She treats Hector by giving him a morphine drip for his pains, then leaves as Nick watches through a fence. Soon after, Nick sneaks inside and siphons morphine from the drip while Hector writhes on the bed above him.
Chris goes to Madison and shows her the videotape of the flashing signal. When she initially tries to shrug it off, he points out that the people flashing it could get military help but are choosing not to...
Ofelia and the sergeant are kissing in the back of an Army jeep. When he attempts to remove her shirt, she stops him and says that they might be moving too fast. He agrees, and she asks if he got the medicine she needs for her mom. He tells her that it's in a secure locker he wasn't able to get access to. He's called back to patrol as Ofelia looks on.
That night, Madison and Travis are having sex in the back of the family car. She rolls off and mentions that she has things to do. She tells him that she heard rumors of quarantine camps from other neighbours, but he asks her if she's alright. She tells him that Chris showed her the video of the signal, and that she wants to go check it out the next day.
Their moment is interrupted when Doug's wife, Maria, bangs on the garage door. When they go outside, she tells them that Doug took their vehicle and drove off, and they're worried what will happen if he goes outside the military perimeter. Travis tells them not to worry and they go back inside.
The next morning, Madison sits on the top of the house and attempts to signal the house with a flashlight. At the same time, Travis takes another run and finds Doug's vehicle outside the perimeter fence, abandoned. Madison sees the source of the signal blink on and off in response, and decides to investigate.
When Travis goes to alert Moyers to Doug's disappearance and the signal his son saw, the latter laughs it off and insists he isn't running a social centre before going back to an impromptu golf practice.
Liza goes back to the Ramirez's house and finds that Hector is gone. When she investigates the house further, she finds Cynthia with a woman who introduces herself as Dr. Bethany Exner. Cynthia tells Liza that Hector was moved to a hospital, and that Dr. Exner is appreciative of her help. Cynthia leaves them alone so they can talk privately.
When they're alone, Exner mentions that Liza uses unorthodox methods but she has helped take care of multiple people at once. Exner asks if she can keep using her unorthodox methods for a bit longer...
Elsewhere, Madison sneaks away and cuts a hole in the perimeter fence when no one is around. She sneaks through and passes a bombed-out car and memorial wall before coming across civilians who have been shot execution-style. As she reels from the smell of the dead bodies, she hears a noise coming towards her and hides under a car. A group of armed soldiers pass by her position and continue on their way, and she returns back to the house.
Exner and Liza go to check on Griselda, and mention that they'll also need to move her to the hospital for better care. Daniel asks to come along and they agree. After leaving, Exner comes across Nick and gives him a medical checkup. Not realizing that he's high off drugs, Exner says that he has a high fever before leaving.
When Madison comes back in, Daniel asks her what she saw outside. She tells him about the civilians who were executed. He relates a story of what happened when he was a boy - the military came to his hometown and took a group of people away, and he found them when their corpses washed up on a nearby river. He warns Madison that things will escalate quickly, and to look after Ofelia while he's gone.
Soon after, Madison finds Nick searching her room for more drugs, and realizes that he's relapsed. When he attempts to explain the situation, she slaps him multiple times and leaves.
Later that night, a military convoy arrives outside to take Griselda. When Daniel goes to leave, the soldiers stop him from leaving, and tell him that they won't allow him to leave - but they are taking Nick. Seeing what's happening, Nick attempts to run away, but is stopped when a soldier knocks him out with the butt of his rifle.
The soldiers hold the families at gunpoint as Nick is carted out of the house, stating that he's innocent. Outside, Exner tells Liza that if she wants to make a difference and come back for her family, she needs to get in the truck. Nick is thrown into the back of a jeep, and Liza shoots Madison and Chris a final look before leaving.
The soldiers clear out, and Madison ruefully tells Travis that it's Liza's fault before walking off. As Alicia reads a suicide letter Susan wrote for her husband, while Travis goes up on the roof and looks for the signal again.
He sees the signal going on and off - then hears multiple gunshots inside the structure. He stands up and looks on in shock...
Tropes:
- Armies Are Evil: Hints of this are starting to crop up, as the commanding officer of the security troops is dismissive towards the needs of the civilian populace, as well as willing to round up sick, injured and mentally unstable individuals in the safe zone to an unknown fate. And towards the end it is hinted that soldiers have started to summarily execute any people found outside the safe zones, infected or not.
- Asshole Victim: Nick getting pistol-whipped and being led away in a convoy to a hospital would probably be sadder for the family if he hadn't just cribbed morphine from Hector's IV line, putting the latter (and the neighbourhood) at risk if the elder man died.
- Auto Erotica: Madison and Travis decide to get busy in the family car after the Guard takes over, while Ofelia strikes up a relationship with an officer and makes out with him in an Army jeep.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends with a member of the Manawa family realizing that there's another group of survivors near their neighborhood.
- Call-Back/Mythology Gag: Moyers is not the first dictator leader type that enjoys playing golf. Remember the Governor?
- Ironically enough, in the comics-based prequel novel, Rise of the Governor, the title character got his job by killing three National Guardsmen who previously ran Woodbury.
- Chekhov's Gun: Chris' camera, which he uses to record the signal from another group near the safe zone and show it to his father.
- Closest Thing We Got: Dr. Exner tells Liza that she needs her skills, even if she's not an registered nurse yet. As a result, Liza voluntarily leaves with the military to go to the hospital at the end of the episode.
- Continuity Nod: The garbage bags that the residents put out at the end of the episode is still on the curb when Travis takes a walk with Moyers.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Daniel explains to Madison that when he was 10 years old, he saw the bodies of villagers taken from his hometown by the military (who were Faux Affably Evil) wash up on the shores of the nearby river, and came to realize that his father was incredibly naive about how men become evil.
- Due to the Dead: Alicia visits Susan's house, and remembers her experiences being babysat by the latter, causing her to have a momentary breakdown.
- False Utopia: Despite the military's attempts to calm the residents, the main characters quickly figure out that things are much worse than they thought. Played straight when Travis goes for a run in the neighbourhood to forget about their troubles, but is quickly jarred back to reality when he sees the erected perimeter fence.
- Faux Action Girl: After learning that there's another group of survivors outside the perimeter, Madison cuts a hole in the fence and sneaks through, walks a couple blocks... then turns back after she sees an armed group of personnel patrolling the streets.
- That's actually more of a Oh, Crap! moment if anything; she wasn't armed and even if she was, she definitely wasn't going to fare well at all against a group of trained soldiers.
- Faux Affably Evil: The military appears to be this, as their pleasant announcement to the community gives way to Madison and Daniel's realization that the military has been executing civilians who haven't turned, and an armed group of soldiers who cart out Griselda and Nick while aiming guns at the rest of the families and pistol whipping the latter.
- From Bad to Worse: In case it already wasn't clear enough to the main characters, Madison sees firsthand the damage of the walker outbreak. The entire neighbourhood around the safezone is deserted, weeds have already begun to grow very high, houses and cars are bombed out, smoke rises from a property in the background and the corpses of citizens lie in the streets.
- Gallows Humor:Lt. Moyers: Just relax! Count your blessings... so I don't have to shoot you! (Beat)
- Hidden Depths: Played for drama. Dr. Exner figures out that Lisa isn't what she seems when she points out that the latter gave Hector a morphine drip to keep him alive, and notes that she has significant knowledge of drugs despite not being a nurse.
- Hope Spot: The neighbourhood claps when the lieutenant announces that the neighbourhood is "infect-free". Madison realizes a short time later that things aren't as good as the army has proclaimed.
- Idiot Ball: Nick siphons morphine from an ailing patient's IV, causing him to be high when Dr. Exner examines him, leading to him being arrested and transferred to a separate hospital.
- Kick the Dog: The military aim their rifles at Travis and Chris, and pistol whip Nick with the butt of a rifle, while taking the latter and Griselda away in a convoy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Travis' remarks to Moyers about the signal he saw results in the military attacking and presuambly executing the occupants inside, while Travis looks on in shock...
- Pistol-Whipping: Nick gets a rifle butt to the face after he tries to flee from the military who come to pick him up.
- P.O.V. Cam: From Nick's perspective as he watches Lisa leave a patient's house, and from Daniel's perspective as he watches Nick's examination outside.
- Pretend We're Dead: Madison plays dead under a vehicle while an Army patrol passes by.
- Spotting the Thread:
- Dr. Exner, both when she's able to point out Liza's medical skills despite not being a nurse, and when she examines Nick and finds that his vital signs aren't what they should be for a junkie who should be going through withdrawal.
- Daniel also realizes that the military have probably executed civilians after hearing Madison's account of what she saw outside the perimeter.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Madison is able to get through the perimeter by... cutting a hole in a fence and sneaking through, with no military personnel anywhere nearby.
- Time Skip: Chris notes that it's been nine days since the National Guard took control of the neighbourhood.
- Virus-Victim Symptoms: Played With. The military hustles out anyone who appears to be sick or infirmed, including Hector, Griselda and Nick (who has a high temperature).
