Ouroboros
Directed by Stefan Schwartz
Somewhere in the ocean, Alex rises from the water amidst the wreckage of Flight 462.
She calls out to Jake, who is unconscious on top of a piece of debris and wearing his lifejacket, and swims towards him. As she reaches him, she discovers that one side of his face has been badly burned. A group of survivors in a nearby lifeboat calls to her and she pulls him towards it.
As they climb aboard with other survivors, one of the men, Tom, notices that another male survivor was briefly pulled under and bit. When the other man tries to say it's nothing, he is fatally struck in the face with an oar and dumped back into the sea. The group looks around at the wreckage around them, unsure of what to do...
Several days pass. Jake is still injured and Alex removes his bandages to check if his face is healing. Although the other two men complain that Jake is likely going to die, she once again disinfects his wound. Later, as everyone sleeps, Tom rises and tries to put Jake out of his misery, but Alex intervenes and stabs Tom in the neck. She dumps him overboard. The remaining man on the boat, Michael, also tries to get Alex to put Jake down, but she refuses to consider the option.
In the present, Strand and the others are still aboard the Abigail, having set sail from the ranger station. Strand attempts to call his contact and tells a garbled voice on the other end that he's on his way and will be there soon. Meanwhile, the Clarks are in bed and Travis is still awake. Madison attempts to reassure him that things will get better. They begin to make love, but are interrupted by a loud banging noise outside. They go up to take a look.
Everyone comes upstairs, only to discover that the engine is malfunctioning. Travis figures out that it's a water intake problem in seconds, and says that someone will need to go under the yacht to clear it out. He offers to do it himself, despite Madison's objections, and Strand agrees with him. Travis grabs a set of scuba gear and heads out by himself.
Underneath the yacht, Travis is swimming to the intake valve when he discovers Michael, who has died and turned and has his hand caught in the valve. When Michael attempts to attack him, Travis is forced to retreat.
Travis cleans sludge from the intake pipe the next morning, and Strand comes in to check the state of repairs. When Travis mentions it will take all day, Strand snaps at him, but apologizes soon after and says that he's been stressed because of their recent predicament. Meanwhile, Daniel goes to check on Ofelia and discovers that her wound is infected. Despite her claim that she can get stronger antibiotics from Madison, her father tells her to keep the matter within the family, claiming that "Blood is blood".
Upstairs, Alicia gets everyone's attention and tells them that she's spotted the wreckage of a plane in the distance. They see lots of supplies washed up on the beach, and a group consisting of Daniel, Alicia, Chris and Nick elect to take the Zodiac over and retrieve as much as they can. Before they leave, Daniel pulls Madison aside and tells her that he's discovered that Strand's maps reference a destination in Baja. He implores her to investigate further and bring it up with Strand before he goes.
The Zodiac sets off and makes it to the shoreline. They disembark and begin combing through the various pieces of debris and luggage. Daniel tells everyone to fan out and get as much as they can while staying in sight before they all set off.
Onboard the Abigail, Travis suits back up in the scuba gear and goes underneath to dispatch Michael. When Madison sees blood rising from the water, she assumes the worst, but Michael's corpse floats back up to the surface with a knife sticking out of his head.
While Nick goes through a suitcase and finds a lighter and pilot's jacket, Chris sneaks off from the rest of the group and discovers part of the torn-off fuselage. Inside, Chris finds a man who's still unconscious but still alive, albeit gravely injured and strapped to his seat. The man begs Chris to kill him, as he is suffering from a serious injury, and Chris reluctantly obliges him.
Onboard the yacht, Madison begins questioning Strand about his true motives. He asks if Daniel put her up to it, but she replies that it's everyone's business. He rightly points out that he's done a lot for the family, and asks if they're still friends, but she refuses to budge. He reluctantly reveals that he's going to a fortified house in Baja, Mexico that has reinforced walls and all the supplies someone would need to survive. The conversation concludes with both of them admitting they need to trust each other in order to survive, but Madison threatens that she'll throw him overboard herself if he gets out of line.
While Daniel is searching for antibiotics for Ofelia, he realizes that Chris is missing and goes to search for him. As he looks around, he sees Alex running towards him. When he stops her, she tells him that "they're coming", and he looks up to see a group of walkers appear over the ridge.
At the same time, Nick and Alicia are finishing their scavenging when he discovers a walker stuck halfway in the ground in a crater, being eaten by crabs. Nick attempts to back up, but slips and falls into the crater. The walker attempts to attack him, but Nick dispatches him with a knife in his pocket. Another walker falls into the crater and Nick realizes he's in trouble...
Alicia finds Chris and they hear a gunshot, then starts running towards the sound. Meanwhile, Madison hears the shot and looks through her binoculars, upon which she sees Alex and Daniel backing away from a larger group of walkers. She tells Strand to hurry and get the yacht operational so they can get to the island as soon as possible.
Chris and Alicia run to the others, and Daniel tells them to grab any debris they can find and use it as a weapon. He shoots down several walkers and is nearly bit, but Alex saves his life and pulls him back up. They continue to retreat and fight off more walkers. When a large male walker tries to bite Alicia, he's struck and killed by Nick, who is revealed to be covered in blood. Together, they decide to flee, but not before Nick discovers that dousing himself in walker blood causes other walkers to ignore him.
Before they leave the island, Alex tells them that they need to make a stop. They go to retrieve Jake and return on the Zodiac with the lifeboat to the Abigail. As they arrive, Strand realizes that they're towing extra passengers and tells them the extra people can't go where they're going. Madison reveals to the group what their destination is. An argument breaks out over whether to bring Alex and Jake along, and Travis proposes that they tow the lifeboat behind them so the pair won't come onboard. Strand shakes his head before walking away.
The group gives Alex and Jake water and basic supplies before setting them to be towed. Alex promises Jake that things can't get any worse, while Nick brings Ofelia some medication and a set of rosary beads. Suddenly, Strand runs to the back of the boat and cuts the tether despite Madison's pleas.
She can only watch as the lifeboat drifts away from the Abigail...
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Strand cracks a grin when Madison threatens to throw him overboard if he looks at her family the wrong way.
- Adaptation Name Change: Alex was previously known as Charlie in background materials. However, since nobody ever called her by name, she was suddenly given the name, “Alex” instead.
- All There in the Manual: The plot requires that viewers have watched the Flight 462 webseries, as it begins just after the plane crashed in the final part and directly continues from it.
- Ascended Meme: Ofelia calls out Nick because he's still wearing the old man's jacket (which he retrieved in the pilot episode), referring to it as "geriatric chic". This is in reference to constant online jokes about how Nick only had one set of clothing that he had worn for the last three weeks, a large portion of which was spent in his own home.
- Call-Back:
- The wreckage of Flight 462 (seen in the webseries) provides the group with an excuse to investigate the beach and scavenge supplies.
- Ofelia's gunshot wound (referenced two episodes prior) becomes infected, forcing Daniel to find her antibiotics himself.
- Chekhov's Skill: Travis' handiness with fixing leaky pipes comes back into play when he becomes the only person who knows how to fix the intake pipe.
- Continuity Nod:
- Travis' skill as a handyman repairing pipes is once again referenced, as he is called upon to help fix the water intake valve when the undead Michael's arm gets caught in it.
- Ofelia's infected gunshot wound is referenced again after Nick pointed it out to her in "Monster" (and the scene is shown again during the opening recap).
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A walker from the wreckage of Flight 462 is seen half-buried in sand, unable to escape and being gnawed on by a horde of crabs.
- Damned by Faint Praise: When Travis calls out Strand for treating him like "the help", the latter responds with the following:Strand: Okay. Pretty please... fix the goddamn boat.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Nick covers himself in walker blood, which comes in handy during the fight and makes him invisible to the beach walkers.
- Dwindling Party: The Flight 462 survivors. By the end, Alex and Jake are the only known survivors left, and their fate is left ambiguous after Strand cuts their lifeboat away from the Abigail.
- Gratuitous Russian: Daniel says "Make no mistake" to Ofelia in Spanish, despite the rest of his dialogue being in English (and it being the only phrase that's subtitled, no less).
- Hope Spot: Alex and Jake seemingly find help with the group, but their fortunes are short-lived as Strand cuts the tether and leaves them to their own fates.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: The survivor in Flight 462's fuselage begs Chris to kill him, as he has a serious back injury and cannot move anymore.
- Improvised Weapon:
- Tom (one of the survivors of Flight 462) uses an oar to dispatch another survivor after realizing the man is bit.
- Chris uses a piece of torn-off rebar to Mercy Kill one of the Flight 462 survivors.
- Jerkass: Strand gets several of these moments, treating Travis like a hired employee, leaving Alex and Jake to their own fates by cutting their lifeboat free, and chastizing Alicia for running across the deck.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Strand's behavior is abrasive, but he rightly points out to Madison that he saved her son from a death camp, ferried them all from Los Angeles as it was burning and has a plan in mind, before wondering aloud if they're still friends.
- Both Tom and Michael point out that Jake is a drain on resources, is badly burned and likely won't survive his injuries. Despite their somewhat-overzealous attitude, Alex kills both of them (the former when he tries to Mercy Kill Jake, and the latter off-screen in the time skip to the present day) when they attempt to do anything to him.
- At the end of the episode, Strand cold-heartedly cuts the tether to the lifeboat because he doesn't want to be saddled with extra passengers. Although Madison tries to sway him otherwise, it is shown that they needed to give more supplies to Alex and Jake, and the latter's injuries still hadn't fully healed, even after several weeks.
- Mercy Kill:
- Chris puts a Flight 462 survivor out of his misery by bashing his head in with a rock.
- Tom also attempts to do this to Jake, but he is stabbed in the neck by Alex before he can land a blow.
- No One Should Survive That!: The sole passenger still alive in the torn fuselage of Flight 462 apparently spent more than two weeks in a state of unconsciousness without food or water, suffering from a severe back injury and saddled with a drink cart that had fallen on top of him. Despite this, he's still alive when Chris finds him and begs to be killed.
- Oh, Crap!: Daniel and Alex get this when they see the group of walkers appear over the sand ridge.
- Pistol-Whipping: Daniel uses the butt of his handgun to dispatch several walkers during the fight at the end.
- Retired Badass: Daniel is shown to have lost none of his edge, as he's able to expertly take out several walkers with headshots and can more than hold his own in a fight.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: It's made clear that despite Daniel spending more than two weeks with the Clarks, he either doesn't know or doesn't care to remember the names of Travis and Madison's children. He refers to Alicia solely as "the girl" and calls Chris a "little bastard" while searching for him amid the wreckage.
- Tempting Fate: Alex tells Jake that being towed by the Abigail is the worst their situation will get, and promises that everything will get better. Then Strand cuts the lifeboat loose.
- Thicker Than Water: This trope is referenced by name by Daniel, as the reason why he doesn't want Ofelia to seek better antibiotics from Madison.
- Took a Level in Badass: Alicia is forced to defend herself when the pack of walkers attacks. Despite never having used a weapon before, she's able to dispatch several walkers and hold them off long enough for Nick to arrive and help them escape.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Alex and Jake are exiled and left to their own means when Strand cuts the tethered lifeboat away from the Abigail. Their ultimate fate is left unknown.
- Zombie Infectee: One of the survivors on Alex's boat tries to play this card, dismissing a bite wound to his leg. He gets his face smashed in and thrown overboard.
Madison: This is the best I can do.
