Coming off the back of what was arguably the strongest instalment the show had put out to date, Fear the Walking Dead kept up the pace this week with a tense and gory horror episode packed to the gills with walkers.
After seven episodes of constantly revolving and trying out new tones and story directions, Fear has appeared to have settled for the time being on the interesting anthological approach of having our group meet a new assortment of survivors each week as their journey continues, which means the show is feeling a lot different week-on-week while keeping a solid grasp on the ongoing story arc.
Unlike last episode, which was primarily a character piece, ‘Ouroboros’ is firmly a horror episode, set in the aftermath of the tumultuous plane journey chronicled in the surprisingly exciting minisode ‘Flight 462’ – and, given Fear has usually put its best foot forward in the more walker-centric episodes, it nicely maintains last week’s solid form.
Where ‘Ouroboros’ really excels is in the visuals. Fear failed to deliver on its initial promise of portraying the downfall of society in detail, but it’s managed to turn its focus to the next best thing: exploring the immediate aftermath of the apocalypse through a portrayal of the shattered remnants of a society that’s only just collapsed. The aftermath of the plane crash that forms the spine of ‘Ouroboros’ is genuinely chilling to watch, and it’s the first time in a while that Fear has made substantial use of walkers as a central part of its storytelling in a genuinely effective manner.
Here, the shambling corpses’ presence provides a range of memorably disturbing visuals such as newly minted walkers pinned to their seats with their futile oxygen masks still strapped to their faces, or a horde of shuffling passengers emerging slowly over the sand dunes, their size growing with the second. Furthermore, with the assorted mix of items and luggage strewn all over the crash site, Fear manages to potently remind us of the fact that these brainless, primal creatures were humans with their own hopes and dreams just days before, communicating the innate tragedy of the franchise’s central enemy in a way The Walking Dead has ceased to do.
It’s great visual storytelling that communicates a hell of a lot without clunky dialogue to underline the point, enhancing Fear’s season-wide exploration of the aftermath of society’s collapse by vividly underlining the brutal suddenness of it all – the way that every familiar and comforting part of human life has been yanked away with only the husks of what once was left behind to serve as tragic reminders.
‘Ouroboros’ does find some time to progress some of Season 2’s character arcs forward, though not always successfully. Chris may still be somewhat angsty and self-aggrandizing in the way he’s shut himself off from everyone else, but his character is benefiting massively from the way that his directionless rage is being given a target.
It’s a similar story to Carol’s acclaimed development on The Walking Dead of someone turning to violence and brutality in the wake of tragedy, and while Chris’ story lacks the patient, careful pacing that made Carol’s arc so rewarding, his arc is still working in a broadly similar way to Carol’s because it’s indicative of a character transformation that’s somewhat rewarding to watch.
Chris’ arc now feels like it has momentum and a trajectory as opposed to just feeling aimless like it did in the premiere, and while there’s a long way to go towards making the character genuinely interesting and sympathetic, it’s certainly a start in fixing one of Fear’s biggest problems.
Where ‘Ouroboros’ stumbles is in giving Nick and Alicia something to do in a way that feels natural to the story. Unfortunately, while both characters end up in interesting places, the route to that end destination is irritatingly contrived, based on the wandering off and recklessness that’s typical of a script that really wants to push its characters to a certain place but doesn’t know quite how.
So while scenes like Nick grappling with a walker and discovering the potency of walker blood as a defence mechanism are exciting and tense, we have Nick comically slipping into the hole after inexplicably standing right on the edge to get to that point.
‘Ouroboros’ also ends up in a slightly confused place with Nick as his addiction is used to directly compare him to the shuffling hordes of walkers with no particular thematic point behind this comparison, but it’s more problematic that Fear is falling into the familiar trap of making its characters do really dumb things in order to get to the next stage of the story. It’s not a problem that affects the entirety of ‘Ouroboros’, but it’s certainly one that I’m hoping is sifted out in the near future.
And then there’s Strand, whose mystery is keeping the season’s momentum up despite the mostly standalone stories it’s been telling thus far. His story really benefits this week from bringing Madison into the fray, whose varying reactions to Strand are revealing a great deal about the way she’s adapting to this new world order.
The initial signs of a hostile cat-and-mouse game with both characters holding their cards close to their chest are intriguing, but what’s most notable is that Strand appears to have found a terse ally in Madison by the end, who’s going along with his plan to travel to Baja out of a pragmatic need to protect her family.
Kim Dickens has always been a reliably compelling performer, delivering equal amounts of pathos and intensity as Madison, and her performance is particularly solid this week because she’s finally being given the complicated, thought provoking material that’s worthy of a character whose potential has mostly been left untapped.
Strand himself continues to intrigue, although he appears to be shifting from intriguingly ambiguous to outright sinister in the way he’s holding his good deed in bringing the group aboard over the heads of the group to keep them in line. Is he really telling the truth about this gated house in Baja? With Colman Domingo’s enigmatic, opaque performance, it’s honestly very difficult to tell whether Strand is telling the truth, bending the truth by sifting out the unpalatable parts or outright lying, and that’s what’s making this story so compelling as a genuinely unpredictable mystery.
Fear never quite lets us get a handle on Strand’s character, but it’s providing a gradually clearer picture of the character week on week with his actions slowly enhancing our understanding of who Strand really is; when he ruthlessly cuts the two flight survivors short at the very end, there’s perhaps a feeling that Strand’s pragmatism extends far beyond a lack of willingness to share, which of course raises the question – how far is he willing to go to keep survivors out?
‘Ouroboros’ isn’t quite as strong as last week due to the contrived ways it handles the younger characters, but it’s effective in providing some genuinely chilling visuals and zombie horror as well as pushing forward the ongoing Strand mystery a great degree.
Again, it’s far from truly accomplished drama, but Fear has a newfound confidence and clarity of purpose from the looks of these last two episodes, and it’s clearly learning from last year’s mistakes and correcting them in some really key areas. It’s not rapid, but Fear is finally making some steady progress…
Aired at 9pm on Monday 25 April 2016 on AMC UK.
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