Fear the Walking Dead has been telling its story in a very different way in this run of episodes, as it’s continuously split itself between two completely disparate stories.
That’s led to the recent episodes feeling imbalanced – partially due to a wide quality difference between the two stories, but also because the show has made little effort to actually link the two stories of a given episode together on a thematic level, mainly just presenting two diverging paths at once.
‘Pablo & Jessica’ is the first episode this half-season to actually tie together its two halves with overarching ideas, and it’s notable just how much that unity benefits an episode that once again features reasonably little plot advancement. It’s not a great episode, but it’s a complete one, and there’s something to be said for Fear finally striking that balance.
‘Pablo & Jessica’ fuels itself from the motifs and themes that recur in its separate tales. There’s the concept of negotiation and trade to push forward in the apocalypse seen as both Madison arranges a walker-clearing exercise for the hotel and as Nick trades his drug-making skills for a higher status in the colonia.
These mechanical, means-to-an-end deals rest uneasily on a service that may not always be required or provided, creating a sense of instability in the new alliances and relationships that are forged here. They work in the here and now, but their material basis means that there’s a clear shelf-life to them.
After all, lies such as Alejendro’s walker bite story (okay, we don’t know it’s a lie yet, and it could be that Alejandro genuinely believes what he’s saying, but the chances of Alejandro fooling Nick are sky-high) and grudges such as the one that puts a volatile fault-line between the hotel’s two factions are always going to win out in a dark world like this.
It’s pleasantly surprising to see Fear work on this level in which it provides substance to its ideas and complexity to its plot machinations.
Furthermore, ‘Pablo & Jessica’ has a clearer eye on character interplay than Fear typically has, even if not every character shift works so well. Alicia and Madison’s brief couple of scenes were a nice way to give direction and clarity to the vague ideas Fear has been playing with regarding their character arcs.
Both characters work best when they’re maturely working through their issues rather than brooding about their failures or squabbling, and ‘Pablo & Jessica’ delivers one of its most affecting moments in their reconciliation as Madison’s frequently annoying self-recriminations are finally tempered by Alicia’s reassurance.
Equally, Fear finally managed to quieten down and really zero in on the psychological damage that Thomas’ death did to the typically unflappable Strand last half-season. Strand has felt a bit aimless recently as Fear struggled to really engage with his grief and depression, so his scenes were very effective at revitalising him as a necessary and interesting presence while spinning him off in a more emotional direction that feels true to the things he’s witnessed in recent episodes.
Colman Domingo, who’s always been one of this show’s best assets, wrings a lot of pathos out of a Strand whose thick shield of charm and manipulation has entirely faded away, and the final scene with Strand and the grief-stricken groom as they share their emotional damage was a really impactful way to show just how broken and aimless Strand feels in a way that didn’t feel forced or emotionally manipulative.
There’s some strong character work going on within ‘Pablo & Jessica’, and I suspect that’s due to the more methodical pace that tempers some of the hyperactivity that weaker previous episodes have showed, allowing those emotional twists to settle and have their impact rather than rushing over them.
Outside of the strong character development at the hotel, ‘Pablo & Jessica’ ticks away as a passable but formulaic Fear the Walking Dead episode.
Nick’s story, for instance, finds a good new way to utilise his skillset to develop our understanding of the colonia’s fragile hierarchy, and plays with some intriguing themes of utility vs. feeling as his relationships become founded upon the value he can provide rather than his personality. However, it ultimately comes down to the played-out theme of surviving versus living as Nick decides he wants more than just doing what needs to be done, with the ‘living’ equation coming in the form of his new relationship with Luciana.
That’s a relationship that feels like it’s crow-barred in here simply to fit the episode’s thematic point, because there’s not a lot of basis in their previous interaction for such a rapid progression in their relationship.
‘Pablo & Jessica’ lays some groundwork in their earlier interaction as Nick comforts Luciana after the death of her brother, but that scene doesn’t establish a mutual attraction fully enough to make that final moment in Nick’s new house convincing – Fear could have done with slowing up like it does elsewhere with this story, instead of speeding ahead.
The only big set-piece with the walker clearing exercise is also somewhat mechanical and low-tempo. Aside from a few great sweeping visuals of the huge oncoming horde framed against the raging sea, the sequence plays out as a visualised checklist of things that need to happen – a slow-motion shot here, a mandated moment of peril there without much imagination within that list of events.
It’s a perfectly fine sequence, but it’s lacking in real tension because Fear barely bothers to create a sense that the plan could ever fail, and sets it in such an uninspiring environment (a shallow, mildly choppy bit of sea with a relatively high pier) that the utilitarian nature of the set-piece is clear from the start.
Fear is in a constant state of self-discovery followed by reinvention as the show struggles to nail down a format and setting that sustainably allow it to tell its story in an exciting manner.
However, ‘Pablo & Jessica’ indicates that the show is making real progress in its latest bout of experimentation. It’s a mix of solid character development and world-building, facets that characterised that strong run of episodes early in the season before Fear once again capsized.
Fear is still struggling with what to do with its aimless ambition, and the choice here is simply to downplay those instincts to tell a story that’s far simpler and less risky. That’s better than full self-indulgence of the kind that created the messy conclusion to season 2A, but considering the sensitivity and incisiveness seen in some of the storytelling this week, it’s a shame that Fear is still telling its story within such a conventional framework.
‘Pablo & Jessica’ is a good episode, but it’s also one that shows that Fear isn’t going to be great until it stops clinging to what worked before, and instead aims to see what could work now.
Aired at 9pm on Monday 12 September 2016 on AMC UK.
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