‘Fear the Walking Dead’ episode 2 review: Madison and Travis start to face harsh realities

For those of you out there complaining that “Fear the Walking Dead” has moved too slowly over the course of the first couple of episodes, allow us to present as evidence the scene from Sunday night’s new episode where Madison bludgeons the high school principal to death as he tries to infect Tobias. This was brutal, and a different sort of brutal than what we have become used to in the flagship show.

The primary difference between “The Walking Dead” and “Fear the Walking Dead” right now seems to be mostly based on the view of the surrounding world. At one point tonight, Madison made it clear that she is still holding onto some sort of expectation that things could be getting better in this world soon. However, Tobias warned her that this would not be happening.

As gory and as insane as the episode was, the story was in the end rather simple: Travis ended up getting into a safe place for now with his ex-wife and son Chris, while Madison started to plan for a future with her children that involved finding a way to depart the city, therefore escaping at least some of the madness. She found Nick some medication, or at least enough to start to wean him off.

Two episodes in, we’re convinced that “Fear the Walking Dead” is a great show. We anticipate the ratings going down thanks to it airing against the VMAs, but we hope the show does continue to highlight some of the pain of this world. Phone receptions are dying, electricity is going out, and death is on everyone’s mind. There is not going to be a whole lot of time for anyone to cope, mostly because they are going to have to press onward. Grade: B+.

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