Here is everything you missed on Fear the Walking Dead TV pilot.
After years in development, Fear the Walking Dead is finally here, and it did not disappoint. It was pretty amazing to see the entire cast and crew put together what looks like an amazing companion series to The Walking Dead. But, it is very clear from the beginning that Fear the Walking Dead is a different TV show.
In the very first episode we were introduced to Clark-Manawa home, with Madison, her boyfriend Travis, and Madison’s daughter Alicia. We also met their estranged son, Nick, who is struggling with a strong heroin addiction. In addition, we also met Travis’s ex-wife Liza, and son Chris, though I expect we will see a lot more of them in the future.
Here are 6 Things you probably missed in the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead.
SPOILER WARNING: Fear the Walking Dead Spoilers below!
Fear the Walking Dead starts off just like The Walking Dead
A lot of the show’s parallels came right at the start of the episode, where we see Nick walking up to a building of walkers, much like Rick did when he woke up from his coma. After that, we see Nick rushing out onto the road and being hit by a car, similar to Carol in Season 5.
Another reference to The Walking Dead occurred in season 4 after the prison is compromised by the Governor, Rick and Carl take shelter in an abandoned house in a nearby town. After Michonne connects with them and she and Carl go looking for supplies, Rick decides to take a nap in an upstairs bedroom. When he is awoken by the marauders, he has a book on his chest that he had been reading: Jack London’s Call of the Wild. The same lesson, Travis is teaching in his classroom.
In case you never read Jack London’s 1908 short story To Build a Fire, the story is an example of “man against nature” and in this example a man is freezing to death and is desperately trying to stay alive. As Travis points out, “London’s trying to teach us how not to die.” The story is often used as an example of naturalism, the argument that society is based and shaped around nature. The lesson seems to predict what will happen to the people of Los Angeles, and the other characters pretty soon.
Fear The Walking Dead is doing a TON of foreshadowing
It took a long time before Rick and the gang were able to find a permanent home on The Walking Dead, but Fear the Walking Dead may have found their version of the prison in the first episode. The school where both Travis and Madison work, and Alicia attends, looks like the perfect location, and in fact we saw a lot of small details that is probably foreshadowing in future episodes.
Tobias and his knife
Tobias is probably the smartest character in the whole episode. After following a news report, the teen figurd out that something is just not right and believes something is coming to kill him. So, Tobias came to school prepared with a knife. I bet you will see that knife again, and the next time it will be to save someone’s life.
Two-Way Speaker System
In the school we saw an interesting two-way speaker system that Principal Artie was using to evaluate the teachers through. We heard him using it to announce that school was closing early. However, it also allows him to hear what is going on in the classrooms. Expect the speaker system to be pretty useful in the future.
Fear the Walking Dead is Moving Fast!
“Killshot, B**ch”
Though it may have looked like a group of teens were watching viral cat videos on their smart phones, the short scene between Alicia and her friends established one of the biggest rules for The Walking Dead, the only way to kill a zombie is to aim for the brain. The reasoning behind this is pretty simple. An avid fan of The Walking Dead already knows how to kill a zombie after watching five seasons. So, to see a group of people struggle for several episodes learning how to kill a zombie may grow tiresome and audiences would probably get bored.
Los Angeles is going to get destroyed
Just like how Atlanta was napalmed very early on in The Walking Dead, I believe it won’t be long until LA is burned down.
