Fear the Walking Dead Review: Cobalt (Season 1 Episode 5)
Another week, another Fear the Walking Dead episode (code-titled “Cobalt”) to expand our insight in to the world during the decline of civilization and the beginnings of the zombie apocalypse.
One of the first things we see in this episode is that, as all apocalypse enthusiasts already figured, the supposed “Medical Facility” is, in fact, more of a prison and/or extermination camp than an actual health care facility. If we weren’t worried about the safety of our heroes last week when they were initially taken, we certainly are now.
Right away, we meet Strand (Colman Domingo), who is a smooth-talking closer that everybody in their right mind knows to be skeptical of — skepticism that is only justified by the way he talks the already distraught Doug right over the edge so that he needs to be escorted away by a couple of guards.
For what purpose? Who knows — but alarms certainly start going off when Strand sets his sights on Nick and his “talents.” The weird thing is that, despite how sketchy the man may seem, it’s also very likely that teaming up with him may be Nick’s ticket to freedom.
Strand, like Daniel, seems very inclined to adapt to the world as he believes it will be, not the way it was. He knows it’s ending, he’s willing to do what needs to be done. Does that make him frightening? Of course. But that is the way of the world now. Sometimes, you need to align yourself with some terrifying human beings in order to get by.
Sometimes, your standards need to be reevaluated.
Which still seems to be a concept that Travis has a hard time grasping. Eyes roll all around the globe when Madison tells Daniel to hold off on his interrogation because Travis is “talking” to his ol’ pal Moyers (who, by the way, is still a complete and total asshole — in case that wasn’t already obvious).
However, despite what it further reveals about Daniel’s character, the entire basement torture plotline falls flat this week. Ofelia’s boy toy, Adams, who is clearly already conflicted about operation Cobalt before he is even taken by the Salazar family, seems an awful lot like he would tell the Salazars whatever they want to know with enough coaxing. It certainly seems like he would have given them the information they need without the added torture incentive.
As the slow episode progresses, the entire plotline lacks tension and seems a bit unnecessary, considering the fact that soldier is putting up no fight what-so-ever throughout the entire process.
Unfortunately, given that this is meant to be the driving plotline for this episode, it means that the episode in its entirety is a bit of a letdown. It feels like a whole lot of nothing happens to get us nowhere. We barely see Nick, Alicia and Chris have a cute little interaction during which they trash a rich family’s home, Travis backs down from shooting a walker (again, another moment that was meant to be…something, but falls short of the mark), and Daniel flays a man for seemingly no reason what-so-ever.
All of this leads us to the reveal of what we already suspected: the government plans to exterminate Los Angeles.
They definitely could have taken a far more interesting route to give us a more dramatic reveal, but alas, this is what we get.
Given that the episode ends with Daniel looking over the arena filled with 2000 walkers, one can only hope that the show will step up its game once more for the finale and have the season go out with a bang.
What did you think of “Cobalt”? Let me know in the comments below!
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Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays 9/8c on AMC.
Becky Peters
Becky is a television, literature, and pop culture enthusiast who spends more of her time exploring fictional worlds than she does living in the real one. Post-apocalyptic and dystopian settings are her kryptonite, and she has a strange soft spot for anything that involves the walking dead (the creatures themselves, not the show -- but the show is good, too). You can usually find her engrossed in shows like Preacher, The Walking Dead, Sense8, or any one of the many other series that tickle her fancy. Follow Becky on Twitter: @epic_bcky