Fear the Walking Dead Review: The Dog (Season 1 Episode 3)

Let’s sort this week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead (creatively titled “The Dog” — because, y’know. There was a dog.) into three categories, shall we? Just for a little change of review scenery:

I’m breaking this down into “The Good,” “The Bad,” and “The Ugly.” Now, that’s not to say that those events that fall under “The Bad” or “The Ugly” categories are bad in the grand scheme of the show’s plot nor as developmental points — “The Bad” and “The Ugly” categories are just saved for the more unpleasant aspects of the episode.

You’ll see what I mean once we get going here.

The Good:

The standout of “The Good” category has to be the fact that Alicia has finally joined us in this apocalypse! Welcome, Alicia!

For the first time in the series, Alicia is more than just an oblivious bystander. This is the episode in which she really learns the truth about what is happening. Alicia witnesses and experiences terrible things — from being attacked by Susan, to realizing what Matt must have become, to watching Susan get put down by the Soldiers in the garden.

Needless to say, the apocalypse more or less smacks the poor girl in the face like a ton of bricks.

For the first time since the series began, I’m intrigued by Alicia’s potential. Alicia is young and naive, and is sometimes borderline oblivious to the real danger of the world she lives in. She is careless, impulsive, and, yeah, she’s still doing that thing where she wanders off on her own in the middle of the end of the world. 

Dang it, Alicia! Stay. 

But, finally, it seems to me she has the potential to either become one of the most frustrating characters on the show or one of the most loved. Neither are necessarily bad things because, hey, at least we care!

Speaking of characters who have potential: we can’t forget to talk about Madison, Daniel, and Chris (well…and Nick. But Nick has had astounding potential since day one).

Stick close to those three, folks, because they are going to be the ones who catch on to this apocalypse game pretty darn quickly. We can already see that they are the ones who are willing to do what needs to be done, who understand that the world is about the change drastically and that, perhaps, things are only going to get worse.

Those three are going to be ruthless.

The Bad:

Travis is gearing up to become the naively optimistic hero. You know the ones I’m talking about — the ones who tell everyone to let the authorities handle it. The sort who doesn’t want his son to learn how to use a gun — which, in an ideal, normal world, is a fantastic thing.

But we all know that, in this world? The more he knows, the better off he’ll be.

C’mon, Travis. Get with the times.

And, seriously — I can’t be the only one who is more nervous than relieved about the military showing up in the suburbs, blowin’ people away in their gardens and hauling old men off to quarantines!

It seems like a good thing: they’re here to protect people, right? However, how long do we think it’ll be before they start panicking? Before they start taking people away for coming into contact with the virus? For breathing “contaminated air”?

Madison seems to be catching on to this all very quickly, too — that’s why she lies when they ask her about the grave in their yard. She knows that if they find out the truth, they will take them all to God-knows-where to do God-knows-what to them.

Travis needs to get on Madison’s level.

The Ugly:

The worst part of the episode has to be Susan’s unfortunate demise. What makes this so devastating isn’t that we, as viewers, love Susan, but the fact that this marks the first real, emotional death of the season. We learn about the sort of sweet person Susan was through Madison’s anecdotes about her, we learn that she was a friend of the family, someone they loved.

Then we have the devastating pleasure of watching her husband, Patrick, come home to find his wife, the woman he loves and grew old with, in her undead state. We get to watch as he goes to embrace her, asking what happened to her, only to have her gunned down in his arms.

If you try to tell me your heart isn’t a little bit broken, I will call you a liar.

This episode has an emotional heart that the previous ones had been lacking. Fear the Walking Dead may be slow moving, but it is touching all the necessary bases to make it the complete package. There’s no doubt that, by the end of the season, Fear the Walking Dead will be just as torturous and nerve wracking as it’s predecessor.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments and we can talk theories!

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Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.