Fear the Walking Dead Review: Sicut Cervus (Season 2 Episode 6)

Fear the Walking Dead takes us all back to Hershel’s farm for this week’s episode, “Sicut Cervus.”

Not literally, but, honestly, given that we just talked about how Fear seems to be following quite closely in The Walking Dead‘s footsteps (to the point where it’s hardly the prequel we were promised anymore) in last week’s review, this is just ridiculous.

Are we seriously going to go through that entire arc all over again?

Don’t get me wrong, it was a very good arc, but, as with many other things we’ve seen on Fear this season, we’ve seen this before on The Walking Dead.

Just…stop. Please.

This episode has so much potential to be quite good, if we can get past that giant, looming cloud of recycled plotlines and some pretty serious reaching in terms of character development.

I’m, of course, referring to Madison telling Celia that Nick is impressionable and then, suddenly and with very little convincing at all, we see Nick immediately buy in to Celia’s belief that the walking dead aren’t dead at all, but are merely, “what comes next.”

Here’s the thing with that:

Don’t tell your viewers that Nick is fragile and impressionable. Show us. And showing us this side of his character is something the writers must have failed to do because, up until this episode, Nick has seemed to be quite a resourceful, savvy young man. Yes, he has his vices, but he seemed like he was doing quite well for himself in this world.

Now, suddenly, we’re meant to believe that he’s a naive, lost puppy looking for someone to tell him what to believe.

That is a bit of a leap from the version Nick we’ve seen so far.

But, since no one likes a negative Nancy, let’s take a little time to talk about some of the really good parts of this episode:

1. Strand and Thomas. Their relationship, in the span of a few episodes, became one of the show’s strongest dynamics. This episode is one of the first in which viewers feel any sort of emotional response to the plights of any one of these characters, and that is all thanks to Strand and Thomas.

2. Chris is losing it. And thank God for that, because this show is in desperate need of something to stir the pot. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and call this original, because we can’t forget that Shane sort of lost his marbles along the way there, too, on The Walking Dead, but this is certainly a step in the right direction for Chris’ character.

3. We’re Off the Boat, Motherf$%cker! We were on that damn thing for far too long, guys. Seriously. And they wasted the potential for post-apocalyptic piracy.

4. Frank Dillane remains a delight to watch. That’s really all there is to say about that. He’s outstanding, even when he’s barely being used or falling victim to poorly executed character development.

What did you think of “Sicut Cervus?” Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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