Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1 Ep 1: Pilot

It's here folks...Fear. Fear the Walking Dead. Where it all begins...

Nick is a druggie living in an abandoned church. He wakes up, hears a noise, and goes downstairs to find a blond chick Gloria feeding on another human. Whaaaaaat?

This is the start of it. WAY before what we know really happens in The Walking Dead. This is the Fear. The beginning of the collapse of civilization.  And it’s set in the City of Angels. Los Angeles, y’all! What up Homie?

We’ve seen the filming around town…the lights and trucks in the riverbeds. The helicopters at night circling and yet…nothing is happening. But – as with all shows, they city you think you know isn’t really real at all. Here’s what happens.

So – Nick wakes to find Glo chewing on a dude, and he FREAKS! Runs into the street and gets hit by a car. He’s taken to the hospital where he’s held on a psych eval, and his mom (a school counselor), step-dad (an English teacher at the same school) try to solve the mystery of what’s going on with him.

Nicky tells them what he saw, and they don’t believe him. Mom Madison goes to work, saves a student from getting caught with a knife, and talks to him about why he’s packing. He says it’s safer in numbers, and he needs protection.  She’s confused and has no idea what’s up with him, and tries to find out what he's talkin' about. She threatens to expel him for the knife, and says don’t screw up - he’s ready for college. He replies:

“No one’s going to college. No one’s doing anything they think they are”

He starts rambling on telling Counselor Madison that there is something happening, and no one knows what it is. 

“They say it’s a virus or a microbe, but it’s spreading. Reports in five states. People are killing.”  

She tells him nothing is wrong.

“If there was a problem we would know about it. The authorities would tell us.”

He’s all “yah, sure. Whatevs”

Meanwhile, sister Alicia is at the hospital and talks to Nick about his shit and he says she’s the perfect one going to Berkeley (Go Bears!) and he’s the effed-up one that got kicked out of Citrus Community (shout out to my Community College folks!). Sorry, that just made me laugh. Because I went to Berkeley. And work at a Community College. And there really is a Citrus Community College. So there. Connection. Bam.

Okay, back to the story. Step-dad has an angry conversation with his ex-wife and son, and then they’re not seen for the rest of the show.  

Then, Step-dad Travis goes to see what really happened in the drug den. He returns to his wife and tells her “something bad happened there.” They go back to the hospital, Nick talks the nurse into unstrapping one of his hands so he can use the bed pan, then the old dude in the bed next to him goes code blue, nurse is distracted, they wheel the guy out and Nick uses that distraction to escape wearing the old dude's clothes looking quite the hipster. 

Mom goes looking for Nick back at the abandoned church/crack den, and she sees for herself the squalor. After seeing everything she’s not sure if she wants Nick back home. As they’re leaving, there’s a police barricade, blocking the exit to the freeway. Travis explains it’s probably a car chase gone bad (because y’all know those happen every week in LA!), and as they’re waiting, the ghetto birds above (those are police helicopters for you non-city /hood folk) announce “Please stay in your cars.” Travis hears shots fired, decides he’s had enough, and gets them the hell out of there. 

Later, a video is leaked of a man down on a backboard and he captures a paramedic. no, he's not giving him a super bear hug - he's attacking him. As other police and firemen try to intervene, he goes after them as well. The video  shows the man attacking, getting shot, then getting up and attacking again, until --- bingo. The head shot kills him and keeps him down. No one can figure out what it is, but there’s speculation of a bad drug on the streets, virus, an outbreak,  an infection. Basically, no one knows what’s coming.  

Sister Alicia is seen with her boyfriend, and he makes plans to meet her at the beach in Venice later. Except, he’s a no-show. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happened to him.

Travis and Madison then go to see Nick’s friend Cal. He says he hasn’t seen Nick, but invites them inside to make a few calls. Later, you see Cal meeting with Nick at a diner and Cal is cool as shit. Tells Nick that his mom is looking for him – showed up at his folks house and he can’t have that. At all. Cal is his dealer. DUH!

Nick’s asking what Cal gave him. “What was in that shit?” – because he saw Gloria eating another dude. Nick is freaking out over what he saw. Cal tells him he’s going to take care of him, drives him to a deserted river bed, and pulls a gun. Nick and Cal fight over the gun. Shots are fired, and Cal is hit. Down. Bleeding. Not moving. Dead. Shot in the gut.

Then…he gets up! Freaking Zombie! Just kidding. Nick runs away leaving Cal dead on the floor.

Nick then finds mom and step-dad, tells them what happens and they take him back to find Calvin. They see the car, they see the gun under the car, the door is open just like he left it…but Cal is gone. Uh-huh. Zombie! We’ve got a walker!

They go back to the truck and try to get out of the riverbed, they see Calvin and mom and dad get out to see what’s up. Calvin tries to take a bite out of dad’s arm, Nick throws the truck into reverse and plows him down. He’s like the energizer bunny and gets back up. Nick then goes forward with Cal on the hood and pushes him into the riverbed below. Splat. Cal is motionless for a bit, then up he goes!

Of course, all of us WD fans are screaming “You have to shoot him in the head! Cut his head off!!”

“What the hell is happening?”
“I have no idea”

The previews of the season shows the destruction and decline of civilization. The rampant spread of the infection. The fight for survival.

“They do evil because of fear”

In the end, you know this is just a show that takes place in a fake LA County. Want to know how I know this shiz isn’t real? THIS RIGHT HERE:

$2.39 for gas? Bullshit. Gas is at least $3.89 for unleaded and that’s at the cheap Arco stations!

In the end, the show delivered what it was meant to: suspense, evil music, a sense of unknown.