Fear the Walking Dead - S01E05 Cobalt (2015)

Review

Over at the military hospital our three survivors are having very different experiences with the authorities that be. Liza is working overtime as a nurse tending the infirmed, during which she learns anyone that is bitten isn't getting much in the way of triage. Nick is going into withdrawal, which raises his temperature, which doesn't sit well with the guards. Strangely Nick is helped out by new character Victor Strand, a closer who views Nick as having skills Victor might need as he plans his escape. Griselda Salazar has lost her leg due to infection, is suffering septic shock, and isn't going to make it. Liza will have to face more truths before her own journey to understanding is complete.

Meanwhile back in the 'burb Travis is heading out with Lt. Moyers and his squad to find out what happened to the folk snatched the night before. Naturally this doesn't go well, Travis refuses to shoot an infected, the squad rush to the aid of another unit and barely escape having "lost" Moyers in the process. They drop Travis back at the suburb and exit stage left, a sort of prelude to the military pulling out completely. Daniel, with an assist from Ofelia, captures Ofelia's love interest Corporal Andrew Adams supposedly to trade him for Nick and Griselda. Unknown to Ofelia Daniel is after information with the tacit support of Maddie; we also learn Daniel has a few skeletons in the closet. Travis is of course appalled by what happens to the Corporal, but has thus far been ineffectual on all levels so who cares. Daniel discovers a few military secrets that are going to shake things up, and that wouldn't be in a good way kids. Let's take a chomp out of the penultimate episode of season one.

Prior to Fear The Walking Dead getting its actual name the show had the running title Cobalt, we now know exactly what that means. It's a code word the military are using to tell their troops to get out of the LA basin; citizens are the least of their concerns if the order to withdraw is given. Clearly the decision to withdraw can't come soon enough as discipline is breaking down amongst the LA soldiers. Too many missions, too many deaths, and what would be pretty obviously an untenable situation. Desertions are clearly starting to happen, the military could well have left it too little too late.

The biggest revelation of the episode for mine was Daniel's past exploits in the civil war in El Salvador. Far from being the victim he portrayed himself as previously Daniel did what he had to do to save himself and his family. While haunted by his past, and wanting to keep past details from his daughter, Daniel isn't above returning to his old trade if it helps in surviving the current apocalypse. While this is currently an asset for Travis' crew a clear conflict is being setup for perhaps season two, just how far will Daniel go and who will suffer when he decides he needs to be ruthless to continue breathing? I would definitely advise Maddie to keep her weapons close, for more reasons than one.

The season is drifting somewhat, and what's with the fall of LA being off screen?

While Maddie shows a willingness to push the boundaries if it'll help protect her family, Travis is still living in some sort of a blessed blinkered world. He convinces Moyers to take him "down town", which probably has more meaning than Travis is aware of, and once again runs into the infected. Moyers for no apparent reason decides a citizen should use a high powered sniper rifle to take out a lone infected, perhaps the Lieutenant is trying to make a point, and naturally Travis can't bring himself to pull the trigger. Later Travis learns what happens if the infected go on a group booking, and he still seems to be unable to take a stride into the wonderful world of hard arsed survivors. This point is underlined later in the episode when he discovers what Daniel has going down in the basement; Travis is still trying to be the urbane man in a civilised world as the barbarians blast the city gates off their hinges. For mine this is underlining a major weakness in season one, the apocalypse is galloping along mainly off screen but Travis remains adamantly non committed to the requirements the new world order imposes.

If anything the episode can't quite hide the fact that we have a tad too many characters for the writers to deal with given the current plot arc requirements, some culling of team members would probably be a good thing right about now. Alicia Clark and Chris Manawa have a couple of scenes that really add nothing to our overall understanding of the characters though there might have been a slight hint of mutual attraction or at least an unguarded moment of awkwardness. Anyways a couple of scenes that really added nothing to the episode or developed the characters in any meaningful fashion. There's a fear of bloat being a danger as the season advances.

There are definitely a few scenes that help raise the episode above what would appear to be a lot of filler. Maddie searching the dark halls of a house for example, who else was thinking zombie in the basement? Claustrophobic and dripping with tension, pity this wasn't extended to the rest of the episode which doesn't really put anyone in harm's way. Similarly there's a US flag on the fence of one of the cages that undesirable inmates are being kept in. The symbolism is large given the plans the remanets of Government have for those imprisoned. Society may be going to hell in a hand basket, but it's not just the infected that are helping it go that way.

As a sort of aside Doctor Bethany Exner explains to Liza just what the survivors are going to face in the new world. Regardless of mode of death muscle impulse returns the decease to an animated state, with only massive brain damage being able to put people permanently down. Talk about getting everything you need to survive handed to you on a platter!

The episode ends with Daniel checking out a stadium his victim talked about, apparently behind loosely chained doors are a couple of thousand of the infected just waiting to join the smorgasbord at the end of civilisation. Finally some outrageous zombie action in a season that has by and largely ignored the concept for off screen destruction going down, when are we actually going to see the city fall on screen?

Cobalt for mine added some flow to the narrative and kept things moving along but contained quite some filler while doing so. I'm to a certain degree disappointed that the fall of LA is happening off screen while we focused on a group of characters who aren't exactly likely to be valued members of the Rick Grimes team. Fingers crossed we get a decent episode next week, else overall the first season is going to be something of a wet fish. Still first season, the show is still finding its feet, and the introduction of Strand can only spice things up. Disappointing episode but next week might just resurrect Fear's flagging reputation amongst horror fandom. It still works as an adult drama but lacks the extra punch needed by horror outings. An episode for season completest and not many others.