Fear the Walking Dead season 5, episode 2 review: The Hurt That Will Happen

This week on Fear the Walking Dead, Alicia and Morgan meet another altruistic do-gooder, while Strand reunites with an old acquaintance.

On Fear the Walking Dead, the group that survived the plane crash searches for Althea. Morgan and Alicia pass more warning signs about radioactivity in the area. They come to a bird cage hanging from a tree to attract biters. A woman wearing a hazmat suit blindsides Morgan, but quickly Alicia flips the situation and threatens the woman until Morgan urges Alicia to let her speak. Her name is Grace – she tells them about a meltdown that has contaminated the area and the people who worked at the reactor.

Since Morgan came into contact with a radioactive walker, he needs to take a decontamination shower back at Grace’s van. It turns out that Grace is tracking down all the infected dead. Alicia takes on a pack of walkers and Grace points out that one is contaminated. With no water left in the shower, Alicia’s actions are very risky.

Not too far away, John and June are off looking for Althea in a different location and check out a nearby day camp. The camp’s name was on the side of the teenagers’ truck that they hitched a ride with in “Here to Help”. Instead of the kids, they find dozens of burned bodies that were radioactive and they call Morgan and Alicia, so that Grace can come investigate. The people that lit the fire are now dead themselves, reanimated inside one of the camp’s cabins.

Morgan and Alicia see Grace’s plight as a way to merge initiatives; they offer to track down the rest of the infected with Grace and then bring her back with them, giving them a victory point in their mission to save people. Grace reveals that she is likely to die soon from all the radiation she has been exposed to and heads off on her own.

Meanwhile, after Strand discovered that the man Althea knows who owns a small plane is none other than Daniel Salazar, he endeavors to reconnect with him and borrow his aircraft, but not before recording a farewell message in case Salazar blows his head off at first sight. A big reveal in “The Hurt That Will Happen” is why Althea’s Salazar tape is called Skidmark… it is his cat’s name. Salazar invites Strand into his heavily guarded (by Salazar alone) fortress.

When Strand pleads that he needs Salazar’s plane to help Alicia and others, Daniel is skeptical that Strand just wants the plane for himself. Strand decides to prove his story to Salazar by radioing the others.

Eventually they contact Luciana, who corroborates what Strand told Salazar, and Strand discloses to her that he found a friend who can lend him a plane. However, after they lose the signal, Daniel forces Strand to leave the property, citing Strand’s lack of success when it comes to helping people as the reason for turning him away.

Luciana is back at the truck stop still healing from her plane crash injury. June drugged her up to counteract the pain and she nearly gets herself killed when she wanders outside the truck stop. She makes it back inside and the others return to find her sleeping by the door. She awakens and asks where the dead that was chasing her have gone. Someone decapitated them and hung their heads from a billboard outside of the truck stop.

Weekly Walkaways

• Finally, Fear the Walking Dead answers the age-old question: what happens to nuclear power plants during a zombie apocalypse? Seriously though, even if that thought never crossed one’s mind, it is an intriguing angle that the show is exploring. And perfect timing for any Fear fans that recently watched HBO’s fascinating Chernobyl mini-series. Although in this episode, Grace explains the nuclear reactor had a meltdown, while the real-life Chernobyl reactor exploded.
• Radioactive zombies sound like something out of a grindhouse B-movie, however the two Walking Dead shows provide consistent quality and themes and the contaminated dead are handled just as seriously as all other content. The key is in the tone and the details about the contamination, including the backstory and the cautious methods utilized by Grace, the former nuclear plant operator.
• Morgan and Alicia, as odd as a pairing as they initially may have seemed, are quite the power leaders. Obviously they are different than Rick and Michonne in many ways, yet Morgan and Alicia both have a fearless fight in them to go along with their tortured souls. Morgan’s dialogue about their ongoing failures and their current predicament is full of compassion. He tells Alicia how he was once stuck in a similar place to where she is now and the only way to make it out intact is to open doors to people and possibilities.
• The MVP of “The Hurt That Will Happen” is Daniel Salazar for brightening up the show with that dry humor of his. Right from the start, after he tells Strand that Skidmark likes him, Salazar has the wittiest response to Strand saying that the cat has good taste – stating the feline licks a part of its anatomy that would definitely not taste good. Then when Strand is desperately apologizing to him, imploring that he has changed, Daniel unconcernedly replies “you do have a new haircut”. Ruben Blades’ delivery is always on point and it would be nice if we can see more of him this season.

Fear the Walking Dead returns next week with “Humbug’s Gulch” on Sunday, June 16 at 9:00 p.m. ET on AMC.