To be fair: Travis’s departure from Madison is actively hinted at earlier in the episode, when Alicia asks what will happen if he doesn’t come back. But Travis’s decision to follow, indulging his prodigal son’s flight of emotionally disturbed fancy, is flat-out ridiculous. I tend to gang up on the kid because he’s very emo, rash, and one-note. This is the most dissatisfying subplot in tonight’s episode - but not because of Chris. He runs away and tries to avoid detection, then winds up getting tracked by Travis. Unfortunately for Madison, Nick chooses a different path, and wanders away from the group.Ĭhris basically does the same thing, but in a more pouty way. She indirectly forces his hand, pressuring him to make a decision. Madison rejects the comfort and kindness that Nick made Celia extend to his family. Her sneak attack is not a betrayal of Celia and Nick’s trust.
So when Madison finally takes a stand “for my family” and hurts Celia, it’s shocking for more than one reason. There is, in other words, more than one reason why Nick finds himself at odds with Madison in “Shiva.” Their confrontation has been brewing for the past couple of episodes. The same cannot be said of Nick, who reveals that he’s been rather cavalier about slathering himself in zombie blood and going off on his own because he feels invincible. “Nothing can touch me,” he insists. Madison has, with the exception of her frankly unbelievable hostage-situation rescue, supervised more than she’s gotten her hands dirty. But everything we’ve seen in season two indicates that Nick’s personal experiences have turned him into someone who simply cannot take orders from authority figures like Madison anymore. His history as a drug user is, as Strand suggests, a major reason why he buys into Celia’s spiritual spiel about the dead never leaving us. Nick is a prime example of this splintering. The concept of family togetherness just doesn’t cut it in a world where individual experiences vary so much that people feel like they’re living in their own pocket universes. This is a dramatic omission throughout the episode, she’s been insisting that Travis will return. She doesn’t waste a second thought on his absence, not when she has to pack her family into a car and get them away from Celia’s devastated compound. Look at the way Madison responds to Nick later in the episode, when she finds out that he didn’t bring Travis back with her. But “Shiva” suggests that answer isn’t really true. There’s an immediate, easy answer to both questions: Because family ties are stronger than temporary allegiances. Chris asks Travis why he won’t let him go, while Celia asks Nick why he doesn’t just ditch his family and stay with her in Baja. “Shiva” is a collection of interesting ideas in need of better execution, but its central conceit is strong: How does a family unit survive such a profound, life-threatening crisis? In this episode, the show becomes a post-family drama set during a zombie crisis. When season two began, I suggested that Fear the Walking Dead is a domestic drama that happens to take place during the zombie apocalypse. Kim Dickens as Madison, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia.
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