They're Not Telling You The Truth: FTWD Episode 4

So this week we have a little bit of a time jump, during which time everyone seems to have warily settled into a routine of hanging out in their neighborhood, barely feeling safe, trying to establish a routine and get along with each other, trying to trust that things might be OK (nope, sorry folks), that medicine might arrive (nope again), that the gates might come down sometime (trust and believe, they will, but not in the way you’re hoping).

Everyone keeps joking that Travis is the “mayor” of their little neighborhood and rather than taking that as a compliment meaning a literal mayor, I immediately took it as an insult like when someone is the “mayor” of a place on FourSquare or whatever the internet equivalent is now (I don’t “check in” at places FFS) because they spend too much time there. But he does seem to be making a sincere effort to help his neighbors and to interface in a useful way with the officer in charge of the army troops who are stationed there. More on this in a bit.

Meanwhile, Maddie is pissed off because she’s stuck inside all day cleaning up after and tending to the “family” of 9 people sharing their home. She’s complaining about cleaning and painting over the blood stains she can still see in the living room and about how nobody is helping her when she argues with Travis and Alicia gets annoyed and yells at them to stop having a stupid domestic argument like their lives are normal. Good call, Alicia. This is pretty much the only time I have liked her so far, I think.

Alicia’s mostly permanent look of confused distress.

Nick is off being Nick of course, which means he’s being charming which means he’s lying and doing something he shouldn’t be doing. Man, they really want us to hate this guy. He’s stealing morphine from a dying man. Come on, Nick. Not cool, man.

Of course you know he’s going to get found out, and when he does, I kind of appreciate Maddie’s smacking the s@#$ out of him, given that about 1 day ago he smugly told her she should be happy that he did such a good job kicking his habit that he doesn’t need the methadone she has been saving for him. Wow, that is an incredibly frustrating and horrible pattern. I completely get why Maddie didn’t believe a word he was saying at first. He lies basically 99% of his waking life.

Chris has a very annoying soliloquy at the beginning when he’s recording on the rooftop, but he makes an important discovery when he sees signs of life outside the fence, although everyone inside has been told there’s “nothing alive out there”. The running undertone of him trying to get people to listen to him about someone needing help outside lends a sense of quiet dread to the entire episode that I actually really liked. I also kind of liked that Maddie believed him when Travis didn’t, similarly to how Travis believed Nick when Maddie didn’t. Maybe everybody should just swap parents.

It’s obviously clear that the guy in charge around here, (Lt. Moyers I think?) knows more than he’s letting on, and he’s hiding stuff and blatantly lying to folks about what’s going on. Travis makes an effort, eventually, to get him to listen about Chris’s concerns regarding someone needing help outside the fence. And of course we know how that goes.

That final scene, I hope, wakes Travis the eff up to the reality of what’s going on around there. I hope he’s going to start realizing that the government is not helping them in the long run and they better figure out a new plan. Below is relevant to this point.

(Excuse terrible grammar and spelling, I didn’t make it but I still find it funny.)

And of course Maddie has her outside the walls adventure, sees some disturbing things (non-zombies shot in the head all over the place)…

…tells Daniel what she sees, and he of course lays some hard truth down for her, and tells her to take care of Ophelia. Maddie, you are going to be this series’ bad#$&, get on board already. Accept your role.

I’m both frustrated and kind of fascinated that the closing few minutes did what I couldn’t predict, removing Nick from the home, and having Liza go off with the “medical” personnel to the “hospital”. If they didn’t send Nick and Liza along I really would have just assumed every person taken out of camp was shot in the head or thrown in an incinerator, honestly. So I kind of like knowing that we’ll get to learn more about what’s going on. I am annoyed, however, that the writers decided to make it about Maddie blaming Liza for Nick being taken. I know she’s Travis’s ex, but every relationship between women really isn’t catty. Get over that, guys. Liza didn’t do anything to bring on Maddie’s fury so I hope that is short-lived.

This is some seriously messed up s$#% right here, Maddie thinks to herself. Start practicing your head-bashing skills ma’am, you’ll be needing them in short order.