The beginning of this episode takes us back in time to show us exactly how Madison (Kim Dickens) and Victor (Colman Domingo) managed to escape the horde of infected that raided their happy hour. Madison discovers some sort of trap door behind the bar and kicks it open, but when she crawls through she finds a dead end with another locked door. One of the infected makes their way into the small room and after Madison kills him you can almost see the light bulb go off over her head. She calls Victor into the room and cuts over the walker using a broken liquor bottle, and the two reluctantly cover themselves in the dead man’s blood and guts. Hopefully she remembers to thank Nick (Frank Dillane) for that one later on!
It works, obviously, and we learn that Madison and Victor are the ones who blocked off the doors to the bar before running outside. They find that the truck were using is gone, and Victor assumes it was Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). We know it definitely wasn’t Alicia, so it leaves us wondering if it was the wedding group after Alicia unleashed the infected on them, or if it was Ofelia totally bailing on everyone since we still don’t know where she is. Hmm.
Victor and Madison leave the resort and head into the building next door which appears to be under construction and completely sealed. They climb up to the second floor and find an open door that lets them inside the empty building, which is eerily dark and quiet. Victor takes a seat on the stairs to rest after everything they just went through, but Madison is clearly still concerned about Alicia. When Victor suggests that she’s fine, Madison argues that her daughter never would have left them behind. Either way, Victor reminds Madison that Alicia is “self reliant” and that’s when the defeated mother finally takes a seat and admits that she made her daughter that way.
Madison Brings Everyone Together
After the credits we return to a now cleaned up Madison and Victor. It appears they found plenty of bottled water, and just as Victor is suggesting that they get some sleep they start to hear banging and yelling. They follow the sounds to the white door where they let Alicia, Elena (Karen Bethzabe) and Hector (Ramses Jimenez) inside from the other resort, which catches us up to the present. The second the door is closed and secure, Victor sets his sights on Elena and Hector by asking, in Spanish, “Who the hell are you?”
Once everyone has been introduced, the group gathers as many supplies as they can find, which includes a few bottles of water, some rags, and maybe even a few items of clothing. Elena mentions that it’s nothing compared to what the hotel has, which is apparently months worth of canned food if not more. Unfortunately for her, she mentions that the man in charge — the groom, Oscar — wants her dead. It doesn’t take long for Madison and Victor to go back to the resort to find Oscar (Andres Londono) and have a chat. Madison asks Oscar what his plan is and he says they are going to ration and scavenge. She proposes a better idea by admitting that her group needs their help, and that if they work together in clearing the dead and fortifying the building that they could make the resort a “home.” Oscar says that they can stay but that Elena can’t. Madison tries to defend her, but the mother of the bride (Brenda Strong) breaks down over her daughter saying that it’s Elena’s fault she’s dead.
Madison tells Oscar that they are clearing the dead and securing the gate with or without their help. She also tells them that there are other groups out there, groups that will just take and kill without trying to work with them. This seems to sway Oscar who lets them take the keys to the resort, though it’s unclear if they plan to help with taking out the infected. As they are leaving Madison can tell something is up with Victor and after enough nudging he finally admits that this will never be his home. He reminds her that he had a home, it’s where Thomas (Dougray Scott) is buried, and that’s the end of that.
Nick Helps The Colonia Make Time For Survival
Nick seems to be making himself at home in the community that took him in, so when we catch up with him he’s heading to see Alejandro (Paul Calderon) at the pharmacy. Nick brings a can of powdered milk with him and suggests to Alejandro that they cut up their inventory of pills to expand them for trading. At first Alejandro is hesitant, but Nick is persistent and obviously wants to fix the mistake he made with the gang members they need to trade with. Once Alejandro lets Nick do his dirty work he’s pretty impressed, and it seems he’s going to let Nick work on their inventory. Hey, at least Nick isn’t using again.
As the two work hard through the oxy pills, they both get tired but refuse to take a break. As Alejandro is wiping the sweat off of his neck Nick gets a glance at the nasty scar where he was allegedly bitten, so he nonchalantly brings it up. He asks Alejandro what happens but the man doesn’t clarify, which is a bit peculiar.
Once Nick and Alejandro finish expanding their drug supply, Nick prepares to take off with Luciana (Danay Garcia) but Alejandro stops him to finally tell him the story about his bite. He tells him that there was a boy living in the community who was an addict, just like Nick. He says that the boy would steal drugs from him and that one day he took something that made the others believe he was like one of the dead. They grouped him in with the infected but Alejandro knew he was alive, so he fought his way in to get the boy out. As he was trying to save the young addict he was bitten, and it was Luciana who brought him back to the pharmacy and waited with him for death. It never came. Nick seems to believe Alejandro’s story, taking a moment to rest a hand on his wound quietly before they continue to find Luciana.
When they find Luciana she’s let her guard down, and for the first time since both we and Nick have met her she’s actually having fun. She’s playing soccer with a large group of kids, and Alejandro encourages Nick to join them. It doesn’t take long for him to get his team a goal, and it’s actually really nice to see that these kids can still be just that — kids — in the midst of the end of the world. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long.
A man covered in walker blood and guts comes charging towards Alejandro with obvious bad news, and it immediately catches Luciana’s attention. Both men keep side eyeing Luciana while talking, and we hear bits and pieces of their conversation, including “something happened” followed by “he’s in pieces.” Nick approaches Luciana to ask her what’s going on and that’s when she reveals that they found Pablo, the man she mentioned went missing in a previous episode, and she heads over to Alejandro to find out what he knows.
Nick & Luciana Cave To Their Feelings
A beat later we see Nick and Luciana outside of the community headed towards the gang for a trade, and Nick finally tops his new friend to tell her that she doesn’t need to come. She reminds him that he doesn’t speak any Spanish, and he tells her he would have managed without her. He also tells her that her boyfriend just died, but she corrects him: it was her brother. Nick feels awful about this, which is ironic since he abandoned his own family. They continue on their way as Luciana tells Nick about Pablo, about how they helped each other through everything and how he helped her find peace after their mother joined the dead. That’s when she breaks down, and Nick pulls her into an embrace as if they’ve known each other forever. When they pull away their faces are close too each other, too close, and Luciana quickly keeps walking as if the moment didn’t happen.
When Nick returns he finds that Alejandro has a surprise waiting for him: his own little house. It’s not great, but it’s a room and a kitchen and a safe place to rest his head at night. That night, Nick gets his first visitor: Luciana.
He welcomes Luciana inside and the room is dimly lit by candles, with the only seating being on his tiny twin bed. She tells Nick she couldn’t sleep, and once inside she finds that he was reading a dictionary. He tells her that he needs to learn the language and he’s right, and they even share a moment of laughter over him trying to tell her he has clean socks in Spanish. Nick then mentions his sister, Alicia, out of nowhere and how she took Spanish in high school, unlike him, and was the golden child with a bright future. Luciana seems surprised to hear that Nick has a sister, likely because it took him this long to mention her.
Eventually Luciana falls asleep in Nick’s bed, but when she wakes up she’s startled at the idea of sleeping at his place. He tells her to stay, that he’s fine on the floor, but she says no that people will talk about them. Before she leaves Nick stops her to ask her if she’s testing him, just like Alejandro said she was, and her response is to slowly move towards him and kiss him. After that, it’s safe to assume she spent the night.
Madison Risks Her Life To Save Everyone Again
Back at the resort we quickly learn that everyone is finally working together to clean out the resort. They are going room by room and killing the dead, then dragged them out to the beach where Madison appears to be building up things to set on fire once they are done. Madison and Alicia take a small break together to wash their hands in the ocean, and while they are doing just that Madison apologizes for forcing Alicia to raise herself. She admits that it was wrong, but Alicia doesn’t seem so upset about it anymore, likely because what they just went through in the resort taught them exactly how much they need each other.
As they are standing in the water Alicia comes up with a brilliant idea that will save them a lot of time and energy. She notices that there is a wooden pier that extends far out into the ocean, and there are warning signs that say “no swimming” due to a riptide in the water. Pretty soon Madison is working with Elena to figure out how they can get the walkers onto the pier without anyone getting killed, and a massive plan is put into action. Alicia is given the most important job, though she’s not happy about it, because she’ll be in the boat in the water underneath the pier. Madison is in charge of leading the walkers out there, so this means she’ll have no other choice but to jump — leaving only Alicia to save her.
Before getting into the boat, Alicia helps Hector gather the walkers outside of the resort. While they are doing that, Victor and Elena go door by door to let out the trapped walkers inside the hotel. Madison gathers the walkers on the main floor and all three groups meet in the area that opens up to the pier. Somehow it works, and once all of the walkers are inside one of Oscar’s guys locks the door behind them so they can’t come running back in. Madison leads the mass of infected further out onto the pier, while Alicia, Victor, Hector, and Elena manage to get off through what looks like a service gate.
The plan works flawlessly, so much so that there are moments where it feels like everything is going to go all wrong at the last moment. It doesn’t, not even when Madison jumps off of the pier into the walker and the horde of walkers follow her by falling off. She makes it to the boat where Alicia and Hector pull her to safety, and that’s a wrap. It’s a job even Rick Grimes would have been impressed with.
That night the entire group is seated at a long table filled with fresh food and bottled wine. Everyone looks cleaned up, rested, and ready to eat a good meal and get an even better nights sleep. Unfortunately, two seats at the head of the table are empty, and it’s obviously Oscar and his bride’s mother. Hector asks if they should wait, and Oscar’s brother tells them that he’s just not ready for this yet. Madison says the food will be ready for them when they are, but Victor isn’t interested in eating without everyone at the table. He steps away and promises to be back before the toast, and we follow him up to the honeymoon suite where he finds Oscar standing guard outside of the door. That’s when we realize that he somehow got his bride up there, and now she’s inside as one of the infected where he refuses to let her go. He tells Victor how they met and how he never thought he would be so lucky to marry her, and Victor tells him that he knows exactly how he feels. With tears in his eyes Victor tells Oscar that Jessica is no longer his wife, and that he has to let her go so that he can move on. Eventually Oscar caves and hands Victor the key, allowing him inside the honeymoon suite to finally put the bride out of her misery.
HollywoodLifers, what did YOU think about this episode of FTWD? Do you think Madison’s group can survive at the resort? Do you think Nick and Luciana make a good couple? Comment below!