Fear the Walking Dead is getting the band back together. “La Serpiente” continues the reunion that started with the midseason premiere. Come hell or high water, Madison is going to cross paths with Victor and Daniel because apparently the plot demands it. Last week, Madison discovered that the range was critically low on water. She and Walker went to bargain for H20, but ended up buying Strand’s freedom after bumping into him by coincidence. Better still, Strand knew where they could find plenty of water because he had been to the dam Daniel took over in the first half of the season.
So this should be a pretty painless transaction. Madison and Walker need water. Daniel has plenty of it, but he is missing his daughter. Ofelia is staying at the ranch as part of Walker’s tribe. It seems like everyone should walk away from this deal happy and hydrated. But it doesn’t go down like that.
First, Madison and the boys need to get to the dam. On their way, they are stopped by a zombified traffic jam. Strand deals with it by throwing a beeping keychain to the side of the road. We all know zombies are attracted to noise, but a large idling truck (with three juicy passengers) is a lot more noisy than any keychain I have ever heard.
But Strand’s trick works anyway. All the zombies shamble towards the beeping sound which allows Walker to push the cars out of the way. You would think the noise of a truck pushing cars to the side would be more distracting than a keychain, but that’s not how things work on The Walking Dead. It seems all you need to survive the zombie apocalypse is a pocketful of noisy trinkets.
Strand leads the others to a sewer drain. Walker is reluctant to wade through filth, but Strand insists it is the fastest way to get where they need to go. It becomes clear pretty quickly that Strand doesn’t know where he is going. Walker eventually goes off to find his own way because… um… he wants to give Madison and Victor some alone time? With Walker gone, Strand tells Madison that Daniel is still alive and that he is in charge of the water. Shouldn’t that have come up before now? Like while they were driving? Seems like pertinent information to sit on for a long road trip.
Walker comes running back because the zombies have followed them into the sewer. How’d they get in? Didn’t Strand replace the cover? Or are these supposed to be a different set of zombies? It doesn’t matter. They are just an excuse to get Walker back with the others. As they push forward, the sound of the zombies dissipates, but their path forward is blocked by a bloated sewer zombie.
In order to move forward, Madison hacks up the zombie corpse and passes the pieces back to the others. It’s a gross scene that exists solely to gross out viewers. Eventually, they clear out enough zombie guts that the pent-up water behind him comes gushing forth. Ewww.
Having killed sufficient time in the sewers, the gang is reuinited with Daniel. At first, Daniel is none to happy to see them – especially Strand. But Madison assures him that his daughter is safe because Walker saved her in the desert. Daniel agrees to help them if he can, but apparently he’s not calling the shots anymore. Lola is.
Lola doesn’t want to give Madison any water because she is worried it would cause people to revolt. As we saw last week, they are already dealing with violence from people who feel like they should be getting more water in their deliveries. You see, Lola is dumb. She refuses to take any action to defend the dam. As Daniel points out, sooner or later, people are going to rise up against her.
Daniel is torn between staying at the dam and helping out Lola (who he only recently met and who insists on putting herself and others in harm’s way for no discernible reason) and going to the ranch to see his only daughter who believes him to be dead. Adding urgency to the latter, Walker reveals that he has turned Ofelia into an unwitting accomplice to murder. But Daniel feels a sense of obligation to what’s-her-name so he stays at the dam.
Believing there is no water to be had, Walker once again goes off on his own. This is getting to be a thing with him. Strand and Madison have a heart to heart in which she reveals that she wants to stay at the ranch despite the legacy of racism, the constant threat of violence and the lack of an essential resource because it feels like home. Seriously? Lola offered Madison the option of moving her family into the dam. That seems like a massive upgrade. We all know Madison would be running the damn before lunch.
Instead, there’s some bit of subterfuge in which Strand blows up a water tanker (how?) and Daniel blames it on the factions that oppose Lola. They end up cutting a deal for Madison to get her water shipments in exchange for weapons Daniel can use to fight the rebels. Also, Ofelia will come to the trading post. All of our characters appear to have gotten what they wanted. On their way back to the ranch, Strand and Madison even pick up Walker who lived up to his name by taking the long walk home.
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