'Fear the Walking Dead' Recap: 'It's Already Too Late'

Warning: This recap for “The Dog” episode of Fear the Walking Dead contains storyline and character spoilers.

Daniel Salazar said it all: “It’s already too late.” For while Travis Manawa and his family are slowly starting to realize how devastating the “infection” is going to be, and much of the rest of Los Angeles is foolishly caught up in the looting and rioting possibilities that the chaos of the infection brings, Daniel knows the onslaught of military personnel in Travis and Madison’s neighborhood means those simply looking to survive have yet another obstacle in their way.

Barbershop Bonding

With the rioting and looting in downtown L.A. growing ever more violent and widespread, Travis knows he has to get Chris and Liza out of the Salazar family’s barbershop quickly and back to his truck. Daniel Salazar is a little more reluctant, but when the gang realizes the looters have set fire to the building, the Salazars grab their cash and push their way out the front door with the Manawas, just as the looters aggressively push their way into the shop.

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The Salazars don’t want no scrubs, but they do follow TLC (Travis, Liza, and Chris) through the crowd. When scaffolding breaks and falls on Mrs. S, trapping her beneath it, the Manawas run back to help free her, and Travis carries her the rest of the way to his truck. Nurse Liza tries to tend to her while Travis speeds to find a doctor, but when they arrive at Sisters of Mercy Hospital, they find more chaos, as cops are firing guns at a patient lumbering through the parking lot — another infected. With the same scenario likely at other hospitals in the area, the Salazars decide to stick with TLC and head to Madison’s house, where things are no less hectic, and no less dangerous.

The Dog

Madison and Alicia are worrying about Travis; Alicia says she can never sleep when she’s waiting for someone to come home, and that Travis’s impending return is giving her a case of déjà vu. Is this a hint about what made Madison a widow?

To distract Alicia from her anxiety, and Nick from his continuing attempt to detox, Madison busts out Monopoly. It works, briefly, but just as Nick begins to needle his mom that Travis may not return, the Clarks hear scratching at their door. They see Peter, the infected neighbor who already noshed on another family across the street, but Nick sees the scratching is courtesy of their dog, so he opens the door and lets him in.

Hangry Peter is out there, though, and he’s looking for his next meal. Nick remembers their neighbors, the Trans, have a shotgun (because he once tried to steal it), so he, his mom, and Alicia make their way through Susan Tran’s garden maze and locate the shotgun, just as Alicia peeks out the window and sees Peter has gotten into the Clark house.

Also arriving at Casa de Clark: Travis and his fellow safety-seekers. Madison grabs the gun and flees the Trans’ home so she can warn Travis before Peter gets his teeth on him, but TLC is already inside, where they follow the sounds of someone eating to find Peter… hunched over the dog! And before anyone gets a chance to process that scene, Peter spots Travis and starts towards him.

Even though Travis got a glimpse at Calvin in the premiere, he doesn’t recognize that Peter is no longer the Peter he once knew, and he tries to talk to him, repeating his name. Peter just sees food, though, and Madison bursts in with the gun and fires at Peter. She misses, and Daniel Salazar takes the gun from her and fires it. Peter’s still walking, so Daniel aims the gun again, right at Peter’s head, and literally blows away most of his face, into Madison’s curtains.

“What did you do?” Travis asks Daniel. Clearly, despite everything he’s seen so far, he’s not willing to accept that the infected people are not people, as he knew them, anymore.

“She’s not sick… she’s dead”

Chris, who’s now seen two infected in action but still doesn’t totally have a grasp on what’s going on, stumbles outside to hurl, and sees Alicia, who’d gone back to the Tran house to get bullets, fighting off Susan Tran. The neighbor — who babysat Nick and Alicia and helped Madison get through her husband’s death — has been bitten, and she’s latched onto Alicia at snacktime. Chris runs over and tries to help Alicia, who’s so freaked out that she (accidentally?) smacks him and leaves his nose bloodied. Because there isn’t already enough tension in the Manawa-Clark merging.

The commotion brings everyone into the backyard, where Alicia continues to freak out when Madison sees Susan and wonders if she’s been bitten. Alicia connects it to Matt, and screams that Matt hasn’t turned into that.

“She not sick,” Nick interjects. “She’s dead.”

In the bathroom, Travis helps Chris clean up his nose, and explains that Peter and Susan were sick, that a lot of people are getting sick.

Chris: “Will we?”

Travis: “It’ll be alright. We all will be.”

Oh, Travis. Still blind — or pretending to be — to how bad things are, he offers the Salazars a bedroom, and tells everyone else they’ll continue with their plans to head off to the desert… the next morning. Madison argues they’re packed and need to leave right away. “This thing’s getting worse, not better,” says the woman who has already, unbeknownst to Travis, had to beat her friend and co-worker to death after he turned. “It’s not safe.”

Liza butts in to defend Travis’s decision, and Madison starts to tell her it’s none of her business, when Travis insists they go in the morning. Madison tells him he has to take care of Peter — or what’s left of him — if they’re staying in the house overnight. Travis begins digging a grave in the backyard, and Daniel suggests he burn the body instead, to avoid spreading the infection. Trav refuses.

“I understand. You knew this man,” Daniel says.

“Yeah, I did. He didn’t deserve this,” he says very pointedly at Daniel.

Later, in the kitchen, Travis compliments Liza’s care of Griselda, and his ex tells him Mrs. S’s injury will turn to blood poisoning and organ failure unless she gets to a doctor. Apocalypse Pollyana Travis says that won’t happen. Liza asks him who will stop it — him?

Related: ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Postmortem: Director Adam Davidson on Madison’s Big Kill

In another room, the Salazars also disagree how to proceed. Daniel wants to stay in the house and allow Griselda to rest and heal, while he gets a doctor. Daughter Ofelia thinks she and her parents should follow Travis and escape… whatever this is. “What is happening? What is this?” she asks.

Daniel: “Something to survive.”

And in yet another part of the house, Madison and Liza talk, with Liza suggesting that despite the fact that they’re not friends, they should work together for the sake of the kids. Madison wants Liza to make her a promise: If she should find herself on the business end of a bite from someone who’s infected, she wants Liza to kill her, so Travis won’t have to do it. “It would break him,” she says, having figured out her significant other isn’t as prepared as she is to do whatever’s necessary to survive.

And now the Madison household tension tallies, for those keeping score: Travis and Daniel; Travis and Liza; Travis and Chris; Travis and Madison; Travis and Nick and Alicia; Madison and Nick; Madison and Liza; Chris and Alicia; Ofelia and Daniel. What a pleasant road trip to the desert that would be… or would have been.

Desert(ed) Plan

Morning has come, and Daniel is teaching Chris how to use the shotgun most effectively. Travis is unhappy about that. Almost as unhappy as he is when he catches Madison standing at the fence, talking to infected Susan, with a hammer in her hand. Madison’s worried that Susan’s husband Patrick will come home, unaware of what he’s walking into, and she plans to do something about that. “What if there’s even the smallest chance she can be helped?” Travis says. “It’s not your call,” he continues, taking the hammer away from Madison.

Daniel, who’s watching the scene unfold, whispers “debil” — which means “weak” in Spanish.

Finally, the Manawas load into Travis’s truck and the Clarks load into Madison’s car, and they all drive out of the neighborhood as military helicopters appear overhead. When they get to the end of the block, Madison spots Patrick Tran pulling up to his home. He approaches the house, shouting for his wife, telling her he couldn’t get a flight home and drove all the way from Salt Lake City. She comes towards him, and without realizing anything is wrong, Patrick sweeps her into a hug. Madison and Travis have steered their cars towards the Tran house, and they all arrive just in time to see Patrick hug Susan, Susan start to take a bite out of Patrick, and a military man shoot Susan, causing her to fall dead in Patrick’s arms.

Troops swarm the neighborhood, military trucks line the streets, helicopters continue to circle overhead, and one of the government workers interviews Travis about who, exactly, is currently residing in Madison’s house. In the backyard, Madison asks what’s happened to Patrick, and another solider tells her he’s been taken away — he was covered in the blood of an infected, she’s told. And proving she can think on her feet even after the tragedy with her friend Susan, Maddie tells the soldier the fresh grave he sees in her yard is that of the family dog. Who knows who else he might have taken away had he known about how much of Peter’s blood had splattered across Madison’s living room?

Nick is off trying to break into neighboring homes to find drugs, and Madison joins Travis in the front yard. They watch troops check and spray-paint giant Xs on certain houses, and toss covered bodies into the back of a giant truck.

“Cavalry’s arrived,” Travis tells his girlfriend. “It’s gonna get better now.”
 
But Daniel, looking out the window of Madison’s house, knows better. He tells his wife, “It’s already too late.”

Infectious Info:

* Travis promised Madison he’d never leave her again. Later, Daniel told Ofelia that good people are the first ones to die in situations like this. The title of the Season 1 finale episode of FTWD: “The Good Man.” Could that titular good man be someone we already know? Someone whose name rhymes with “Schmavis”?

* “Your father and I have been in worse situations,” Mrs. S told Ofelia. I definitely want to know more about that, because Daniel does seem remarkably unshaken by what’s unfolding around him… why is that?

OK, Dead-heads, let’s hear your reactions to “The Dog”: Which characters are you loving, and which ones are ticking you off at this point? Are you feeling confident about Travis’s abilities to keep his family/families safe? Or is this all going to fall on Madison (and Daniel)? Will the military prove to be the saviors Travis thinks they are? And do you think any of the Clarks, Manawas, or Salazars make it to the desert?

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.