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5 things we learned from Sunday night's episode of 'Fear the Walking Dead'

Oh, hello. I see you’ve clicked on this recap of the second episode of Fear the Walking Dead, which means you’ve probably seen the episode and/or don’t mind finding out what happens. If you clicked this by mistake and do not want to know what happens, click away now. This is your SPOILER ALERT.

AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead returned with its second episode on Sunday night, which saw Madison Clark and her family trying to negotiate the end of human civilization as her neighbors callously erected bouncy castles and packed for weekend getaways.

Here are five things we learned from Sunday night’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead:

1. I really just don’t care about Travis’ problems

(PHOTO: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC)

(PHOTO: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC)

Look: It’s probably way too early to deem anyone the “new Shane” and root for him to become a zombie, plus Travis seems like he’s probably a pretty good guy who’s really doing his best to keep his family together under some serious duress. Problem is, I just don’t care even a little about Travis’ mundane personal problems as the zombie apocalypse unfolds. It’s nice that he still cares about his estranged son and ex-wife, but this show would benefit from being less Kramer vs. Kramer and more Kramer vs. Zombies. Presumably it’ll get there.

Travis’ son Chris seems like a pretty righteous kid who’s on to the idea that the government and police forces are completely botching this whole zombie thing, so that’s cool. Probably for the best that Travis went back to get him before leaving for the desert, especially since it meant we got to watch that zombie hippie lady get aced.

2. High schools keep drug stashes

Based on what I already know from Trainspotting, going through heroin withdrawal seems absolutely awful. And going through heroin withdrawal at the exact same time nearly everyone you know and love are being swallowed up into the hordes of bloodthirsty undead must suck so hard. So it’s a good thing high schools apparently keep stashes of prescription drugs in locked cabinets that take about 10 seconds to pry open, because that Oxycontin will really come in handy to help ween young Nick off his habit.

Is this a real thing? I get that kids show up to school with illicit drugs with some frequency, but it seems like administrators would typically be better served flushing them or turning them over to the authorities. I worked in a high school for two years, but no one ever told me about the drug stash.

3. They should probably keep this kid Tobias around

It also seems kind of strange that young Tobias broke into the high school at exactly the same time Madison did, and that he risked going out in public on behalf of a crappy little knife that’s just not nearly strong enough to penetrate zombie skulls. But the kid does seem to know way more about what’s going on than everyone else in the show, so he seems like a pretty handy dude to have around. Maybe he watched the original Walking Dead or something. In either case, Madison probably should have commandeered his services instead of dropping him off at his possibly broken home that’s soon to be definitely broken because everyone’s about to become zombies.

Through the first two episodes of the show, Tobias stands as by far its coolest character: A chubby, acne-riddled, teenaged Darryl, just one crossbow and some hunting skills shy of becoming a total badass. Let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of him, as he rules.

4. R.I.P. Randy Wagstaff

Life on the streets of Baltimore seemed extremely difficult for the characters in The Wire, but it apparently did nothing to prepare them for life in a zombie-riddled hellscape. Maestro Harrell, the actor who played Randy Wagstaff, here playing Alicia’s artsy boyfriend, is well on his way to zombie-dom when we last see him sick in bed from a massive zombie bite. By my count (SPOILER ALERT again), actors from The Wire have only a 25% survival rate in the world of The Walking Dead, and things don’t exactly look great for Gabriel/Sgt. Carver over in the original franchise.

I stick by my point: Feels like Wee-Bey is the only guy from The Wire with the right mentality for the new zombie reality. Might be hard to find time to feed his fish, though. But seriously, let’s get Hassan Johnson, the guy who played Wee-Bey, on one of these shows. Pretty underrated performance as Wee-Bey, soulful and family-loving ruthless killer for the Barksdale crew.

5. This would all be so much easier if they could just say the word “zombie”

(PHOTO: AMC)

(PHOTO: AMC)

I mean, c’mon. People in zombie movies or TV shows almost never call the zombies “zombies,” but man, would it be easier if they could. Like, when you’re trying to explain to your sister why she can’t go visit her boyfriend, how much simpler would it be if you just said, “Alicia, he’s a zombie now and he’s going to eat your brains,” than, like, “uhh, well, he’s got this virus or something that kills him but not really and now he’s going to act totally different and your only way to stop him from tearing you apart is to stab or shoot him in the head.” Much tougher sell that way.

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