Sicut Cervus

"Sicut Cervus" is the sixth episode of Season 2 of AMC's Fear The Walking Dead and the twelfth episode overall. It aired on AMC on May 15, 2016 at 9/8c in the USA and on May 16, 2016 at 9pm in the UK exclusively on BT TV.

Plot Synopsis
At a church in Baja, a Priest delivers a fiery sermon and exhorts his parishioners to fight the dead. The parishioners take their communion wafers one by one.

In the town square, the parishioners arm themselves. Thomas arrives in his truck and urges the priest to stop. “Do not protect her,” says the priest. Suddenly, the parishioners begin to drop on their knees in agony as blood pours out of their eyes.

The Abigail approaches a Mexican flotilla that is guarding the border.

Travis checks in with Chris on the Abigail. Chris asks why everyone is mad at him. Travis says that, according to Madison, Reed wasn’t infected when Chris shot him. Chris is devastated, thinking Madison was on his side.

In the wheelhouse, Luis prepares to meet with his military contact on the flotilla and pay for their passage. Strand sees military officers approaching in a boat. Concerned that a second officer is coming along with Luis’s contact, he orders Madison to hide everyone below deck.

From the engine room, Madison’s group listens to the conversation between Strand, Luis and two military officers. Gunfire erupts after the officers insist on searching the boat to make sure no Infected are aboard.

Madison’s group charges upstairs. A mortally wounded Luis lies next to two dead officers. Daniel stabs the officers to prevent them from turning. Luis begs Daniel not to stab him and hands Ofelia a medallion with an owl’s face. He asks her to give it to his mother. Daniel flings the medallion into the ocean. Luis whispers to Nick.

Strand steers the Abigail toward the Mexico coastline.

On land, Strand leads the group into town. They find a pile of dead parishioners in front of the church. Strand spots Thomas’s truck and calls Thomas’s name. The group fights off a herd of infected parishioners. Daniel grabs a young infected boy and becomes paralyzed by the memory of clutching a young boy by the neck. Ofelia kills the infected boy for Daniel. Nick sits stunned after killing a young infected girl.

Madison is overcome by an Infected and fights for her life. Chris watches her struggle from a few steps away and does nothing to help. Alicia screams at him and saves Madison herself. The group piles into Thomas’s truck and flees.

Strand drives the group to Thomas’s gated estate where Celia, Luis’s mother, greets them. Strand informs her that Luis is dead. “He’s one of them now,” Strand says. “Then he’ll find his way back,” she replies. A maid asks the group to check their weapons. Everyone complies. Daniel reluctantly hands over his gun and knife.

Strand rushes to Thomas’s bedroom, a blood-soaked bandage on his bitten arm. Strand helps him into bed.

Chris asks Alicia if she’s mad at him. She accuses him of standing by while Madison got attacked outside the church. He insists he merely froze, but when Alicia presses him, Chris threatens to hurt her if she tells anyone what she saw.

In the kitchen, Nick tells Celia that Luis asked for her when he died. Celia calmly explains that the dead have always walked amongst them. “The only difference is now we can see them,” she says. Madison overhears their conversation and later warns Celia that Nick is impressionable.

Daniel gazes at photos of the dead posted at an outdoor shrine. He notices an owl carved into a tree trunk, similar to Luis’s medallion. Celia posts a photo of Luis and explains that Luis’s death does not faze her because he was not shot in the head.

Madison brings food to Thomas and Strand in their room. Thomas asks Madison to look after Strand when he dies.

Ofelia summons Daniel to dinner and finds him sitting on his bed in a daze.

Alicia tells Madison about Chris’s threat.

Madison confers with Travis about Chris and worries that Chris is sick. Travis defends Chris and angrily wonders why Madison won’t offer the same support to Chris that he always gave Nick. Madison decides to sleep in Alicia’s room for protection while Travis sleeps with Chris.

Strand urges Thomas to end the suffering and let go of life. “I could go with you,” Strand says, offering to kill himself so that they can remain together after death.

Daniel takes a nighttime stroll and sees a young boy, Juan, place a dog down a chute that leads to the wine cellar.

Nick accompanies Ofelia to the shrine, where Ofelia prays to her mother. Nick sees the owl carving and has a flashback to the drug den at the Los Angeles church. In the flashback, he sees his friend feasting on a body.

Daniel follows Juan to the wine cellar, where Juan explains that he’s talking to his mother. Daniel enters the cellar and sees a cell full of Infected.

Daniel confronts Celia about the Infected. She explains that they are all family members of people who work on the estate. As she prepares two communion wafers, Daniel realizes that she killed the parishioners with poisoned wafers. “They were killed by you,” she corrects, then urges him to make peace with his dead.

Celia brings the wafers to Strand and Thomas and commends Strand for deciding to die with Thomas. She leaves the room and locks it.

Nick finds Celia drinking wine in the courtyard. “They’re not really dead, are they?” he asks. She shakes her head and says the Infected are simply “what comes next.”

Thomas stops breathing. Strand kisses him.

Chris wakes up as Travis sleeps in the adjacent bed.

Strand searches Thomas’s bedroom drawers.

Chris enters Alicia’s room and says Alicia’s name. He picks up a knife from the bedside table. A gunshot rings out, waking Madison and Alicia. Alicia sees the knife and screams at Chris. He runs outside.

Strand sits next to Thomas with a gun: Thomas is shot in the head.

Co-Stars

 * Moisses Arath Leyva as Juan
 * Sebastiàn Cano as Brown Eyed Boy
 * Diana Lein as Sofia
 * Ramón Medína as Jorge
 * Alex Perazza as Commandante Vazquez
 * José Sefami as Priest
 * Julio Umana as Green Eyed Boy

Uncredited

 * Lexi Johnson as Gloria (Flashback)
 * Shaquille Carter as Druggie (Flashback)
 * Casey Larios as Church Junkie (Flashback)

Deaths

 * Priest (Alive and Zombified)
 * Miguel
 * Vazquez
 * Luis Flores (Alive)
 * Thomas Abigail
 * Seven unnamed choir boys (Alive and Zombified)
 * Twenty unnamed congregation members (Alive and Zombified)
 * A puppy

Trivia

 * First appearance of Juan.
 * First appearance of Sofia.
 * Last appearance of Luis Flores.
 * Last appearance of Thomas Abigail.
 * Last appearance of Gloria. (Zombified, Flashback)
 * First (and last) appearance of Miguel.
 * First (and last) appearance of Vazquez.
 * First (and last) appearance of Priest.
 * The title is Latin for 'like deer', which could either refer to Pslam 42 or them being hunted, as deer is a commonly hunted animal.
 * This episode marks the oldest flashback seen in the entire franchise which was when Daniel was remembering when he seemingly got recruited into the Salvadorian Junta.
 * This is the first episode to take place outside America.