The Dog

"The Dog" is the third episode of Season 1 of AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. It aired on AMC on September 13, 2015 at 9/8c in the USA and on September 21, 2015 at 9pm in the UK exclusively on BT TV.

Synopsis
"After they escape a riot, Travis, Liza and Chris seek refuge with the Salazars; Madison defends her home".

Plot
In the Salazar's barber shop, Travis, Liza and Chris are waiting for the riot outside to disperse. Chris grabs a razor, to which Daniel tells him to put it back. As Travis and Daniel discuss what to do if the chaos outside were to find its way in, Chris touches the wall and tells the group that the walls are getting hotter. They realize that the building next door is on fire and they need to escape. As they open the door, several rioters enter the room to loot and burn the business, ignoring the six as they leave unscathed.

Emerging into the chaotic streets, Travis, Liza and Chris watch as a zombie police officer is busy mauling a riot cop on the ground, with no one paying attention to the grisly scene. They cautiously make their way through the riot, and decide to reach their truck to get out of the riot as more police swarm the area. As they make their way through a scaffolding, firefighters unleash a high-pressure hose on the rioters on the scaffolding, causing it to collapse and pinning Griselda. The five get her out and onto the truck. They decide to take her to a nearby hospital for emergency care.

When they arrive at a local hospital, they witness the area being cordoned off by armed police, who surround the building and shoot the infected patients wandering out. They hear on the radio that a state of emergency has been declared in 11 states, and that the National Guard has been called upon to manage the riots. All flights are being grounded in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. Liza suggests that they go to another hospital, but Daniel says that the others would most likely have the same issue and asks to come with Travis to his residence, where he will call his cousin to pick his family up and make their "score" even. As they drive to Madison's house, they witness a city-wide power cut, with fires burning amidst the darkened streets.

Meanwhile, Nick, Alicia and Madison try to spend time while waiting for Travis to return. After a brief game of Monopoly, Nick raises the possibility that Travis might not come home. Alicia alerts her family of something outside, when suddenly something starts banging and scratching on the backyard door. Nick opens it to find a German Shepard dog, its coat blotted with something else's blood. The take him in, and the dog begins barking frantically at the front door. Nick looks out the window again to see the reanimated corpse of Peter Dawson in the street, stumbling towards their house. Nick remembers a shotgun that their neighbors have, and they leave their house to go after it. They go into Patrick and Susan Tran's house, which appears to be vacant. They search the house and find the shotgun and several shotgun shells, which they take. Alicia peers through the curtain and tells Madison that someone has entered the house. Through the window, they watch as the infected Dawson eventually subdues and kills the dog. The three continue to watch as they see a car approach; Madison realizes that it is Travis and the three quickly leave to warn Travis that someone hostile is inside.

Travis arrives at Madison's house accompanied by Liza and Chris, to find it dark and empty. Maddy, Nick and Alicia race to get to Travis before the zombie does. Travis finds a human figure crouched and emitting disturbing munching noises. As the lights flick back on, he recognizes Peter, feasting on the dead dog. Travis tries to talk to him, and gets attacked. Madison, Nick and Alicia quickly make their way to the house but as they arrive, Nick realizes that he forgot the shotgun shells at their neighbors' residence and Alicia goes back to find them. There, while getting the shells she notices a door creaking, and finds the zombie of Susan Tran, and quickly leaves with some shells.

Madison enters her house with the shotgun, and is ready to shoot when Travis, still struggling to restrain the undead Peter, tells to her to lower the gun. Daniel grabs the shotgun, and when Travis backs away from the zombie, he shoots, blowing away part of the zombie's face, but still not killing it. Everyone looks on in shock as Daniel shoots a second time, exploding the zombie's head. Chris runs outside to throw up, and Travis, in disbelief, asks what just happened.

Alicia hurries towards her house when she gets lost in the maze-like path between it and the Tran house. She gets grabbed by a zombified Susan, but manages to break free and runs to the fence dividing her house and the Tran residence, only to be grabbed by Susan's zombie as she leaps the fence. Chris attends to her screams for help, and pulls her from the zombie and the two fall back. Alicia gets mad at Chris, as he grabbed her waist while falling and she strikes his nose with her elbow. Travis, Madison, Nick and Alicia all watch the reanimated Susan through the fence. Madison claims that she is sick, and Travis asks if she was bitten. Nick intercedes, stating that she's not sick, but dead. Alicia panics as she realizes that the same thing that happened to Susan happened to Matt.

After a conversation about Daniel's cousin coming to pick him up in the next day and Madison's protests about spending the night at the house, Travis goes to dispose of Peter's body. Daniel suggests using gas from the truck to burn the body, as he believes the disease will spread from the corpse. Travis declines, arguing that they don't know how it spreads. Back in the house, he has a talk with Liza, that says that when Griselda's foot was crushed, the tissue began to die, and the the infection caused by it will spread throughout her body, eventually causing organ failure and subsequent death, and that there's nothing they can do. In a bedroom in the house, Ofelia attempts to persuade her father to go with Travis' group, but he refuses. After she leaves, Daniel makes a joke to Griselda saying that she was the one who suggested for her not to learn Spanish. Madison watches a zombified Susan attempting to make her way through the wooden fence. Liza starts a small conversation with her, where Madison tells her if she ever ends up like Susan, to "take care" of her, so Travis does not have the burden of doing so.

The next morning, Travis buries Peter, and takes out the garbage, witnessing one of his neighbors doing so as well. He walks in on Daniel teaching Chris how the shotgun works, and is greatly displeased, telling Madison "you know how I feel about guns". "The gun doesn't care how you feel about it" retorts Daniel. Before they leave the residence, Madison says she's got one last thing to do. She goes to the fence where Susan is still attempting to get through. She wants to kill her, but Travis tells her that there is a chance she may still have some of her humanity, and that a cure may still be a possibility, and she decides to spare her. Daniel, who was watching from a window, mutters that she is "weak". Ofelia still tries to persuade him to go along with Travis' group, but he refuses, stating that in situations like this, "good people are the first ones to die". Griselda supports her husband's actions and tells her that the two have gotten through much worse.

Travis' group prepares to leave the city quickly. He leads the way through the empty streets as Madison drives behind him. She watches as army helicopters fly overhead and sees Patrick, Susan's husband, who has come back from work. As he heads indoors, Madison pulls over in her cars and pursues him. Travis notices that Madison is not behind her and follows. Patrick calls for Susan but gets no response; he finds her reanimated body, and is startled by it's pale, dirty appearance. Despite this and Madison's warning not to touch her, he attempts to hug her. A bullet hits her in the head just as the rest of Travis and Madison's group and members of the California Army National Guard arrive at the area. The guards escort Madison, Travis and their families away from the scene, while Patrick mourns his wife's death and is quickly taken away.

Shortly after, we see that the National Guard is in the whole neighborhood, and a guard surveys the occupants of Madison's house, and tells them to stay inside their house. Madison goes to two guards to ask where they took Patrick. They ambiguously answer that Patrick was covered in infected blood. One of the guards asks if anyone in Madison's household was exposed to the infected, to which she swiftly responds "no". The guardsman notices the recently created mount of dirt where Peter was buried and asks about it. Madison answers that "our dog died." Meanwhile, Nick is hidden at the side of an unknown house, and tries to break in via a window. A little girl in the house next door witnesses his act, startling him, and playfully waves the hand of her doll to Nick. Nick awkwardly waves back, and ceases his break in attempt. While walking away, Nick hears a plane engine and a loud bang, and looks to the sky to see a commercial airliner descending and turning dangerously, seemingly out of control. Watching the National Guard in the streets of the neighborhood, throwing body bags on trucks and spray painting Xs on the Cruz family residence, Travis is optimistic, and proclaims that things will get better from now on. Inside the house however, Daniel Salazar doesn't share the same feeling, and ominously says to his wife that "it's already too late".

Co-Stars

 * Steven Allerick as "Guardsman 2"
 * Noah Beggs as Peter Dawson
 * Cynthia Rose Hall as "Guardswoman"
 * Cici Lau as Susan Tran
 * Jim Lau as Patrick Tran

Uncredited

 * Aaron Harrison as "Rioter"
 * Floyd Foster Jr. as "Neighbor"
 * Toni French as McElory
 * Unknown as French

Deaths

 * Joanna Cruz (Off-Screen)
 * Mr. Cruz (Off-Screen)
 * Gladys Cruz (Off-Screen)
 * Peter Dawson (Zombified)
 * Susan Tran (Zombified)
 * At least one unnamed officer
 * Numerous counts of Citizens

Trivia

 * The title of this episode refers to Travis' lesson in the pilot, where he says the dog represents nature and nature always wins.
 * The scene where Nick looks at the sky to see a seemingly out of control plane can be a reference to the Fear the Walking Dead derived sixteen-part mini-series Flight 462 that takes place in a plane.
 * This episode contains the first death of an animal in Fear the Walking Dead.
 * First (and last) appearance of Susan Tran. (Alive and Zombified)
 * First (and last) appearance of Patrick Tran.
 * First (and last) appearance of French.
 * Last appearance of Peter Dawson. (Zombified)
 * Last appearance of Gladys Cruz. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Joanna Cruz. (Corpse)
 * Last appearance of Mr. Cruz. (Corpse)

Goofs/Errors

 * When the Manawas and Salazars drive past the hospital, they witness a zombified doctor and patient in the parking lot. The doctor is killed first and falls to the ground near the patient. However, a different shot of the scene shows police gunning down the patient while the doctor's body is absent.
 * When Susan was shot by military force, she fell down immediately. But when it came to the next scene, Susan was seen holding onto her husband with her hands on his back.
 * Despite having been shot, Susan's mouth still moved after that and her face expressed some kind of pain. This isn't true since a walker dies immediately after his/her brain is destroyed.
 * Travis mentions Daniel's name as in the English form, despite been told otherwise the previous episode.