"Captive" is the fifth episode of the second season of AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. It is the eleventh episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 8, 2016. It was written by Carla Ching and directed by Craig Zisk.
Plot
Alicia works to reunite with her family. Travis meets a familiar face. Madison and Nick lead a charge to save their family against all odds.
Synopsis
Aboard Connor's ship, he cooks a steak for Alicia in the galley. After he leaves. Vida steals the steak and locks Alicia in the galley. Alicia ventures through an unlocked door and finds herself on the ship’s bow with no way to escape. Jack warns her that she’s not allowed to roam freely and ushers her back inside. Alicia demands to know if her family made it to safety. Jack agrees to find out.
Aboard the Abigail, a captive Reed informs Daniel that Connor, his brother, has a dozen men and a fleet of five boats and will come looking for him. Daniel allows Chris to stand guard outside Reed’s door. Daniel suggests to Madison that they can use Reed’s relationship to Connor as leverage. They locate Connor’s base by scanning the radar for Connor's fleet. Meanwhile, Strand recovers in the wheelhouse.
Madison steers the Abigail north, but Luis reminds her that they have a small window of time to cross over into Mexico. Madison refuses to abandon her family. Strand agrees to give her half a day to rescue Travis and Alicia. In Spanish, Luis tells Strand that someone is waiting for them and they need to go, but Strand says “he” would understand. Luis counters that he only has enough money for two people to cross the border. “Everything is a negotiation,” replies Strand, as Daniel listens in.
Daniel advises Madison to let Nick and Chris help fight Connor’s group and urges her to stop treating them like children. Madison ignores his advice. Meanwhile, Jack instructs Alicia to scan their radar for more vessels that his people can hijack. Travis wakes up in a cell and is confronted by Alex, who reveals how desperate they were after being abandoned that she had to euthanize Jake on the raft, and also she is actually the one who informed Connor about the Abigail and also suggesting to capture it. Back on the Abigail, Madison forbids Strand from sending Nick on more errands. Strand argues that Nick knows how to survive, but Madison replies that Strand has never seen Nick in the throes of addiction and worries that he is using again.
As Jack spots the Abigail approaching on the radar, Alicia realizes Reed could not have possibly delivered her family to safety in such a short amount of time. Jack admits that Reed sometimes kills passengers after hijackings and offers to help Alicia find her family. Alicia tells Jack to radio Connor and alert him to a potential target vessel. They plan to escape together while Connor performs reconnaissance on the ship. In his cell, Travis tells Alex that he kept her on the raft because he was worried Jake might be infected. “You knew the right thing to do, and you chose the other,” she tells him. Travis apologizes to Alex and shares that he was forced to kill his son’s mother, telling her that "it cost a part of me."
Strand spots Connor's fleet docked along the shore and tells Daniel that they’ve arrived at his base. Reed talks to Chris and riles him up, but Nick shuts the door to tune Reed out. Chris blames himself for allowing Reed’s group onto the boat, but Nick assures him it’s not his fault. Meanwhile, Alicia and Nick find Travis and tell him they’re plotting to escape that night. When Connor radios the Abigail, Madison tells him that they’re holding Reed and will trade him for Travis and Alicia. Connor agrees. However, after Madison signs off, Chris shoots Reed and claims he was about to turn. The group finds Reed dead in the cabin with his face blown off. Madison comforts Chris, who realizes that he just destroyed any hopes of getting Travis back safely.
As Travis and Alicia are prepared for the prisoner exchange, Reed turns as Nick and Ofelia clean the blood in his room. Daniel pins Reed to a wall and places a hood over his head. Daniel hears a disembodied voice telling him to "take his gun." Alicia flees from Jack while Madison prepares the Zodiac. Nick wants to deliver Reed, but Madison refuses to let him go. She leaves with Reed in the Zodiac. Nick and Strand monitor the pier through binoculars and notice that Connor only has Travis. Meanwhile, Alicia comes across Travis's empty cell and is attacked by Vida. Alicia pushes her to the ground and locks her inside the cell. On the pier, Madison hands Reed over to Connor. Connor’s men release Travis. Connor removes Reed’s hood and is immediately bitten by the infected Reed.
Alicia escapes onto the ship’s bow and spots Madison and Travis on the pier, but is cornered by Jack. Jack begs Alicia to stay with him and asks if she really wants to live with the kind of people who abandon survivors like Alex. “I’m sorry,” she says and jumps into the water. Madison and Travis rescue her in the Zodiac and return to the Abigail.
Other Cast
Uncredited
- Richard Nunez and Mark Kubr as Roughnecks
- Josh Wingate as Ben (Corpse)
Deaths
- Reed and Connor's Father (Confirmed Fate)
- Jake Powell (Confirmed Fate)
- Reed (Alive)
- Connor
- At least 1 unnamed pirate
Trivia
- Last appearance of Reed.
- Last appearance of Connor.
- Last appearance of Ben. (Corpse)
- Last appearance of Alex. (Unknown)
- Last appearance of Vida. (Unknown)
- Last appearance of Jack Kipling. (Unknown)
- The scene in which Madison trades an undead Reed for Travis is similar to the events in Issues 119 and 120 of the Comic Series where Negan gives a zombified Holly back to Rick which gives Negan an opportunity to attack.
- It is also similar in where in the Michonne series where Michonne and her group give back Randall to Norma and her group for Oak and Siddiq. (Determinant)
- There is a deleted scene where Alex frees Alicia from the kitchen after Vida locks Alicia inside.[2]
- In this episode, Alicia steals Jack's Balisong while he is showing her the radar for the first time. She will go on to use it often in later episodes, starting with "Do Not Disturb".
- This episode was shot on two different tuna boats. A dry-docked boat was used for exterior shots, while the interiors were shot on its sister boat out on the water.
- Given what is seen of the pirates here, they were likely not responsible for the destruction of the Leigh Anne in "Monster" and the chase by the larger vessel in "We All Fall Down". Aside from the dry docked ship, they do not have larger vessels with the five boats they do have being identified as fishing boats by Daniel Salazar. Additionally, completely shooting up the boat as the Leigh Anne was defeats the purpose of robbing it and taking control of useful vessels for themselves which is the pirates main goal.
Goofs/Errors
- Approximately halfway through when Alicia and Jack are looking at boats on the radar, Alicia points to the radar which shows them being a good distance from shore (the land being the green). Since they were on dry dock, the center of the radar should have been where the land meets the water.
- When Alicia goes out to the boat deck to see the city, there are moving cars on the left of the landscape on a highway.
- Madison took a gun with her to the hostage exchange, yet she does not even take it out during the ensuing brawl. It is understandable that she does not want to fire it and thus attract attention. She may have also simply forgot she had it. These people are not yet used to high stress combat. They have been through some things but are not seasoned.