‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 2, Episode 9 Recap: Los Muertos

As to be expected, in Fear the Walking Dead episode 9, “Los Muertos,” a plot twist of epic proportions makes itself clear in the very first scene. Even though this series is known for its surprising turn of events, one can never really predict what’s going to happen next. The genius, if you will, of this show is that it’s so unpredictable – the storytelling so compelling – every plot twist is something new and unexpected.

Nick awakes the next day to to find no one in a once-bustling-with-people community. That’s right — no one! Everyone is gone, and it’s like a ghost town. What was a lively community when he arrived has suddenly turned barren. As he continues down the strip, he hears distant voices in unison in the distance, where he finds all of the townspeople have gathered in an area towards the far back of the compound. There, he sees a little girl crying and approaches her. “Hola,” he says. She responds with a sullen, “Mi papa.”

He looks out into the distance where the crowd has gathered chanting, “De los muertos venimos y para lost muertos nos entregamos,” which translates to “From the dead we have come and to the dead we will return or we will give ourselves to.” He sees a young man — he appears to be in his 30s — hug Luisa, the woman responsible for rescuing Nick from the brink of death, board an old junkyard school bus that is shimmied into the fence keeping the dead on the other side of it out.

On the other side of the fence a horde of the undead lie in wait. The young man walks to the back of the bus and exits through it’s emergency exit doors and closes it behind him. He then proceeds to walk straight towards the horde of the undead where he is consumed for all to see.

In the same moment, everyone is heard chanting the eerie words, “De los muertos venimos y a los muertos nos entregamos,” as if they are praying.

Meanwhile, Madison — Nick’s mother — is on a mission to find her son and Travis, dragging along everyone with her east and west of the compound they left. They eventually succeed to take stock and search for supplies, ending up at an abandoned hotel — or so it seems that way — it’s crawling with walkers as one would suspect.

This episode picks up the pace, dramatically, where episode eight left off. Nick is discovering new information about his surrounding, and Madison is coming to terms with some hard-to-swallow facts about herself as a mother. There is noticeable fluidity in this episode, however, you’d think they’d have learned their by now to keep the noise level down so as not to attract any undead roaming about the streets of the colonia, but all is temporarily forgotten that any are even around after Strand and Madison discover the hotel bar. They chat over drinks while Alycia and Ofelia are roaming around the abandoned hotel halls scavenging for goods, food and supplies.

Strand and Madison share a few drinks together, which quickly turns into several. As intoxication takes a hold of the two, so does the release of inhibitions. Madison begins to continuously slam her shot glasses into a wall after taking each shot, shattering them and then pouring herself another shot to slam it into the wall yet again. Strand then proceeds to carelessly play an out of tune piano. This, of course, attracts a horde who quickly invade the hotel lobby and bar, forcing Strand and Madison to fight them off; they end up inside the bar area, surrounded by the undead.

Alycia realizes something is amiss as she sees zombies falling from the balcony to the ground, also headed towards the ruckus.