It’s night time and we see waves crashing into a pier. Someone is swimming in the dark, heading to shore. Nick? Yeah it’s Nick. He’s naked, or close to it. He has a plastic bag tied to his arm. Must have been a tough swim because he looks exhausted. He finally makes it to shore, evading the searchlights of a helicopter scanning the shoreline. A little ways from shore, we also see boats with search lights too.
Nick puts his clothes on – kept dry by the plastic bag. Pretty brave of him to swim in the dark, when we’ve seen lots of walkers on the beach.
He wanders through a tent city located by the pier. There’s a big sign ‘save us’ in what looks like palm leaves on the ground. It could be written directly in the sand too, but it’s dark so it’s hard to tell. The tent city looks kind of like a burning man camp – except it’s empty. Fires burn sporadically throughout the tent city. Nick wanders among the tents, while a walker with a big bite on its ankle shambles behind him. Nick is banging around and making a lot of noise and sees the walker. He hides behind a tent and throws something to distract the walker. He walks briskly away and into a tent. He doesn’t look inside first to make sure its empty! Anyway, he goes in, zips up the mesh door and waits for the walker. Predictably, the walker tries to get in. Nick grabs the walker’s head through the mesh and kills him with a knife to the head. He drags the walker into the tent. He stabs it in the stomach and guts him, retching along the way. He then puts walker guts all over his face and body, his arms, and everywhere. Then, when he’s covered in goo, he steps out of the tent. We see a dog prowling around, as well as some of the tents on fire, but no walkers. And off goes Nick.
Travis and Madison. They’re arguing in the bedroom of the Abigail. Madison wants to do more than survive, she wants to start over, and Strand’s safe house in Mexico sounds like just the ticket. Travis says we can’t trust Strand, he cut the rope towing Alex and Jake, leaving the two adrift. Travis thinks they should throw Strand overboard.
While this is all going on, Chris is up on deck of the Abigail hanging out with Ofelia. He asks her if she’s ever been to Mexico. She hasn’t. They came from El Salvador but she hasn’t been there since she was a kid. Chris asks her if she’s had relationships. She smiles, and says yes. Chris said he did too, in Pomona, but that ended once his mom moved him to Los Angeles. Ofelia went to catholic school. She also notes that she looked after her parents, but it turns out they didn’t need as much watching over as she thought. Nice dig at Daniel. She reassures Chris that there are other girls on the planet for him. Chris turns and sees a raft heading their way. The people on board are saying they need help. Chris turns to Ofelia and wants to know if he should shoot them – in the end, he doesn’t. The newcomers board the boat without asking, and bring along a pregnant woman who has blood on her legs, and might be in labor. Alicia hears them from her room. Strand observes from a higher vantage point. He goes to get his rifle, and finds the magazine missing. Daniel took the magazine last episode. Ooops.
Madison goes to help the pregnant woman and takes her into the bathroom. Alicia goes upstairs to investigate. She recognizes the voice – Jack? Jack, the guy from a few episodes back that she was giving all kinds of info to. How did they find the Abigail? First they hid at the tourist island two weeks ago, and now they’re miles from there. Hmm. As soon as Alicia says ‘Jack?’, the new people attack everyone. They tie up Travis and the rest. The pregnant woman knocks Madison out. And yeah, the pregnant woman was just fine, the bleeding was just a ruse to get on board.
Strand takes off in the newcomers’ raft – they shoot at him and puncture the raft. In the end they don’t care if they hit Strand. If they missed him, the hypothermia will take care of him.
We then see a newscast about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The newscast shows us miles of houses under water. We see Strand. Must be a flashback. He’s nicely dressed as per usual, and he has a pretty spiffy gold earring in one ear. He’s drinking in a bar with some guy. They’re getting wasted, well, the guy is getting wasted, Strand, not so much. They discuss their respective pasts. Turns out Strand lost everything in the hurricane. The man, Thomas Abigail, says that he’s there to buy up land – basically being a parasite (as he describes himself). And the best time to buy up land is when there is blood in the streets. So now we know how The Abigail got her name. And the yacht probably does belong to Thomas Abigail, not Strand, which verifies that Daniel was right a couple of weeks ago when he noticed that Strand said ‘a ten million dollar boat’ rather than ‘my ten million dollar boat’.
Many drinks later, Strand takes Abigail to Abigail’s hotel room, lays him on a bed, and removes his shoes. Abigail is so drunk that he’s barely conscious at this point. Strand gets a bottle of water from the minibar and leaves it on the night stand. Strand hoists Abigail up and takes off his jacket and then lets him fall back onto the bed. Strand then goes through the jacket pocket, finds Abigail’s wallet and takes a few credit cards. The man says ‘maybe I won’t remember’ as Strand leaves.
Back to the current time, where it’s now morning, and we see Strand clinging to the raft. He’s barely hanging on.
Back on the yacht, Reed points a gun at Chris and wants to know where the key to the boat is. Travis tells him that Strand has the keys. Reed doesn’t believe Travis or Ofelia, and starts a countdown from 3. At the end, he will shoot Chris. Travis says he can hot wire the boat. The guy doesn’t shoot Chris. No one knows where Nick is.
Jack and Alicia discuss situation they are all in. Alicia says that Jack lied to her. Jack can say that Alicia will be safe, not clear about her family.
On shore, Nick is wandering around a gated area, covered in walker goo. He’s got an address. Strand must have given it to him. A female walker wanders by Nick. Nick assumes the walker’s walk. It’s kind of funny. The female walker walks on by, ignoring him – it’s further proof that walker guts act like an invisibility shield. She continues her slow shamble to the gate, the opposite direction from Nick.
Another Strand flashback. This time he’s wearing a cushy hotel robe and he’s in a cushy hotel room. The barely conscious drunk guy, Thomas Abigail, and his brother Luis, knock on the door. Thomas tells Strand he knows that Strand took out cash advances on his credit cards. What did Strand do with the money besides buy fancy clothes and nice hotel rooms? Strand says he bought credit card debt and that in a few years he’ll be back where he was financially. He will also pay Abigail back, with interest. Abigail is impressed. Strand wants to know what’s up if he’s not going to call the cops. Thomas says to Strand that he hasn’t forgiven Strand, but he has obligated him. It’s much as Strand said to Nick in the first season. Meanwhile, in current time, Strand is still barely hanging on to the raft. Worse, he accidentally drops the sat phone in the water, where it gently floats away and down to the bottom.
Cut to Travis trying to hot wire the yacht. Travis tells Reed that the boat is all computerized, so he needs to go down to the engine room. The rest of the group try to make a plan to escape. Ofelia tells Chris to ignore the taunts. Madison then taunts the pregnant woman.
Down in the engine room – Travis tries to explain what’s going on with the controls and the wiring. Jack tells someone on the radio that he’s got Alicia. Alicia is upset with Jack because she thinks he’s lying. He says that Connor saved his life. And when someone saves your life, you owe them (kind of like being obligated, yes?). Jack seems to genuinely like Alicia. She wonders if she and Jack met for a reason, the reason being that they’ve both done terrible things. She wants her family to come with them. She tells Jack she’ll contribute to his group, if he protects her family. Jack thinks about it. He then cuts the ropes binding her arms. I guess he trusts her. She gives him a hug, but she’s clearly not into it. It looks like another ruse.
Nick is wandering around the town, making noise to locate any walkers or people. It’s unnaturally quiet in that housing development, hmm, kind of like the tent city at the beginning of the episode. Where did all the people go? Shouldn’t there be a few more walkers? Nick finds the house that matches the address on his very bloody piece of paper, and knocks on the door. A man with a gun aims at Nick. Nick says ‘don’t shoot’. It looks like Luis from Strand’s flashback.
Nick says that Strand sent him and shows him the piece of paper. Luis tells him the houses were part of a phase one of a housing development. That explains the lack of people. Nick thinks they can stay there because it’s really nice, but Luis says no, and wants to go to Mexico. Luis also says don’t touch the car, or the leather interior, with your walker guts. He makes Nick wash off the guts. Ha!
Madison taunts the pregnant lady again. She wants to know when was the last time she felt the baby move? What if baby died and has turned inside of her? Wow, Madison’s kind of mean. But she was a guidance counselor and it was her job to get inside people’s heads, so now she’s using her powers for bad.
Travis hides a weapon behind a couch cushion for his people to find. One of the first devious things we’ve seen him do.
Back to Luis and Nick. They get out of the car, with walkers meandering toward them. Luis and Nick seem pretty lackadaisical about this fact. They have luggage and other gear which goes into the trunk. They discuss the place in Mexico. Luis has a hidden raft – of course he does! Nick says that the place must be okay if he’s leaving his mom there. Luis laughs and says his mom is tough. Not sure what this means about the safety of that house.
Another Strand flashback. Thomas Abigail and Strand are sitting by the pool. Abigail’s mom doesn’t like Strand, says Strand, she’s only tolerating him. They’re discussing business. Abigail says no, don’t discuss business. They drink. Strand says they have to move on this parcel of land. Abigail wants to always have these vistas for his family. He loves it there and says that it makes him feel like ‘the rest of the world has fallen away.’ Foreshadowing. They smile and hold hands. This is probably the place that Strand has been aiming for, the place that Travis calls ‘the magic house’.
Travis is on deck. A boat is arriving. Travis goes to start up the yacht. Three other people board the yacht. Two men and a woman, one of them is Connor. They tell everyone that Alicia and Travis are coming with them. They put bags over Travis and Alicia’s heads and Connor takes off with them. One guy and the woman are stationed at the doorway with machine guns. Now that Reed has reinforcements, he starts getting drunk.
Nick and Luis are heading to the Abigail but they see people with guns. Luis shoots the man and the woman who were stationed out front with his high-powered rifle. Chris attacks Reed and Madison stabs him with the weapon that Travis left in the couch. All of our people are now free. Nick says that Luis is a friend. Madison and co explain that Strand left and is on the raft. They have to find Strand so they can get into Mexico. They can’t get in without him.
In the last flashback, Strand and Abigail are arguing, the apocalypse has begun. There are riots in the streets and L.A. is no different. Abigail says he doesn’t want Strand’s blood in the streets. They’re holding hands and Abigail doesn’t want Strand to go to Los Angeles, because everything is falling apart. But Strand wants to get this property deal done. He tells Abigail that he’ll be back in two days. They kiss. It’s pretty clear at this point that this is who Strand was talking to on his sat phone a couple of episodes back. But no one really answered that call. It could be that Abigail is already dead and that the property where they were in the flashbacks isn’t safe at all. That would be too bad because I kind of like Abigail, and I’d like to see more of him and Strand together.
Present day – Strand is in the water, the raft is almost deflated and he’s at the end of his rope. He lets go of the raft and is floating on his back. Thankfully for him, Madison revs up in the raft, and she takes Strand’s hand and pulls him aboard the raft. Not really sure how she found him, but I’m glad she did.