Opens with a US flag in one of what looks like a holding camp.
‘Fire, earthquake, flood,’ says an older black guy wearing a nice suit. He looks at Doug Thompson in the cell that they share. ‘You are a buyer. I am a closer.’ Can’t close insurance though. When the man is gone, kids and family are left alone. The wolf comes to the door. No one is covered for that. He takes a photo from Doug of Doug’s wife, Maria. He insinuates that Maria will use her body to get another man to help her get through this apocalypse. Doug falls apart and the military takes him. The black guy set him off on purpose, but we don’t know the purpose.
Then he looks down at Nick, who is sitting on the floor. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he asks Nick.
We cut to Ofelia throwing bottles at the chain link fence. Military is on the other side of the fence. She wants her mom. The main leader says she’s inciting the natives and they have to deal with her. It sounds like they’re either going to cart her off to the holding cell with Nick, or they’re going to kill her. Andrew, Ofelia’s boyfriend says no, let him deal with her. They let him take care of it. He goes to the other side of the fence and sits by Ofelia. He says he’ll take Ofelia home. A corporal wants to to leave. ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ They tell him to get in line.
Chris comes in to the kitchen and is upset. He’s upset that Liza went willingly into the truck last night. Travis tells her that is who Liza is, she wants to help people. He needs for Chris to hold it together. He wants Chris to apologize to Madison for being rude and Chris says ‘no, go be with your family’ and storms off into what is now his makeshift bedroom.
Now we’re at the camp with Liza and Dr. Exner. Liza is sewing someone up. Nice stitches, very neat. What happened to the three other nurses? One of them left. As to the other two, silence. We’re left to believe that they got bitten. They said that Griselda lost her foot. She’s in recovery. But we don’t know that for sure, they could be lying. We haven’t seen Griselda yet. Liza didn’t ask about Nick, but we know he’s in a cage.
Madison found Susan’s note. She goes over to Susan’s (I think she’s at Susan’s) looking for Alicia. She finds a flashlight. She hears a sound and grabs a knife. She goes down the stairs and it’s dark. She hears more noises, kind of sounds like someone is banging around. The flashlight is wonky and she has to smack it to make it go on again. She’s kind of nuts to be going down there in the dark.
She finds Daniel, Ofelia and Andrew. Andrew is tied up and his mouth covered with duct tape. Daniel tells Madison, ‘this is how we get them back.’
Daniel looks at Andrew. Andrew says this isn’t necessary. He says his family will be back. Madison says you guys broke in at night and took Griselda and Nick. She’s not believing Andrew. Madison says to Ofelia they should go to the leader. Ofelia asks what do we do, ask nicely to get them back. Ofelia doesn’t think the military will give them back. Daniel says they have to trade the officer for Griselda and Nick. Daniel wants to trade – not to get Griselda and Nick (because he doesn’t think that will work), but to get information about their situation. Daniel says he’s seen all of this before – from what happened in El Salvador (although he doesn’t say this explicitly). He wants to know how much time they have left.
Travis meets the Moyers who tells Travis that all of the people outside of the camps are in the quarantine. Moyers also explains to Travis that he needs to keep his men busy. His men are just kids and are afraid. Raiding houses is bad for morale, so he really doesn’t like to do it. Travis tells them if they don’t get their people back there’s going to be a bigger problem than just Travis. Moyers asks if Travis is threatening him. Travis says no, he’s just ‘being helpful’, referencing a previous conversation between the two of them. Moyers laughs and says the walking dead are among us and we’re still the United States. They’re going to take Travis downtown to the hospital to see Griselda. He can do this because he has all the guns. The guy who was giving Ofelia a hard time is worried about his men. Moyers gives his men something (maybe drugs?) and tells him to get back to work.
Daniel and Andrew. He tells Andrew about Ofelia’s birth. He says Ofelia was always innocent. She is still innocent. She asked Daniel not to hurt Andrew and to to just talk to him. Daniel takes off his shirt and brings out some of his barber tools. He says to Andrew, ‘that’s not going to happen.’
Travis is in a humvee going downtown. They stop to kill a walker in a donut store. They assign the walker points and note that ‘she’s a ripe one’. They want Travis to participate where ‘participation’ means kill the walker. He has a momentary freak-out and says he can’t. He says he’s not a good shot. They refer to him as a conscientious objector and that he’s happy to take their protection and not get his hands dirty. Moyers says she’s not human and if Travis thinks that she is then that means that they’re all a bunch of murderers.
Travis walks up the gun. He’s having a hard time. He looks through the sights. It’s all done in slow motion and you can hear his heart beat. Is there a reason why he’s so freaked out by the gun? Sure seems like more than just having to kill a walker. He sees the walker through the window of the store. She’s in her early 20s and somehow looks very sad. He sees her name tag – Kimberly – and sees that she has a big bite on her arm. Once he sees all of that, he can’t kill her, even though she’s already dead. Moyers takes over and shoots her in the head. They get back in the humvee.
At the hospital compound, a wounded soldier is brought in. Dr. Exner sees that he’s been bitten. She doesn’t say so explicitly, but they’re going to have to kill him. They have to save hundreds of thousands, not just individuals. Liza looks very uncomfortable.
The Humvee is getting to the hospital (or other large building, hard to tell what it is, actually). They tell Travis to stay in the truck, no matter what. When they start shooting he can hear the screaming and shooting on the radio. Someone screams ‘there’s too many!’ It doesn’t look good for the soldiers.
Back to Daniel and Andrew. Daniel is telling Andrew a story – the man with the blade and the man in the chair are no different (torturer and torture-ee). They both suffer and both of their lives will be changed forever. The men in the past gave Daniel a choice, which man will you be? He’s cutting Andrew. ‘What is cobalt?’ Daniel asks Andew. Andrew is quiet. ‘The outer layers of skin have fewer nerves, the lower levels have more, and are more sensitive. You need a steady hand.’ Daniel’s hand is steady. ‘What is cobalt?’, he asks again. It’s pretty clear which man Daniel was in the story.
Chris is laying on top of a car. Alicia rides up on a bike and asks, ‘have you no respect for private property?’
Chris: ‘Is that your bike?’
Alicia: ‘I’ll ask the questions.’ She’s still sitting on the bike.
Alicia: ‘Want to talk about it?’
She tells him to get on the bike with her. She wants to show him something. They go to a rich person’s house and she puts on the woman’s clothes and he plays with a remote control plane. He sees her in the mirror and gerts nervous and walks away. She smiles.
Back to the holding cell. The guards take the temperature of all the prisoners. Our nicely dressed black guy has no fever. Nick does – because of his withdrawal symptoms. The guards prepare to take him away – probably to kill him. The black guy gives the guard an expensive-looking cuff link so that he’ll leave Nick there. The guard wants both cuff links. He hands them over, and Nick stays.
Travis gets out of the truck. A walker shambles out of the door to the building. The guys tell Travis there’s too many walkers and that they have to leave. They’re not going to the hospital, they’re going back to base. It’s implied that they lost Moyers inside the building. No one is too sad. They’re afraid though.
Liza is at the compound, probably where Nick is, but she doesn’t see him. She sees the cages – very X-files. She goes to Griselda, who is also in a cage – a cage all to herself. Dr. Exner says that Griselda has septic shock and that sometimes all we can do is wait. Griselda opens her eyes, but we can’t see her pupils yet, so we don’t know if she’s turned.
Alicia is looking at the family photos on the mantel at the house where they broke in. Alicia wonders where the inhabitants went. She asks Chris if he wonders that. Chris doesn’t. Both Chris and Alicia are wearing the inhabitant’s evening clothes. Alicia is wearing a lot of make-up. Alicia takes the slip cover off of the piano. She’s drinking champagne. He throws one of the family photos down and it crashes on the floor. They start destructing the house and everything in it. They smash the furniture and casually break plates.
Travis is back in his neighborhood. He is walking down the street and sees Ofelia sititng on the ground. Then he races into the house and asks Madison – ‘did you know what he was going to do. Did you know what he was going to do? Tell me me you didn’t know.’ Madison knew, and she was okay with it. She wants Nick back.
Andrew is still alive?! He’s talkig to Daniel. He tells Daniel about 2,000 people. He’s never seen them turn so fast. It happened so fast he couldn’t tell the infected fron the others. ‘I can hear them.’ Daniel asks him what he did. Andrew tells him that they locked them all in the arena. Andrew chained the doors.
Daniel says for Andrew to tell Travis about Cobalt.
Cobalt is a command code word to evacuate from the L.A. basin. It also includes procedures for the humane termination of …. Andrew doesn’t finish his sentence, but the ‘termination’ is either for all of the survivors, or only the ones in the holding cells. Either way, it’s not a good thing.
Travis wants to know when do we leave.
It will happen at 0900 hours tomorrow. (!!!!) But it’s not for everyone, only the military. Everyone else is ‘humanely terminated’.
Meanwhile, Nick is going through withdrawal and is throwing up. He’s wondering why the black guy saved him. He says he didn’t save him, he obligated him, and there is a difference. ‘The game has changed and we’re going back to the old rules. The people with their lattes and their frequent flyer miles are about to beocme the buffet.’ He sees that Nick knows the meaning of the word ‘necessity’. Nick says he’s an addict. He says ‘no, you’re a hell of an addict, don’t see yourself short.’ This guy will need a man of Nick’s talents before he makes his move because the soldiers are leaving. He has a key, which he shows to Nick.
Chris and Alicia are walking back home after curfew and make sure that the speeding humvees don’t see them, but Chris says they aren’t patrolling. Alicia says there is something wrong.
Griselda is still alive, but in bad shape and raving She’s talking about the disappeared and how they are waiting to curse them. Maybe she knew what Daniel did. ‘Now I know your nature, and now you know mine.’ Because she stayed with him knowing his role in everything? Then she dies.
Dr. Exer says she’s going to come back and plans to shoot Griselda in the head. Time varies from when they come back, but she will come back, since any death will trigger a ressurection. She says only traumatic brain injury will stop them. Liza says she will shoot her in the head, and then does so. She seems very pragmatic about it.
Daniel is outside in the dark watching the humvees drive by. He goes to the coliseum??!! How did he get there?? I guess he’s there to verify Andrew’s story. The door is bolted on the outside, walkers are inside, trying to get out. Shades of the first episode of The Walking Dead, when Rick sees the doors bolted with ‘don’t open, dead inside’. Daniel sees this and halts on the steps. He looks afraid. Camera pulls back so that we can tell that he’s really at the coliseum!