‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Hits Every Subplot in ‘Pillar of Salt’

Fear the Walking Dead season 2, episode 12 aired last night on AMC. Despite the group being completely fractured, every subplot is touched on in the new episode.

At the start of Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead, our entire group was all together. We had Travis and Chris Manawa, Madison and her children Nick and Alicia, Daniel and Ofelia Salazar, and of course, Victor Strand. Twelve episodes in, that core group is all but totally fallen apart— even though only one of those characters is now dead.

Travis and Chris went off on their own, following the latter’s transformation into a creep. Nick abandoned his own family as well, considering them to be no better than the monsters (Dale would be proud). Ofelia would later disappear herself, breaking up the group ever more.

Everybody might be separated now, but “Pillar of Salt”, the newest episode of Fear the Walking Dead, managed to touch on every one of their stories. Let’s take a minute to go through them all:

Ofelia Salazar

When we last saw Ofelia, she was searching through the hotel with Alicia. Soon after, she completely vanished. It was suspected she took Strand’s truck when the vehicle was discovered missing as well soon after.

Flashbacks in “Pillar of Salt” reveal how Ofelia is actually engaged, something she kept hidden from her family. She recalls a flashback of her mother telling her she went to the United States to escape the danger she and Daniel were in. In the truck she stole from Strand, Ofelia heads to the States to presumably find her fiance.

Fear the Walking Dead (Photo by Richard Foreman/AMC)

“At least keeping the engagement secret from my parents is no longer an issue.”

Nick

A family sneaks out of the Colonia and gangsters from the supermarket capture them. Because of this, Alejandro backs out of the deal to bring the supermarket gang more drugs. Nick sees this as a terrible idea, and makes plans to deliver the drugs to their leader Marco that night anyway.

Unfortunately, Marco finds their settlement before the delivery can be made. Now it’s looking like they’re going to take all of the drugs.

Victor

The hotel seems safe after the walkers were cleared out of the building. That is, until a woman unexpectedly stabs Victor Strand in the stomach. Turns out she’s the mother of the zombie bride Strand put down last week as a favor to the groom. Victor is treated by the group, but needs antibiotics to help his recovery.

Madison and Alicia

Maddie travels with Elena to Marco’s supermarket for antibiotics. There, she overhears the capture family reference a gringo with ratty hair selling drugs. Nobody fits that description quite like Nick, so she realizes her son must be at this unknown settlement.

In a desperate bid to get Nick’s attention, Madison turns on the hotel lights in the middle of the night. Alicia manages to convince her to turn them back off, noting the danger. As Nick “made his choice” to leave, Alicia isn’t as eager to reunite with him as her mother is.

Travis and Chris

That leaves us with what’s left of the Manawa family. Their story was very nearly skipped, only being touched on in the final seconds of the show. The episode reveals Travis to be outside, having seen the hotel lights in the darkness— and he starts walking in that direction.

Note— only Travis is shown noticing the lights. This heavily implies he lost his son to that group of Governors-in-training we last saw them with. Perhaps Travis is unwilling to become a robber or killer, even in the new world they all live in. And even if that means losing the person most important to him.

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There are only THREE episodes left this season. While “Pillar of Salt” felt pretty slow at times, I feel like it’s setting up a strong finale for the season. Travis is about to reunite with Maddie, and they’ll likely find Nick too before long. But I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Chris— and I bet he will be an all out villain by the time we do again.

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.