‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Premiere Recap: It’s Not A Hallucination (Updated)

“Fear the Walking Dead” made its debut on AMC on Sunday night, with a look at a major metropolis at the dawn of the zombie apocalypse.

When “The Walking Dead” premiered in 2010, Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes was our window into an already changed world. Due to a car chase-turned-shootout that left him in a coma though, viewers didn’t get to see how society unraveled. Instead, we saw Rick wake up next to a bouquet of dead flowers, and once he opened his hospital room door, he was immediately immersed in a world infested with the undead.

Although set before society crumbled, and in Los Angeles, a locale more than 2,100 miles away from “TWD’s” initial setting near Atlanta, the “Fear” premiere begins with some familiar-feeling scenes: a man (interestingly, one letter away from Rick) — Nick (Frank Dillane) — wakes up in a haze in an abandoned building with no one around. There’s an eerie quiet and he can sense something is wrong. Unlike the easy-to-root-for hero of “TWD” Season 1 though, Nick is a heroin-addicted community college reject, waking up not from a coma, but his “junkie communion” (aka his drug trip), and not in an abandoned hospital, but in a derelict former church.

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As Nick stumbles down the stairs in half-buttoned jeans and a loose-fitting, cropped cardigan, he gets an ominous feeling after hearing a strange sound. A blood smear on the railing confirms something terrible has happened. A moment later, a dead body in a doorway with its face halfway torn off sends Nick into a panic, and after grabbing a weapon (a metal candle holder), he calls out with urgency (in a whisper) for his girlfriend Gloria.

His pace quickens as he rushes into the main room, spots her and insists they get out of there. Gloria, in her underwear and a tank top, is crouched over a lifeless body. His eyes widen when she turns around to look at him, and he falls backward — stunned. Blood is smeared around her mouth, and her eyes are frosted over. Gloria isn’t Gloria. She’s something else (our first walker!) and she’s feasting on a corpse. As she moves toward him (fresh meat!), Nick bolts out of the abandoned building and into the road where he is promptly hit by a car.

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Unlike Rick, Nick doesn’t have a goodhearted man like Morgan (Lennie James) to turn to for a lesson in all things walkers. Strapped to his hospital bed (he could be a danger to himself they think) a short while later, Nick just gets the third degree while he’s interrogated by the police.

His mother, high school guidance counselor Madison (Kim Dickens), doesn’t believe him, but she tells the cops to leave Nick alone. Travis (Cliff Curtis), perhaps because of the problems he’s having with his own son, Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie, his mom, Liza, is played by Elizabeth Rodriguez), who wants nothing to do with him, is ready to take a different approach with his girlfriend’s son. So, after a long day, this high school English teacher takes his beat-up pickup truck with its shattered window, drives it to Nick’s abandoned church, and breaks in.

But back to that in a minute. First, there’s a student named Tobias (Lincoln A. Castellanos) worth mentioning. At the start of the school day, Artie, the principal, spots Tobias, a mop-haired teen, blow through the metal detector, setting it off. Madison swoops in to save him from a serious write up or suspension, pulling coins (that are hers) out of his pocket, and suggesting they talk in her office. He’s a good kid, on track to go to college. Why does he have a knife with him (he hands it over when they’re alone), she asks. “No one’s going to college. No one’s doing anything they think they are,” he tells her (something the audience of “The Walking Dead” already knows will happen). “They don’t know if it’s a virus or a microbe. They don’t know, but it’s spreading,” he adds, spewing out information and sharing his worries. Madison does the kindly school guidance counselor thing. “The authorities would tell us,” she says, looking at him with “it’s going to be OK” eyes. Knowing it’s a losing battle, one he’s probably faced a few times over the last few months, Tobias nods, gives up and goes off to class. Outside, on the bleachers, Madison’s daughter, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), ditches class for a happy moment — saying hi and getting a hug from her boyfriend, Matt (Maestro Harrell).

Later that night, long after the school day is over, Travis hops into his truck and drives to the abandoned church. After breaking into the building, he pulls out a flashlight and begins his search for answers. A man in a hoodie pops out of nowhere and gives him a brief fright. Moments later, Travis stumbles upon a truly chilling scene – blood on the wall, and more blood on the floor with maggots – and he gets the heck out of there.

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Travis’ next move isn’t to find the police or sadly future-proof his family with crossbows, knives and katanas. Instead, he heads to the hospital, where Madison is curled up asleep alongside her son. She wakes up and the two of them head out to talk, giving Alicia and Nick time for their own chat. After a spoonful or three of Jell-O, Nick uses the moment to promise his sis he’s finally going to get off drugs for good.

Outside, Travis confesses to Madison that he went to the “shooting gallery.” “Something really bad happened there,” he tells her. He wants to tell Nick too — to let him know he’s not crazy. Madison’s been through a lot with Nick and his addiction before, so she advises against it. He’ll see the shrink later, get out of the hospital and get clean.

After Madison, Travis and Alicia head off to school, leaving his side at the hospital, Nick hears something that scares him — the labored breathing of the old man in the bed next to him. He uses the moment when a nurse comes in with a bed pan to ask her to untie one of his hands, claiming it’s so he can be less “messy.” She does it seconds before she’s called into action, as the man next to Nick flatlines. Staff rushes in to save him as the machines go off, but the man dies. Immediately, the doctor does something strange. He orders the staff to take the man “downstairs! Now!”

As they rush the corpse out, Nick unties his other hand, puts on the dead man’s clothes and limps out of the hospital’s front doors. He’s got the right idea, getting out of a place where people can die at any minute, but unfortunately, it sends his mom into a panic. Worried about where her son is after learning he’s missing from the hospital, she asks Travis to take her to Nick’s drug den. There are no explanations for what they see there, and Nick isn’t there either, so they head to the home of one of Nick’s upstanding friends (he’s dressed neatly, and vacuuming out a van used to transport a disabled passenger), Calvin. He immediately offers to make some coffee (for them) and make some calls (to try and locate Nick).

Madison and Travis look around the abandoned church (AMC)

Unsuccessful in their attempts to find Nick, Travis and Madison hit the freeway and head home, getting stuck in some traffic en route. But this is no ordinary Los Angeles nighttime traffic. There are sirens, a chopper overhead, and a man on a megaphone demanding people stay inside their vehicles, so of course, Travis and Madison get out. Multiple gunshot noises send them scurrying back inside the truck, and Travis revs up the motor and turns onto an off ramp to get them out of there.

The next day, change is happening – and fast. Artie’s confused when only five kids get off one of the school buses, but inside the teacher’s lounge, as they watch leaked footage of the freeway incident Travis and Madison were stopped by the night before, it’s clear that Los Angeles is in the initial stages of panic. The footage shows a dead man on a gurney grab a paramedic and lunge at his neck, before getting up and attacking cops. Officers fire their weapons, but the stumbling man (another walker!) keeps coming. The students watch the video too. A short while later, the school district smartly declares a half day. From inside his school bus, Tobias locks eyes with Madison, who is standing on the pavement. She waves at him, offering a half smile. He turns away and looks straight ahead.

Elsewhere in town, Nick finds one of the reasons he needed to get out of the hospital – Calvin. “I need to know what you gave me,” Nick pleads with Calvin, who is revealed to be his dealer, as they sit quietly in the back of an empty diner. “Was it laced, man? Was it PCP?” Nick asks. “The church was a bloodbath… a horror show. Gloria killed two people,” Nick says, terrified. Calvin responds by putting his arm around Nick, with a promise to sort him out (as in give him a fix). Moments later, the two hop in Calvin’s car and drive away, while Calvin asks suspicious questions about what Nick told the cops who questioned him at the hospital. At end of a tunnel, on a concrete bank of the LA river, Calvin gets out of the car, pulls something out of the trunk and asks Nick to get out of the car. Just in time, Nick sees Calvin has a gun, and he fights for his life. The gun goes off, and Calvin goes down sending Nick into enough of a panic that he calls Travis for help. He arrives with Madison.

“He pulled a gun on me and he tried to kill me. I wanted to know what was in the sh** he gave me,” Nick says, trying to explain what happened before they see the scene. “Self-defense,” Travis says as they drive to where Nick left the body. Only the body’s not there.

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Afraid that he’s had another hallucination, Nick begins to lose it, so Madison and Travis usher him into the truck. While backing up the truck down the tunnel, Travis sees something that makes him hit the brakes – Calvin! Travis and Madison get out and approach him cautiously. “No! No! No, Mom! He’ll kill you,” Nick screams just before Calvin lunges at Madison’s arm. He may have his faults, but Nick is actually showing signs he’s a good guy (“Fear’s” anti-hero?). Sliding over into the driver’s seat, he puts his foot on the gas and backs over Calvin, saving his mother and Travis. But walker Calvin gets back up, this time in front of the pickup, so Nick floors it again. The undead Calvin gets stuck to the front of the truck until Nick hits the brakes close to the river’s edge, sending the body flying.

Slowly, Madison, Travis and Nick walk toward the lifeless corpse thinking it’s finally over. Mangled and with his jaw falling off, the undead Calvin stirs. “What the hell is happening?” Madison asks. “I have no idea,” Travis replies.

“Fear The Walking Dead” continues Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT on AMC.

— Jolie Lash