Last night’s episode, Blood in the Streets starts out as we see someone emerge from the water and crawl onto shore. It looks like Nick, but why would he be–before we get to that,
*****Spoiler Alert*****
We later find out it is a “flash ahead”. I think it is really cool. I also think Nick is a badass ninja in the zombie apocalypse. He might be slight of build, but the dude is smart and resourceful. He proceeds to toy with a walker, then lures him into a tent where he kills him and wears his guts as zombieflage™. That’s right, I am coining that phrase.
Boarding party: We see a small group of people calling out for help on a small raft as they quickly make their way to Abigail and prepare to board. I love Chris asking “Should I shoot them?” Things unfold rapidly there and we find out…
It’s Jaaaaaack! Yes. Alicia’s mysterious radio friend and his 2 buddies. I initially thought the female was “fake pregnant” but we find out she is in fact quite “knocked up”. Much to the delight of Madison, who keeps pushing her buttons.
***** New Characters: Jack, Reed, Pregnant woman* *****
Doubts? If anyone has doubts about the direction of the show, I would like to interject that this episode should assuage those feelings. Rest assured, this series took a major step forward, all in the first 10 minutes of tonight’s show.
Litmus configururation: This is a nice test for our group. Early props to Maddie for her mental jousting, Travis for staying calm and depositing a crowbar into the chair, Daniel for handling things when the situation arose, and Alicia–well she gets her own thing later.
Flashback: We get to see how Strand lost, and regained his wealth. We also are introduced to two new characters: Thomas Abigail, and Luiz. It was neat to see Strand pre-apocalypse. I really dig Luiz too. We see that Strand holds obligation in higher regard than love.
***** New Characters: Thomas and Luiz *****
Alicia is smart: Maybe too smart for someone who was pretty much a bookworm headed to college. I suppose we never found out what her major was, and perhaps she gets that from Madison. It could also be she is able to manipulate Jack because she feels she knows him. He could still be conning her.
Fast and the furious: We see the mysterious leader Conner show up with his little boat party. He leaves with Travis and Alicia in hoods. Things escalate after that as Nick returns with Luiz, in the Zodiac. It seems like we will see more of Conner at some point. They won’t be expecting Luiz though, which should be a huge advantage for our group.
***** New Character: Conner *****
Give Strand a hand: At the end of the episode, we see Madison pulling Strand into the Zodiac. Not sure where his trust level will be since he did dive off the ship. He did make good on his promise about Baja, and Luiz can back him up on that. We will see if they agree to go after Travis and Alicia.
Questions: How did Jack and his crew know the names of everyone on the boat? Alicia only told them so much. One theory is that they came across Alex and she told them about Abigail. This makes a lot of sense. As they mentioned on Talking Dead, this would give some weight to Strand’s decision to cut her and Jake loose.
How will Luiz interact with the group? He seemed to take a liking to Nick and took out the hijackers with no problem. I can see him pushing back on the idea of going after Travis and Alicia though. What will Strand do now that he is with one of his associates?
Zombie kill of the week: There was really only the one. I was a lot more impressed with Luiz’ two headshots on a moving Zodiac. This guy might have some serious military background. Either way, nice shooting!
*Usually don’t introduce characters unless I feel they will at least make another episode or two. I think we might see her again.
Sportsbard 
Nick….FTWD’s Glenn! 😉
I think Alicia is the one conning Jack this time. I can see her killing or at the least incapacitating him some how without hesitation or emotion, unless she looks him in the eye and says “paybacks a bitch, asshole!”.
If anything, I see Maddie picking up Strand sorta bonding them a bit. Yeah, I think he’s willing to get Alicia and Travis, two reasons, his flash backs which seem not only were they for us but also him having them as he slowly dies out in the water, also, on the clips for next week I sorta got that feeling.
Then again, knowing how the show works, we’ll probably get an entire episode just of Travis and Alicia at Connors base without anything of the others on Abigail.
I could be wrong though and they might give us a lot of action without the loooong boring dragged out episodes, kinda like this episode. A lot happened kinda quick in the one show, Nick going out and getting Luis, and killing the bad guys and getting the boat back.
Hopefully they move things along quick and Travis/Alicia get rescued/escape Connors camp next episode.
Hmmm, pretty sure it was Alex they told them everything. Makes sense that Conner would have found them as they chased the Abigail.
But, how she knew so much when she only had contact with them a few minutes, I dunno?!?!?! Anyhow the big question is….does she help Travis and Alicia or is she pissed at them and now part of Conners crew? I’m leaning 65% that she helps them (maybe not at first though?) as I heard thru the grapevine she is on through the rest of the season.
On next week clips it’s hard to tell if Alicia is wrestling with Alex or the pregnant chick (forgot her name, did they even say it?).
On the sneak peek, Daniels expression when Reed said he was gonna take his daughter apart was cold and unchanging. He doesn’t know Daniel very well. Heh heh heh. You KNOW Daniels gonna interrogate him a while, he did blurt out Conner has a dozen men and 5 boats, but we still need to know where the camp is. Only question, does he quickly kill him as soon as he’s done, let him suffer a while, dump him overboard so he drowns or dies from hypothermia, or does Chris step up, when Daniels done and off the bastard?
Two things bother me, Reed has a crow bar thru the guts, how is he still alive or even conscious?
And the biggie…how the hell is Mexico not having the same problems as the US (and presumably, the world?). If “every one” is infected then it easily would have spread down there as it did coast to coast here. Especially when you take into account the tens of thousands of people going back and forth across the border (legally and other wise).
That said, their government should be just as badly if not in a worse state collapsed as ours, and if all the “safe zones” were long ago compromised here, then it should stand to reason the blockade and that fence would not have been effective in keeping them safe. How do they have the man power to cover all their land and sea borders?
I’m not sure how to categorize Nick yet. He is part Glenn, but way ahead. He also killed at least one live person (Calvin) which turned him into the first walker he killed too. I’d say he is between Glenn and Daryl, which is all kind of badass.
There are only 2 episodes left this season, which I think is a crock. They were signed for 20-21 episodes then got picked up for 10 more for season 3. I was hoping we would have got the full 15 seasons this time. This means that in the summer/fall we are going to get 8-9, then 10 in winter/spring 2017. Unless something else changes.
As far as Alex goes, I could see her being an Andrea type person, kind of on the outside, she could go from camp to camp. It kind of sucks because she seemed like she would have been good for the group. Maybe she sees that Conner’s group is more jacked up then helps them out.
Except for not shooting the 3 who boarded the boat, Chris has been doing well. I’m surprised he didn’t go all Rick on Reed and smash his face in.
I’m not a medical expert, but I think you can survive an impailing like that as long as you don’t move it around or take it out.
I didn’t even know they were close to Mexico yet until they brought it up on Talking Dead. I would think Mexico would be worse off or at least around the same, but that’s a minor thing for me. Plus their compound seems like it’s in a gated area, so that could help. I don’t expect it to be all nice when they get there. I also expect Thomas to be dead/dying or gone. Same with Luiz’ mother.
If they mentioned the pregnant chick’s name, I missed it. Only watched the episode 2x though. Maybe I will get it on the 3rd time. In any event, she probably dies next week or in the finale.
Thanks for the detailed comment. I was getting worried you stopped watching after Walking Dead’s finale. Seems like this is where the show shifts into another level.