Pilot

"Pilot"
Director: Adam Davidson — Writer(s): Robert Kirkman, Dave Erickson — Aired: August 23, 2015 —    next

"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season of Fear the Walking Dead. It aired on August 23, 2015 on AMC.

“	No one’s going to college. No one’s doing anything they think they are.	”
	— Tobias, Pilot

Synopsis

Living in the same universe as The Walking Dead, Fear is a drama that explores the onset of the undead apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in L.A, a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counsellor Madison Clark and English teacher Travis Manawa have managed to assemble. The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and our dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories. 

Plot

We see Nick Clark wake up in an Abandoned church, he opens his eyes, reaches out and looks around. He calls out "Gloria", obviously expecting to see her there when he wakes. A small, metallic sound prompts him to get up and we see where he's been sleeping, belongings and rubbish are everywhere. We see that Nick was sleeping on the balcony at the back of the church. Sunlight is pouring through the stained glass windows and filling the interior with oranges, reds and browns.

As he's looking out at the main part of the church there's a louder noise that startles him and he makes his way down the stairs, past other rooms, graffiti. He calls out to Gloria again with no reply and then hears someone calling out, it sounds like it's halfway between a shout and a scream. He pauses by an old piano on the stairs. It looks as if there's blood on it.

On the ground floor he walks down a corridor lit by a bulb that flickers on and off. Partway down the corridor Nick is shocked to find a body. It's the body of a young bearded man with an earring in his right ear. The throat has been ripped open and the body is lying on its back in a small passageway on the left.

Nick pulls back at first, scared to look but then makes himself go past the body, looking for Gloria. He picks up something to use as a weapon as he moves into the main body of the church.

He calls out for Gloria again more quietly now, obviously scared. He edges past an oil drum and sees her, kneeling on the floor. Nick rushes forward and reaches out for her saying "We gotta go!"

Gloria turns her head at the sound of his voice and Nick sees that her face and mouth are covered in blood, that her eyes are milky white, and that she's been tearing at the face of another dead body, eating it. She doesn't look pleased to see him.

Gloria slowly stands and faces Nick, starting to walk towards him, her eyes are cloudy, and there's a knife stuck between her ribs on the left side of her chest, some blood (not much) around the wound. drenched in blood with a knife lodged into her chest. Nick doesn't take his eyes off her as he works his way backwards and away from her. Then he's up and escaping from the church.

Nick goes through a window, down an alley, through the fence into the street and sprints away. He has to stop to catch his breath, panting, and a small motorbike whirs past just behind him, just before he's hit by a car and bounces off the windshield. He rolls off and onto the ground where people rush to help him.

(Check out the director's initial storyboard drawings to see how the shots were planned up to this point.)

Our first look at the Clark Home on a work day morning and life seems normal. Madison is hurrying her daughter out of the bathroom. Her daughter (Alicia) is taking her time... Madison's boyfriend/partner Travis is fixing the sink.

Travis, sink fixed, stands up and kisses Madison. The phone on the table next to him rings and they both stop and just look at it. Alicia comes out of the bathroom to check. They all look as if they've been expecting, and dreading, a call.

The call is from the hospital to tell them that Nick is there after a car accident.

In the hospital, Nick is being questioned by two uniformed police men about his injuries who are trying to get information about drug dealers. Madison comes in and throws the police out straight-away. Madison wants Nick to go back to rehab, Nick doesn't, Travis wades in, Nick and Alicia attack Travis for getting involved. Travis backs off almost immediately and defuses the situation quite nicely by telling everyone to take a breath. Travis' phone rings and he takes his own advice and he and Alicia leave Madison to talk to Nick. As they leave Alicia asks if he regrets moving in yet?

The call is from Liza Ortiz, Travis' ex-wife who is ringing from the Ortiz home to ask him if plans for the weekend are still on. The plans were for Christopher Manawa, Liza and Travis' son, to spend the weekend with Travis and the Clarks. Travis asks to speak with Chris - who isn't keen and the call just doesn't go well. After trying to persuade his teenage son to spend the weekend with his father's new family (can't think why that doesn't go well) Travis loses patience and speaks again to Liza saying "Keep him." before hanging up on her with no goodbyes.

Madison arrives at work, she's a Guidance Counsellor at Paul R. Williams High School. One of the students she knows there is Tobias who she and the Principal, Art Costa, see setting off the metal detector as he enters school. Art stops him from disappearing off into the school and Madison quickly goes through his jacket pockets, right and then left. From the left pocket she pulls some change and holds it up - she's saying that the coins set off the detector but we have seen and heard her put the coins into his jacket pocket, to provide a reason why the detector would have gone off. Madison shepherds the resentful looking Tobias into her office. Once safely in the office Madison asks for the knife that she's already found in his right-hand jacket pocket. She has covered for him. He would have been expelled if Art or the security staff had found it.

Madison probes a little, to find out what's happening that's made him want to carry a knife. When Madison warns he could be expelled and risk his future at college Tobias replies “No one’s going to college. No one’s doing anything they think they are.” Madison asks what he’s talking about and Tobias tells about the news reports of a virus (or something) spreading in five other states, of people killing. Madison tells him to spend less time online; he doesn't get his knife back and leaves the change Madison planted in his pocket on the table as he goes.

On the school sport's field Alicia is looking for Matt Sale, her boyfriend. Matt is helping to paint a mural and moaning about painting by numbers. They tease each other, with Matt reminding her that she should be in Spanish now. But they both know that Alicia's spanish is good enough to teach the class, so it won't do any harm for her to miss a lesson. She asks him if he wants to "take off", to skip classes but he says no - so she tells him to have fun and leaves him to his painting by numbers mural.

Back in the hospital: Nick wakes from a nightmare to find Travis by his bed. Nick is telling Travis, “I really don’t want to be insane.” He tells Travis what he remembers seeing, including that Gloria "was eating them". Travis is convinced enough to go to the Abandoned Church later that day with a torch. He finds his way in through what looks like the window we saw Nick escape through.

In the church Travis finds quite a lot of blood and a very scared junkie hiding in a room. The junkie begs Travis not to kill him and runs away. Travis looks through the rest of the church, there are no bodies, lots of blood though.

The next morning, Travis and Alicia walk into the hospital room to discover Madison sleeping next to Nick on his bed. Travis wakes her and, before walking her out to the car, touches Nick on the shoulder and tells him he'll be right back. Alicia sees this and teases Nick about it when her mother and Travis have gone. Nick tells her he's changing and giving up drugs. Alicia looks as though she's heard that before, more than once.

Outside, Travis tells Madison what he found at the church, to be met with “Travis, you cannot enable him.” Madison appreciates Travis caring but thinks he's mistaken putting any faith in the things Nick says. Madison leaves for work and Travis goes back inside the hospital room, he apologizes to Nick. Nick says again that he's going to quit heroin and when Travis asks if he means it he answers: "I always mean it."

At school Alicia and Matt are sitting together on the roof of the school, she's saying "One year, one more year and I'm gone." they're talking about what they will do when Alicia goes to Berkley while Matt draws a design on her wrist. They arrange to meet after school at the beach.

Madison watches Travis' class for a couple of minutes then goes to see Arty, Arty is listening in on lessons in his office. He's not sorry to be disturbed. He switched to Travis' lesson just in time to hear Travis say "Nature always wins."

Nick is listening to the older man in the bed next to him as he breathes, he's obviously not doing well. A nurse comes in and Nick convinces her to release one hand so that he can use the bedpan more easily and asks for some privacy. Immediately the nurse leaves the room Nick gets clear of his restraints. The man in the next bed stops breathing and the alarms sound. The nurse rushes back in and call the crash team who decide to move the man "downstairs", presumably to somewhere better equipped to look after him. Nick gets dressed and leaves, stealing the old man's clothes. He makes his way out of the hospital, limping slightly and looking unwell, without being challenged by anyone.

Later, Madison and Travis arrive at the hospital and are panicked by Nick's absence. The nurse (the same nurse who undid Nick's restraints and let him get away) says, “I’m sorry, he’s gone, you need to call the police.” Madison tells Travis to to take her to the church. She's blaming herself for the mess. “It’s in the genes,” she explains as Travis tries to persuade her otherwise. Madison insists on going in with Travis and breaks down in tears when she finds a heroin needle hidden in a book in Nick's bedding. They go to see Nick’s friend Calvin, a very clean cut young man who says he hasn't seen Nick in a while - but looks a bit shifty as he says it. Nick has found shelter under a bridge and Alicia is at Venice Beach, waiting for her boyfriend Matt who doesn't turn up and doesn't answer her texts.

That night on their way home, Travis and Madison get stuck in traffic on a highway exit ramp and hear helicopters, police sirens, and gunshots. After a while Travis decides that it's too dangerous to stay put and finds a way back onto the highway.

The next morning, incoming school buses are mostly empty because everyone in the city is scared and Art asks one of the drivers if they've missed a few stops. Inside members of the teaching staff gather around watching a video of the problems on the highway the night before. A man, initially apparently dead, is attacking paramedics and police, one of the staff mentions an air-born toxin/virus. Later Alicia and her friends also watch the video, Alicia says it can't be real. They see the man cornered by police, get shot, and then get up again. The man doesn't stay down until he's been shot in the head.

The school closes early for the day. As Madison files out, she catches Tobias’s eye on the bus and gets an “I told you so” look from him.

Nick meanwhile, buys a pay-as-you-go 'phone and calls his dealer repeatedly. His dealer turns out to be Calvin, who his mother and Travis had gone to see earlier. Nick eventually meets with Calvin at a diner. Calvin questions Nick about why Madison and Travis had come to see him and Nick swears he's said nothing about Calvin's drug business. Calvin appears to comfort Nick and asks him "how long it's been", meaning since Nick last had any heroin. He says he'll take care of him, implying that he'll give him some heroin, and takes Nick to an abandoned part of the city by the LA river. He stops the car and gets a handgun from the trunk of the car. When Nick sees this, he tackles Calvin, the gun goes off and Calvin is shot in the centre of the chest. He is obviously dead.

Travis and Madison arrive by the river, obviously having been called by Nick who'd made Travis promise not to bring Madison. Nick confesses to Travis that he's killed Calvin by accident. They all three head down the access tunnel in Travis' pickup and stop at the top of the ramp where they can see Calvin's car. They get out and go to the car, there's the gun on the ground but no Calvin. They get back in the pickup and Travis starts to reverse through the tunnel to the road. As he looks over his shoulder to steer he can see Calvin shambling towards them down the tunnel and both Travis and Madison get out to help him.

Nick becomes very agitated and shouts that Calvin will kill them, climbing into the driver's seat as he does so.

Calvin attacks both Madison and Travis repeatedly, trying to bite them. Nick takes the first opportunity he sees to reverse the pickup at Calvin, knocking him to the ground, running over him. Calvin lies on the tunnel floor in front of the pickup now, very obviously badly injured from the collision.

Calvin gets up and walks towards the pickup and Nick accelerates towards him, Calvin is caught on the hood until Nick stops suddenly at the top of the ramp and Calvin flies though the air landing at the bottom of the ramp on the concrete, twisted and broken now.

They all three stand at the top of the ramp in shock and stare at Calvin's body - in disbelief as Calvin turns his head towards them. His lower jaw is missing and we can see that his eyes are completely clouded over. Madison asks "What the hell is happening?" while watching Calvin turn his head, and after a moment Travis answers "I have no idea", as the three family members stare at the undead corpse.

Main Cast

• Kim Dickens as Madison Clark
• Cliff Curtis as Travis Manawa
• Frank Dillane as Nick Clark
• Alycia Debnam Carey as Alicia Clark
• Elizabeth Rodriguez as Liza Ortiz
• Mercedes Mason as Ofelia Salazar (credit only)
• Lorenzo James Henrie as Chris Manawa
• Rubén Blades as Daniel Salazar (credit only)

Guest Cast

• Maestro Harrell as Matt Sale
• Scott Lawrence as Art Costa
• Keith Powers as Calvin
• Lincoln A. Castellanos as Tobias
• Lynn Chen as Nurse
• Leon Thomas as Russell

Co-Cast

• Lexi Johnson as Gloria
• Donald Agnelli as "Driver"
• Carlos E. Campos as "Faculty Member"
• B.J. Clinkscales as "LAPD Uni"
• Jack Donner as "Old Man"
• Micah Fitzgerald as "Pale Face Junkie"
• Gavrielle Harris as "Student #1"
• Angelyna Martinez as "Physics Teacher"
• Andrew Patrick Ralston as "Lab Coat"
• Lak Rana as "ICU Doctor"

Trivia

• The opening scene draws many deliberate parallels with that of the opening moments of "Days Gone Bye" - the premiere episode of The Walking Dead: Nick awakening in the church after his drug binge mirrors Rick coming out of his coma in the hospital, and the general disorientation of both men, as they stagger around trying to piece together what's happened.
• Both Nick and Rick are seriously injured within the first few minutes of their respective appearances.
• The names "Nick" & "Rick" sound very similar.