Fans Are Not Impressed By Travis In ‘Fear The Walking Dead’, Others Defend His Behavior

Episode 3 (entitled “The Dog”) of AMC’s newest zombie apocalypse series, Fear The Walking Dead had many fans getting frustrated with one of the main characters. However, showrunner Dave Erickson thinks this character might just be overly optimistic when it comes to the end of the world.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers about Episode 3 of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead. If you have not watched this episode yet, please proceed with caution.

As Business Insider pointed out, many fans were getting very frustrated with Fear The Walking Dead’s Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) in the episode that screened on Sunday. While one can overlook the fact Travis was still determined to take the garbage bins out in the hope that the collectors would arrive just like it was any normal day in L.A., their patience started to wear thin after Travis convinced Madison (Kim Dickens) to put down the hammer and not kill their zombified neighbor, Susan (Cici Lau). Then, when the military arrived, Travis was relieved to see help was there, ever convinced things would be fixed. Fans who know the end of the world is here and that nothing will ever be “fixed” in the way Travis thinks it will, found the character lacking in appeal, much preferring to back Madison or Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez) as the responsible adult most likely to succeed in the apocalypse. When Yahoo! interviewed, Dave Erickson, having the military arrive at the end of Episode 3 of Fear The Walking Dead will be important, but not in the way Travis is hoping.

“While we wanted to introduce the military and track its efforts to control the contagion, put down the infected, we wanted to dramatize that action through the eyes of our family. A number of our characters — Madison, Travis, Daniel, Chris — will have very different perspectives on the military’s arrival. And these conflicts will increase the tension, apprehension, and fear within our family.”

With the arrival of “help” causing tension in Fear The Walking Dead, will Travis lose even more fan appeal as he fights against the inevitability that all the characters must toughen up now or risk becoming one of the infected? And, with someone like Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) on hand to show Travis’ son, Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie), how to use weaponry, could Travis get overlooked by the Walking Dead fan base? Erickson is keen to explore the dynamics of this relationship extensively in Fear The Walking Dead. “I’m very interested in surrogate sons and false fathers, shifting family dynamics, and there’s an opportunity to explore that here in Season 1, Season 2, and beyond,” he told Yahoo! While that comment does indicate that the characters will be around beyond Season 2, perhaps he is just talking about Chris and Daniel? With Travis not surviving, there would be the further potential to delve into this tentative new relationship. Especially when Erickson indicates the relationship between Travis and Daniel will be explored in Season 1 and 2 of Fear The Walking Dead.

“Travis and Daniel are diametrically opposed. Travis has faith in people and in institutions. Daniel does not. Travis is a fixer who believes solutions are always at hand, and corners will be turned. Daniel has seen hell on earth before, and sees Travis’s trust, his faith, as naiveté. Can they find common ground? That’s something we’ll explore throughout the rest of the season, and into the next.”

One thing to note though, is that while many fans are annoyed at Travis’ reaction to the end of the world, his character is a very good vessel to display one of the two most commonly expected reactions to the apocalypse: denial and determination. While Daniel has escaped El Salvador and witnessed many horrors, he is determined to survive, using his firsthand knowledge of how people react during a crisis as his basis. Travis, on the other hand, has never witnessed anything other that the authorities protecting people. He lays his trust in them and refuses to believe that anything could seriously go wrong. And, fans must also realise, while we know the outcome of Fear The Walking Dead, for the characters in the show, zombies are not something they know anything about. As IGN pointed out in their video breakdown of Episode 3, the viewpoint on the undead in the current Fear The Walking Dead universe would probably be more akin to the way Travis reacted when Madison wanted to kill Susan. To most, these zombies are still people, and, most likely, people they know.

Fear The Walking Dead returns to AMC with Episode 4 (entitled “Not Fade Away”) on Sunday, September 20, 2015.

What do you think of Travis Manawa? Do you think he will survive the zombie apocalypse in Fear The Walking Dead? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!

[Image credit: AMC]