‘Fear The Walking Dead’: The National Guard Takes Over, Plus Was Tobias Messaging Chris?

Episode 4 (entitled “Not Fade Away”) of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead was really all about the National Guard and the authorities taking over. How will this affect the people within the L.A. quarantine zone, and was that Tobias (played by Lincoln A. Castellanos) trying to message Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) with the light flashes?

WARNING: This article contains spoilers about Episode 4 of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead. If you have not watched all available episodes, please proceed with caution.

Episode 4 of Fear The Walking Dead saw a time jump of nine days from Episode 3 (“The Dog”). As a result, viewers were thrown straight into life in the L.A. quarantine zone. Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis), his two families, and the Salazars are adapting to life during an apocalypse, as well as having to live under the rules of the National Guard.

For Travis, this is easy — he views the authorities as the good guys, thinking that they will protect them and fix all the problems outside their area. For Madison (Kim Dickens) and the Salazars, in particular, they are distrustful of the authorities, so much so that Madison ventures outside the quarantine zone to see just what is going on after Travis’ son, Chris, sees a light flashing in a house outside their safe zone. As showrunner, Dave Erickson, told the Hollywood Reporter, it is Madison and Daniel Salazar’s (Rubén Blades) distrust of the authorities that will see them hatching a plan in Episode 5 (“Cobalt”) to rescue Daniel’s wife, Griselda (Patricia Reyes Spíndola), and Madison’s son, Nick (Frank Dillane), both of whom were forcibly taken by the National Guard.

“What will be interesting in episode five is how they go about trying to retrieve Griselda, Liza and Nick. We will see a couple of unique and very specific ways of collecting all their loved ones — and will see which approach works.”

And, as per usual in the Walking Dead universe with the penultimate episode of the season, everything will come to a head in Episode 5. Erickson admits there will be a clash, although it may not be between people and the National Guard. One of the sneak peek videos into Episode 5 shows the start of unrest within the National Guard, so perhaps the clash will come from within? Or, as is typical with The Walking Dead, it could be the undead that causes this clash.

In Season 1 of The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) was in a coma for around four to five weeks, which is the time being explored in Fear The Walking Dead. Thanks to a flashback and the evidence in the hospital Rick woke up in, Walking Dead fans already know that safe zones won’t work and that the military was quite forceful in keeping the infected at bay — quite often at the expense of the living. This idea was explored in a flashback Shane (Jon Bernthal) had, where fans got to see Shane visiting Rick in the hospital when the hospital was overrun. In this flashback, military were seen to be gunning down everyone in fear they were infected.

In Episode 4 of Fear The Walking Dead, we saw evidence of this sort of knee-jerk reaction, as well. During the whole episode, Chris was trying to get his family to believe there was someone still alive outside their quarantine zone. In the end, Travis finally tells the National Guard and then witnesses the flash of gunfire as whoever was in the house is gunned down. Whether they were infected, or just didn’t want to leave their house to be placed into a safe zone, is yet to be seen. Some Fear fans, however, suggested it could have been Tobias in this house, desperately trying to signal to someone that he was alive and out there all alone. Dave Erickson told Yahoo! that it was definitely not Tobias in that house.

“I would love to say that I thought about that, but the truth is, no, Tobias is not in the house. So Tobias is not dead, as far was we know.”

Fear The Walking Dead returns to AMC with Episode 5 (“Cobalt”) on Sunday, September 27, 2015.

What did you think of the military in Episode 4 of Fear The Walking Dead? And who do you think was in that house flashing their light at Chris? Let us know your thoughts and theories by commenting below!

[Image credits: AMC / Justina Mintz]