It’s not a Walking Dead show without a good ole split up. The premiere shows us the gang divided up by the military within the compound. The episode follows the usual formula of the military utilizing its materials and resources, post-apocalypse, to become douche bag central. As the various parts of the gang interact with the callous soldiers, they each look for a way out while also trying to locate each other. Finally, the gang is reunited, but after the compound is compromised by hordes of the Infected, they are separated once more with Troy the soldier taking Madison and Nick while Luciana, Alicia, and Travis escape via helicopter, apparently all headed to the same destination.
In the second half of this two episode premiere, we find this escape foiled as the helicopter is filled with bullets, one hitting Travis who then opens the helicopter door and falls out. After this, Madison and Nick make their way to the Broke Jaw Ranch and meet Troy’s father. Having survived the helicopter crash, Jake and Alicia carry Luciana to the ranch and meet up with Madison and Nick. After a few tense moments, Luciana is allowed into the camp for care. Strand then allows refugees into the hotel under the ruse that he is a doctor, leading to a few interesting medical situations, but ultimately ending in him leaving the hotel in a car supplied by Ilene. The episode wraps up with Madison deciding to make the Broke Jaw Ranch home, even if they have to do it by force.
The use of the military as the baddies seems a little repetitive in modern zombie media. As likely as this post-apocalyptic outcome seems, seeing it over and over takes away the impact of the situation. Along with this, the Walking Dead set-up of a large group leads to a lot of time with the group separated and searching for each other, but this also leads to a lot of repetition. Fear of the Walking Dead is a good show, don’t get me wrong, but I feel the repetition gets in the way of interesting characters and stories to tell there.

Overall, this was an interesting introduction to this season and I look forward to seeing where this season goes, though part of me expects to see a few storylines we’ve seen before. As the situation becomes more like the times of the original Walking Dead, I hope the creators utilize this work to tell a different story than that of the WD gang.