S03.E04: 100

[raven]

A mysterious character searches for purpose and soon becomes tied to the struggle over a key resource in the apocalypse.

[econ07]

Wasn't Daniel pretty firmly dead?  WTF?!

[raven]

Nope, we see him in the flames, but no body, no death (TV rule).

[tiredofwork]

Absolute best episode of the 3 years.  Even with the 100% subtitles.  Know why?  NO MADISON OR ANY OF THAT FREAKING FAMILY AND THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS.

Edited June 19, 2017 by tiredofwork

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Glad Reuben is back and I hope Jesse Borrego and Efrain's GF sticks around.

[econ07]

Strand is lucky he wasn't first in line!

[raven]

I liked the episode and am curious as to what will happen with Daniel and Strand - will they run the dam, what about the group of people, etc. 

It sure helps to have Ruben Blades as part of your cast.

[william0102]

Since I had written off Daniel after everyone left the hotel, I was just bored. I've see this 'how did they survive' wayyyyyyyyyy too many times on this show with Nick (and plenty on twd before I gave that show up). I left the room once the walker was struck by lightening, I kept the tv on and half listened, though I came back and watched a bit when I heard Strand. I figured the nice people would die soon enough, so I was mildly surprised by the end of the episode. Tho I guess there's still plenty of episodes for Efran and the lady to die.

Edited June 19, 2017 by william0102

[MrsRafaelBarba]

This show wasted Cliff Curtis, but they still have Coleman and Reuben.

Only reason why I'm still watching.

[candall]

2 minutes ago, raven said:

It sure helps to have Ruben Blades as part of your cast.

Yes!  It's pretty amazing they recruited an actor of his caliber, and then gave him the work to do.  Cliff Curtis was wasted, and their lead can't emote her way out of a paper bag.

[Christi]

These subtitles make me not give a shit...assholes..

If I want subtitles Ill watch Pans Labyrinth 

[oakville]

28 minutes ago, tiredofwork said:

Absolute best episode of the 3 years.  Even with the 100% subtitles.  Know why?  NO MADISON OR ANY OF THAT FREAKING FAMILY AND THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS.

I love Strand & Daniel. I am so happy they are back.!

The lighting Zombie was scary

[ottoDbusdriver]

The subtitles were virtually unreadable in certain scenes -- couldn't they put an outline around the letters during those scenes or a black box behind the captions so that we could read what the hell was going on.

Daniel isn't one to be fucked with - even with a burnt leg.  And he really is placing 3-D space chess compared to everyone else playing checkers, because Daniel took Dante down pretty easily.

[thuganomics85]

While I'm glad they had the majority of the characters realistically speaking Spanish amongst each other, the subtitles really were wonky at times.  I felt like I missed several lines because they either went by too quickly or kind of faded into the screen.  They should have taken notes from Better Call Saul, which has some of that as well, but I can actually read them.

While Daniel still being alive still feels a bit like a copout, Ruben Blades makes me forgive it, since he's really one of the best actors on this show.  And having him opposite of Strand, where I find Colman Domingo to be almost just as good, means I'm at least going to enjoy the hell out of their acting.  Plus, Jesse Borrego! Really hope Efrain sticks around for a bit, because he's always enjoyable whenever he appears on a show.

Kind of surprised that they already offed Dante.  But I guess the question now is what is going to happen with his absence?  I really doubt Daniel is going to take over the dam.  Perhaps Lola will step up and try to be more reasonable?  And I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Strand tries to worm his way into more power.

Probably the closest it has gotten to an actual great episode, due to Ruben's acting.  Not perfect though.... I laughed out loud over the one walker getting struck by lightening while Daniel prayed.  So goofy.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

Surprisingly another episode I enjoyed and paid attention to like 80% of it. That's 2 episodes in a row! Best part? No Madison & her family & Broke Jaw Ranch (although Sam Underwood is very nice to look at). 

Glad Dante is dead already (thanks for not stretching that evil guy shizzle out for more than a season *cough*TWD*cough*), although I don't know why Daniel couldn't have shot him and his security bros before that one dude got sacrificed. 

Strand is becoming worse and worse at conning people. Who couldn't see right through that Ofelia BS? 

It was obvious that one zombie was going to get struck by lightning, no? He looked cool though. I like how we're at a point where the zombies still resemble people. 

I like that new actress lady (forget her character's name). She comes off as more respectable and less obnoxious than Nick's girlfriend with the permanent stank-eye (she and Madison could compete for biggest stank-eye). 

[Sentient Meat]

I don't know what made AMC preempt Fear the Walking Dead to broadcast that excellent foreign film... but I hope they do that more often.

 

(All joking aside, this cast was so much better than the main one... that it makes me sad to think what could have been)

[TVFan17]

This was a very good episode (relative to the other episodes we have endured over the last couple of years).    In my opinion, Strand and Daniel are -- without question -- the two most intriguing, most mysterious, most fascinating, least annoying characters on this show.  Strand by himself is extremely charismatic, so Strand with Daniel is an amazing combo.  I would love to see more of those two and their dynamic, if they could just avoid killing each other and could tolerate each other for a while.  In fact, if the team behind this whole show wanted to kill off all of the regulars except Daniel and Strand, and then start over with new regulars that they meet in their travels, I would be OK with it.  Travis was semi-interesting -- and would have been more so without Madison in his life -- but he's gone, so it is all resting on Strand and Daniel for me!

I said in the Live Chat thread that the episode seemed like a fever dream or hallucination of some sort, and that I kept expecting that we would find out that Daniel was really dead, or maybe dreaming, or that Strand was having visions, etc.   Since it appears that they are both alive and alert and not imagining things, then I also think that Daniel might be veering dangerously close to Glenn Rhee territory -- cheating death at every turn, until.... well, until he just can't cheat it anymore.  Whenever one character narrowly avoids getting killed several times, I think that it's probably just a matter of time before he/she is gone for good.  Between avoiding burning to death, avoiding being killed by the lightning rod zombie by the water, and avoiding being killed by that hungry female zombie who chased him under a car, etc., I worry for Daniel's longevity on the show.

[nodorothyparker]

The subtitles were a bit of struggle at times in that the placement over background sometimes felt a bit sloppy in making them tough to read.   But this was a whole lot better than I was expecting when I read spoilers about this being almost an entirely Spanish episode.

I don't even care if Daniel's escape from the flames and return feels like a bit of a stretch or something we've seen before.  Ruben Blades is a compelling actor and gives the show a bit of gravitas it's otherwise sorely missing.  It was interesting to get some confirmation from what was apparently the mayor of Tijuana before that Daniel was not in any way blowing smoke in earlier seasons about being a Very Big Deal in the world of crazy murderous bastards.  As an American I have to plead ignorance on how interconnected such people throughout Mexico and Central America might have realistically been but I really enjoyed how not American or Americans running around cluelessly and generally behaving like ugly Americans centered this episode was.  It actually managed to give me a sense of the ZA as something that happened worldwide to more than a handful of people running around the woods, which I think it was struggling and not succeeding to do very well with much of the Mexican plotline last season.  Fighting over who controls water access in the desert might not be as sexy as a bat wielding homicidal motormouth but it's actually a problem I can buy.  I have no idea where this is all going or what happens when this group inevitably meets up again at some point with the expressionless wonder and her maybe they're white separatist survivalists, but for now I'm happy to have Strand back on the loose again.  Hopefully Jesse Borrego can stick around for awhile too.

As long as the show can throw me batshit crazy stuff like walkers being hit by convenient lightning every once in awhile, I'm good.

[Christi]

Look, I dig foreign films, but these subtitles were just a lame gimic...Reuben Blades is the best actor on any zombie show...but come on...enough with the spanish.

Both zombie shows are now centered in Mexico..cant we zombie stagger over to Canada or something???

Subtitles for subtitles sake is just stupid

[talktalk]

I am sorry, but this is such a shitty episode. The story just does not make any sense, and the plot is such cliche! Did the writers use a template they bought from a Blockbuster going-out-of-business-fire-sale basket? 

[Sentient Meat]

For those that recorded the show on your DVR... if you use the closed captions in addition to the regular subtitles... it was easier to read that way

I regularly watch with them... and by the time I realized there would be almost no english, the show was almost over.

[gaPeach]

Best episode for a long time.........hell, actually ever.  I was surprised the show was half over and I was still reading subtitles but it wasn't too bad and I got use to it apparently.  But there were times it disappeared too fast to read.  

What made this such a good show besides Daniel and Strand?  It introduced us to people I cared about more by the end of the episode than I have for Madison and her gang the entire show.  Why do I watch?  For the horror factor..................the horror that I watch this show each Sunday.  HA!  And it is a temp fix until TWD comes back on.

[Ohwell]

Interesting episode.  It was sooooo nice not to see Madison's or Nick's or Alicia's face for an entire episode.  Unfortunately, they'll all be back next week. *sigh*

I like Efrain and the woman whose name escapes me.  

I did think the subtitles were annoying though.  Not because they were subtitles, but because they were white and sometimes they blended into the screen.  I've seen white subtitles on other shows and wondered why they couldn't use black or another dark color. 

Edited June 19, 2017 by Ohwell

[tiredofwork]

I do wonder if production ever gets data that determines how characters on shows track popularity wise?  If so, I would doubt Madison, Nick and whatever the daughter's name is would fare very well.  Then I would wonder if any precedent is set to totally eliminate the entire main characters in order to save a show?   I ask this because after last night's episode, I was so much more intrigued with the Daniel and to some extent Strand stories and also the new people with Daniel than I have ever been with that Madison crowd.

I think this show could excel greatly absent the main cast and go with new ones.

[Nashville]

37 minutes ago, tiredofwork said:

I do wonder if production ever gets data that determines how characters on shows track popularity wise?  If so, I would doubt Madison, Nick and whatever the daughter's name is would fare very well.  Then I would wonder if any precedent is set to totally eliminate the entire main characters in order to save a show?   I ask this because after last night's episode, I was so much more intrigued with the Daniel and to some extent Strand stories and also the new people with Daniel than I have ever been with that Madison crowd.

I think this show could excel greatly absent the main cast and go with new ones.

Precedent already exists for a total cast rollover a la ER, but it's always a gradual erosive process - never immediate.    This gives Production writing leeway to coax core audiences via a transitory period to shift their allegiances from established characters to new favorites, and allows flexibility in case certain characters evidence unexpected popularity.  Gutting their entire cast without an already-established set of characters to carry on the banner would gut most of their devotee audience and tank ratings.  About the only exceptions to this rule are series which start each new season with a story line which is either vaguely related or totally unrelated to the preceding season (exs. Blackadder, American Horror Story).

[Doyounot]

I enjoyed the episode a lot more than i thought i would! These kinds of episodes is one of the reasons i stopped watching the walking dead but for daniel it totally worked. Of course lots of wack/cliche stuff but the actor is so good i dont really care (both shows should learn to only do it with great actors/characters so it doesnt seem like a waste of time) Also i didnt realize the whole thing was in Spanish until strand showed up i guess it was good enough to not notice.

The one thing that made me laugh really hard was dante giving his word to daniel. All i could think of was archer "he gave his palabra"!!!!

[MrPissyPuppy]

2 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I like Efrain and the woman whose name escapes me.  

Her name was/is Lola.   Lola Guerrero per IMDB.    

[meep.meep]

I liked this episode.  Don't mind having to read the subtitles.  Finally got what the title meant.

For me, that makes two good episodes in a row.  I haven't looked to see if it's new writers, or producers or what, but something has changed.  It's a different show.

[Straycat80]

Not a bad episode. I hate reading subtitles though and I couldn't see what was going on in the night time scenes. I'm glad Daniel shot the bad guys at the end.

I still don't understand why suit and tie guy was holding the dam and water hostage. The area is so desolate and there doesn't appear to be that many alive people there. 

[nitrofishblue]

Did Dante have a huge fence encircling the lake behind the dam? I mean really, can't people figure out how to draw water from a lake? I can't imagine that there was absolutely no access to the lake.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

6 hours ago, MrPissyPuppy said:

Her name was/is Lola.   Lola Guerrero per IMDB.    

And she was a showgirl. With yellow feathers in her hair, and a dress cut down to there....

[Texasmom1970]

The good thing about Ruben being on this show he is amazing. The bad he makes you realize how badly some of the other actors on this show suck!

[Haleth]

I had no problem with the captions.  Having everyone speaking Spanish gave it some authenticity.  I'm so glad Ruben is back.  Like everyone says, he outshines the rest of the cast completely.

The scene with Daniel and Ephrain picking through discarded stuff reminded me of The Road, with the bleak gray landscape.  The final image of the silhouettes of Lola reaching out to Daniel was well shot.  In fact I don't usually pay attention to the direction of shows but in this episode it was pretty noticeable.  Daniel's face as he watched the clock tick to 5:00 was another good example.

Regarding the preview for next week:

Spoiler

Does someone really yell that they have to abandon the ranch already?  Geez, Madison and her kids work fast!

[oakville]

16 hours ago, nitrofishblue said:

Did Dante have a huge fence encircling the lake behind the dam? I mean really, can't people figure out how to draw water from a lake? I can't imagine that there was absolutely no access to the lake.

I found that strange as well. 

[Raven1707]

The Sunday Cable Ratings are in for "100":

Elsewhere, “Fear the Walking Dead” hit another low for AMC, dipping below a 1.0 in adults 18-49 for the first time with a 0.9. (That was still good enough to lead the day in the 18-49 demo.) Its 2.4 million viewers was also a series low. [2.396 million]

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/sunday-cable-ratings-june-18-2017/

Here are the Cable Live + Same Day ratings for Season 3 so far:

06-04-17 “Eye of the Beholder” 3.109 million
06-04-17 “The New Frontier” 2.698 million
06-11-17 “Teotwawki” 2.504 million
06-18-17 “100" 2.396 million

[Haleth]

It was nice to hear Ruben sing for a bit, even while delirious. American audiences know him primarily as an actor but he is also a well known musician. 

[nvwalker]

I hope the numbers will pick up so this show won't get cancelled.  Looks like others are enjoying the show, it is getting better IMO.     https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2017/06/20/fear-the-walking-dead-is-now-officially-better-than-the-walking-dead/#26c0df81525b

[SnarkyTart]

2 hours ago, nvwalker said:

I hope the numbers will pick up so this show won't get cancelled.  Looks like others are enjoying the show, it is getting better IMO.     https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2017/06/20/fear-the-walking-dead-is-now-officially-better-than-the-walking-dead/#26c0df81525b

Oh, man, that was a great read.  I agree with a lot of his points, too, if only he'd mentioned that FTWD should kill off Madison.  I think he's right that season 3 of this show is superior to season 7 of the mothership in every way.  It's painful to say this, because the original TWD was one of my favorite shows ever, while season 1 and 2 of FTWD was my hate watch show. 

[Tipsymcstagger]

Okay...I'm a child of the 80s so I'm not sure who else caught this. But I kept thinking that Efrain (sp?) - the guy who rescued Daniel - looked familiar. Checked IMDB and he actually played Jesse on the tv series "Fame"...a spinoff from the movie.  He was kind of a big deal for a nanosecond in the early 80s. That said - I liked this episode. Reuben Blades is truly awesome. Any time away from the recurring saga of "Madison and the Millenials" is fine by me.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Tipsymcstagger
Clarity. Posted before the end. Trigger finger

[MrPissyPuppy]

Efrain (& Lola-not-a-showgirl-but-an-engineer-of-some-sort-I would-guess) are still alive.  At least for now. 

[raven]

On 6/19/2017 at 4:58 PM, nitrofishblue said:

Did Dante have a huge fence encircling the lake behind the dam? I mean really, can't people figure out how to draw water from a lake? I can't imagine that there was absolutely no access to the lake.

I would guess that you'd need to haul a significant amount of water (which is heavy) to make the trip worthwhile - getting through zombies and probably patrols of Dante's.  WE don't know what the terrain is like around there either.

I think they're treating the water, which doesn't matter if you're desperate, but people are probably only able to get a small amount at one shot. 

[Bongo Fury]

This show just isn't good enough to warrant the effort to read subtitles for an hour. I did it once, but another episode like this and I'll skip. Just another example of the arrogance of TPTB and how little they respect their audience. Or are they tailoring the show to the hispanic demographic and don't care about people like me?

 

OK, how exactly is the magic water fountain turned on at 5:00 every day? Wi fi enabled computer controlled water valves throughout the water system in a third world country? If the water company wants to shut off my water, they send a guy out with a T-wrench to close the valve in my front lawn. If they want just me to get water, they have to manually shut off all the valves to every other house in my neighborhood. And every other house in the whole system. It's a ZA, how the hell did Lola get all the valves closed except the one to Efraim? Oh, that's right, I'm suppose to ignore the shitty writing with the huge plot holes.

[nodorothyparker]

1 hour ago, SnarkyTart said:

Oh, man, that was a great read.  I agree with a lot of his points, too, if only he'd mentioned that FTWD should kill off Madison.  I think he's right that season 3 of this show is superior to season 7 of the mothership in every way.  It's painful to say this, because the original TWD was one of my favorite shows ever, while season 1 and 2 of FTWD was my hate watch show. 

I'm not quite as gung ho about this season yet as this reviewer is, but I'll agree that these past two episodes have been stronger than all but an episode or two of the mothership this year and have actually managed to get me interested in seeing where they're going with all this as opposed to the usual WTH at least I can snark about it approach I felt the first two seasons of this show and have increasing felt with the original recipe.  The combination of too much comic stuff that does not translate well at all to TV and making every single character a superhero level badass until the script says they're not because it's their turn for a personal crisis moment has made that show an increasingly tough sell for me.  Madison definitely needs to go because the actress is terrible, which in turn makes the character ridiculous and terrible.  Between Strand and the return of Daniel and all the new cast additions, I feel like I'm now looking at a couple of plausible bands of survivors and even Nick and Alicia become more tolerable as a result. 

It certainly wouldn't be the first show in the history of television that needed more than a season to find its legs.  And I do realize in saying that that because it's this franchise that it will probably do something mindbendingly stupid on Sunday to make me regret it.

[SnarkyTart]

5 minutes ago, nodorothyparker said:

I'm not quite as gung ho about this season yet as this reviewer is, but ...

Oh, man, that was a great read too!  I wouldn't disagree with a single thing you said. 

[AngelKitty]

I just read the article above and also agree that this show has improved while The Walking Dead has gotten silly, but I just keep telling myself that it's a comic book. Is this one completely independent or is it a comic also?

I have to say I was slightly annoyed about the subtitles but in the end the story came through enough to forgive.

[Mr. Sparkle]

14 minutes ago, AngelKitty said:

Is this one completely independent or is it a comic also?

FTWD is not based on a comic book. It is set in the same universe as TWD, but the characters are completely new. 

After watching the last two seasons out of some strange kind of obligation, looking at the clock to see how much longer I had to watch, add me to the list of those pleasantly surprised by this season. I haven't been bored yet, and I'm enjoying the various story lines. 

[Ohwell]

I didn't even watch season 2 but thought I'd check in this season just to see if things had gotten any better, and they have.  I just hope they keep it up but, honestly, as long as Madison and Nick are alive, I don't know.  They'll probably fuck things up and kill off Efraim and Lola and some other new, interesting characters.

[JackONeill]

Ofelia, at some point, will be coming back. There seems to have been a lot of hate thrown her way, although to me she's sort of a blank slate because she's had so little to do. So---???

My concern about Daniel being a leader is his age. (Before people go ballistic, I am just a few years younger than he.) I can handwave a lot of things but it's become more than annoying that Mark Harmon (whom I like, as I do Ruben Blades) is allowed to act as though he's 35. Okay, once in a while, fine. But at a point it becomes ...obvious...and silly. So, I urge caution.

I've always been ambivalent about Strand. (Like the actor, though.) But sometimes, as Strand, he comes across as cowardly. (Yes, bold statement. But my opinion.)

I'm over Nick, not that I was ever a fan.

Alicia has become engaging, but she has the opposite problem from Danial--too young.

I wonder, assuming Madison...um, goes away, could/would TPTB bring in someone entirely new to the show to be the hero/leader????

[nodorothyparker]

That's a great video clip.  Very cool.  I've kept hearing since watching this show that he had also been a musician, but I never seemed to remember to look that up.  I admit to no great familiarity with salsa music and my Spanish isn't remotely good enough to follow most of what he's singing.  Still, he's expressive enough you can tell that he's telling a story.

[Canada]

I'm surprised people had so much trouble with the subtitles.  I had no issues with them. 

Agree that this was a much better episode without Madison and her demon spawn.