Pillar of Salt – The Hotel community is enjoying good times until things get a bit too personal, prompting an emergency medical supply run. Moral is worsening in Nick’s community and Alejandro’s extreme measures aren’t helping things.
So after splitting and establishing different characters in different locations, unless we’re suddenly watching Game of Thrones, it was only a matter of time before they started reconnecting. That seems to be the main object of the episode: building bridges between locations and teasing character reunions. For the most part, its good results by achieving things out of necessity. The Hotel group suddenly find themselves in need of a few urgent supplies and Elena knows of Marco’s supermarket which brings these two worlds together very naturally. The introduction of Antonio as Elena’s second son serves well as reflection on Madison’s emotions towards Nick and Alicia. Elena was forced to choose a side when Antonio left the hotel just as Madison had to choose when Nick went on his walker walkabout.
However, there is a monumental downside to all this. That is Madison’s reaction to rumours of Nick being nearby. It’s about as frustrating as Metal Gear Solid’s torture level (“Madison.... you’ve done it again”). Both last episode and this week’s first half, Madison has been excellent to watch as a strong leader figure within the rapidly developing Hotel community. So seeing her revert to being an idiotic bad decision-making disaster in waiting at merely the slightest hint of Nick being nearby feels like all of that character development has been squandered. It’s possibly the worst decision the show has made all season but in fairness Mad-Madison does have some silver linings in the final moments of the episode. Alicia’s protests of Madison effectively trying to choose Nick over her are very much on point as she quite rightly feels betrayed for standing by her. It really is a shame though that things seem to be falling apart in the hotel so quickly as their opening montage showed so much promise of a cooperative community in the works.
There’s a nice contrast with Nick’s community as their faith seems to be wavering as the Hotel group bind together, triggering an almost dictator-like character transition in Alejandro. In fact, when he goes on about never wanting to be the one making the decisions, we almost get (Mexican equivalent) shades of Forrest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. Carla Ching’s script does enough to make Alejandro’s more extreme measures feel the product of paranoia rather than power lust. Playing on his physical health feels overkill though. It would have been much better to keep things psychological, showing him as unwell feels too much like an escape clause in waiting. However, teasing the idea their leader falling is still a good story notion as Nick and Luciana are positioned well to step into his shoes if required. The escalating tension with Marco’s Market gang is a strong point of this episode. We fully understand how Alejandro’s actions run the risk of provoking a forced response from the group. We’ve already seen that Marco will do just about anything to make sure his sister gets her vital Oxy so it stands to reason that a delay would make him more desperate and rash. Alejandro’s only trump card is the secrecy, something that Hotel crew also understands is a major asset..... until some recently dumb person has other ideas.
On a final note, despite being a smaller part of the episode, Ofelia’s story is more satisfying than expected. After confirming our suspicions that she left with the truck, we soon come to see that she’s less running from and more running to somewhere and someone. She’s gone from being the wallflower character to becoming one of the few people on the show with a post-apocalyptic life goal over locating her former fiancé. This stands as a good logical build from her original story of almost being married. We know that she ultimately declined to care for her parents. So with them all dead and gone, she finds herself free to be with him again. The flashbacks reinforce these heart-over-head motivations well. As we’ve been introduced to her would be mister, we be can be sure we’ll be meeting him in the present eventually and seeing her mother again is also an appreciated touch. Although perhaps the most intriguing point here is that her journey seems to be taking her back towards the US. Will the border still be manned or will the dead have overrun it?
Apart from Madison’s regrettable character turn, this is a strong episode with some great story progression. The cracks seem to be forming at each location making it highly liking that Season 3 will be set somewhere different again. On plus side, that means we have a destructive season finale in the making.